Did you know companies with more diverse management teams have 19 percent higher revenues due to innovation? Did you also know a recent Gartner study found 75 percent of organizations with front line decision-making teams that reflect a diverse and inclusive culture will exceed their financial targets? In fact, gender-diverse and inclusive teams outperformed gender-homogeneous, less inclusive teams by 50 percent on average.
This research and others continue to support the business case behind building diversity and inclusion into the organization, particularly in a time when continuous innovation is fundamental to business success.
However, reaping the benefits of diversity and inclusion does require conscious efforts to ensure that your organization unleashes its true potential. For starters, diversity in the business environment is about more than gender, race and ethnicity. It is much more broad, and includes diverse religious and political beliefs, education, socioeconomic backgrounds, sexual orientation and different working styles.
Building Powerful, Diverse Teams.
Leading organizations are tapping into sophisticated talent assessment solutions to create high performing teams – at any level, from project teams to leadership teams – that harness the benefits of different thinking styles, behavioral styles and values of individuals. For example, an effective team assessment and report should capture the preferred behavioral styles of an entire team and deliver an all-encompassing representation of the team. By understanding everyone’s unique working styles, differences in decision-making and problem-solving approaches, business leaders are better equipped to build diverse and inclusive teams.
In addition, once a diverse team is assembled, consider utilizing team assessment solutions to uncover the team’s strengths and discover opportunities for development that will lead to a realistic, concrete action plan for building a high-performance team that recognizes, understands and appreciates the different behavioral styles of each member. This creates greater team cohesiveness and delivers higher productivity and performance levels.
Establish Inclusive Behaviors.
There are several fundamental methods to help ensure your diverse teams are performing like a well-oiled machine. Company leaders should consider adopting the following “best practices” of inclusive teams:
- Establish a meaningful, inspiring mission or vision for the team to foster more engagement and a sense of shared investment. Driven by a common purpose, everyone will feel it is “their” mission, not anyone else’s.
- Good communication is the foundation of any high-performing team. Conflicts often arise on teams because of differences in decision-making and problem-solving approaches. Ensure the team is equipped with the conflict-resolution and communication skills necessary to succeed.
- Trust is critical to any cohesive team. The ability for team members to feel comfortable about taking interpersonal risks is fundamental to driving innovation and results. In fact, according to Gartner research, fostering the psychological safety of team members can improve discretionary effort among employees by up to 24%.
Diverse Teams Allow Common Organizations to Achieve Uncommon Results.
The dynamic nature of today’s business environment, the need for innovation, and competitive pressures are all fueling a demand for diverse and inclusive work groups that perform well together. On the other hand, less diverse or poorly managed teams can impede or even halt progress or lead to disengagement or decreased job satisfaction. Building a diverse team is one feat but getting them to work well together and effectively solve business challenges is the hard part.
XBInsight has developed solutions to help companies get the best and most innovative work out of their teams, including the XBInsight DISC Report, the XBInsight Team Assessment and Report and XBInsight’s 3C Team Effectiveness Assessment.
Click here to learn more about these powerful solutions, or contact us at info@xbinsight.com.