Engaging Members of Diverse Teams

Name: Engaging Members of Diverse Teams
Author: Laura Portolese

Implement strategies to engage your diverse team members.

Preview the first lesson free — get full access to all 6 lessons.

Course: On-Demand

(upbeat music) In these lessons, we'll address strategies you can use to promote relationship development and DEI within your team environment. We'll look at fostering relationships, developing and promoting guidelines for diversity, inviting feedback, fostering respect, and how you can set an example for your team. While establishing relationships between you and your team members can make teamwork more effective and help meet DEI goals, it's also important to help your employees develop relationships among themselves. If they don't, misunderstandings and conflict could cripple your team and affect productivity. It's the leader's job to develop the right conditions for relationships to grow on a team. Fostering team relationships can improve team cohesion, culture, and identity. All these factors help promote diversity and inclusion, because everyone is aligned toward the same goal, with greater understanding of each other. This often results in a high-performing organization. You should set the stage for effective team communication by being clear, listening, and collaborating. It's likely that your team will model your behavior when communicating with each other. You could also ask another team member to lead the team in establishing ground rules. Setting rules for how the team will function can save time and increase the speed at which you achieve your desired results. Some possible rules might include turning off phones and devices during meetings, turning on cameras during team meetings, and prohibiting team members to send work emails on the weekend. Developing ground rules encourages team members to work together toward a focused goal. They can also learn about each other's values, opinions, and other important factors during this process of team development. You may run into some employees who simply don't get along due to personality differences. Avoid intervening or taking sides, unless the situation is conflicting with your DEI goals and allow your employees to work out the situation. Provide them tools and information on personality differences to help them learn to handle the conflict themselves. For example, you could have your team members create a Dominance, Influence, Steadiness, and Conscientiousness, or DISC, profile of themselves to determine their personality strengths. Or they can take a Myers-Briggs Personality Test to see what traits compose their personality. Both may help them become more aware of their own unique traits. Team-building activities may help these employees recognize their commonalities and resolve their conflict.

Intermediate Provider : Laura Portolese 6 Lessons · 17m in Arabic, German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Urdu, Chinese

Course Description

Part of diversity and inclusion efforts include engaging members of your team. How do you foster relationships between yourself and your diverse employees, and help them foster relationships between each other? Knowing how to do so is the mark of a good leader; even if you don’t know how, you’ll learn everything you need to right here.

In these lessons, you’ll learn some best practices for engaging your diverse team members. You’ll start off by learning how you can foster relationships among diverse teammates, developing the best possible conditions to facilitate this bonding between everyone. Then, you’ll learn how you can develop and promote diversity-minded team guidelines. After that, you’ll see how you can best invite feedback and suggestions for promoting your diversity and inclusion efforts. The last two lessons will go over how to encourage mutual respect to encourage diversity and inclusion, and how you can manage by example.

What You'll Learn

Foster positive relationships among diverse teammates and create the conditions that facilitate bonding
Develop and promote diversity-minded team guidelines
Invite feedback and suggestions to advance diversity and inclusion efforts
Encourage mutual respect and reflection to support diversity and inclusion
Manage by example to model inclusive leadership
Build positive team dynamics and culture while leveraging the skills on your diverse team

Key Takeaways

Engaging team members is part of diversity and inclusion efforts, and knowing how to do so is the mark of a good leader.
Fostering relationships among diverse teammates involves developing the best possible conditions to facilitate bonding between everyone.
Leaders should develop and promote diversity-minded team guidelines and invite feedback and suggestions for promoting diversity and inclusion efforts.
Encouraging mutual respect and managing by example help promote diversity and inclusion.
The course aims to help you build positive team dynamics and culture while leveraging the skills on your diverse team and creating harmony within it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this course for?

It is for leaders who want to engage members of their diverse teams, including those who do not yet know how to foster relationships between themselves and their diverse employees.

What does this course cover?

It covers best practices for engaging diverse team members: fostering relationships among diverse teammates, developing and promoting diversity-minded team guidelines, inviting feedback and suggestions, encouraging mutual respect and reflection, and managing by example.

What will I be able to do after taking this course?

You will be able to discuss strategies to build positive team dynamics and culture, and implement strategies to leverage the skills on your diverse team and create harmony within your team.

How is the course structured?

It is made up of lessons covering fostering relationships, diversity-minded team guidelines, inviting feedback and suggestions, encouraging mutual respect and reflection, and managing by example, followed by a Test Your Knowledge section.

Do I need prior experience to take this course?

No. Even if you do not know how to foster relationships with and among your diverse employees, the course states you will learn everything you need to.