The benefits of a diverse workforce are well documented: diverse teams can result in new ideas and more varied perspectives, which strengthens problem-solving. However, hiring employees with different backgrounds, strengths and skills does not automatically mean your team will reap the benefit. Successfully onboarding and leading a team with greater diversity requires effort and awareness.
Understanding team dynamics
What this leadership challenge recognises is how human beings tend to gravitate toward those we can easily relate to and identify with. We unconsciously categorise between people like us and those that are different from us. These are the ‘in-group’ or ‘out-group’ relationships that can emerge in teams. In the context of team dynamics, it is an employee experience that largely centres around a person’s perception of the relationship they have with their manager.
These relationships form soon after joining a team, leading to members of the ‘in-group’ who enjoy privileges, such as access to more information, participating in more decisions, or getting added responsibilities.
This ‘in-group’ relationship is rewarded with higher levels of performance and job satisfaction, with individuals staying longer within the organisation.
In contrast, for those in the ‘out-group’, it can translate into neutral or even poor performance, where team members are simply fulfilling the obligations of their employment contract.
Outside of being simply unfair for those in the outgroup, this team dynamics limits their performance potential and is not good for accessing more diverse perspectives in problem-solving and decision-making.
So how can leaders ensure they don’t neglect people and limit their potential?
Develop a more inclusive leadership approach.
For leaders, a start point is having greater awareness of the positive and negative implications of these group dynamics. With this awareness comes the responsibility to start developing relationships with the people who are in the ‘out-group’, although developing these relationships begins with being more aware of your own needs.
As a leader, it’s often tempting to only surround yourself with people who share your worldview and help enable your vision. This leadership approach may have worked in the past but, with more complex challenges, the ability to identify, value and harness differences is an increasingly important leadership skill and fits within the domains of emotional intelligence – this includes the empathy and social skills to connect with people who may be different to you.
Using these skills helps everyone across the organisation find meaning in the purpose, values, and goals of the organisation. Further, by not offering people the opportunity to participate in tasks beyond the scope of their role, we deny these people the chance to learn and grow from these experiences.
The benefit of giving people these opportunities is they can become more trusted members of your team for future projects.
Reframe your role as a team-member.
The responsibility does not only sit with the leader to change these group dynamics.
According to research, we develop an implicit understanding of what it is to be a leader or team member. Some people believe that being in a team is a subservient role – you assume that the leader has all the answers. At the other end of the spectrum, some people view the relationship in a more proactive and collaborative way.
Research suggests that how we relate to each other is shaped by how we have experienced leadership growing up and relationship with caregivers. We are also influenced by confidence in our own abilities, and the organisational norms and leader behaviours.
Becoming more aware of our implicit assumptions can open the possibility of reframing the leader and team member relationship as a more interactive partnership of mutual influence, with the option to challenge the leader for the good of the organisation.
Studies also show that feeling more empowered can influence your job satisfaction positively and, from a team member perspective, it can highlight the benefits of development work like coaching to help understand the interferences that are getting in the way.
From an organisational view, it suggests there are benefits in adopting norms that encourage this proactivity, including promoting a more collaborative style of leadership. This perspective also highlights the vital role of psychological safety in teams for a more inclusive approach to thrive.
Better managing perceptions
For organisational leaders, addressing these group dynamics is an opportunity to examine how things like the culture, leadership behaviours, organisational structure or on-boarding processes support an ‘out-group’ dynamic.
A leader’s perception of new team member begins as soon as they join the organisation – these first impressions are highly influential. The leader assesses people based on their level of competency, which is influenced by work experience, and their role and seniority within the company.
The relationship is also affected by the chemistry in those first encounters, which could be negatively impacted, for example, with a more introverted social style or if the new team member uses political tactics to get noticed.
Considering how these first encounters influence the relationship, there is an opportunity for HR leaders to consider on-boarding strategies that might help reduce the ‘out-group’ dynamic. In addition to the on-boarding process, there is an opportunity to examine the culture of the company to understand how it might be reinforcing an ‘out-group’ dynamic. For instance, if you have a recognition program targeting high performers, are these processes fair and transparent?
This examination also involves looking at how the organisational structure reinforces an ‘out-group’ dynamic. For example, do the same organisational norms apply regardless of your role in the business?
Embracing differences and changing views
Leader and team member relationships are vital to employee engagement, reduced turnover and organisational performance. Yet, understandably it is human nature that we get on better with some people more than others. But if you are in a leadership position, it is your responsibility to harness diversity through a more inclusive approach that values differences.
What’s more, team members can also take the lead in trying to reframe how they view leadership and followership, where possible, taking a more proactive role in developing relationships.
Ultimately, a better leader-team member relationship benefits everyone by improving job satisfaction and performance, and ultimately the organisation’s bottom line.