Promoting a Diverse Team Culture

Name: Promoting a Diverse Team Culture
Author: Laura Portolese

Ensure your team culture promotes diversity.

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

Course: On-Demand

(bright music) So, how can you promote a diverse team culture? In these lessons, we'll look at the tenants of inclusion, adopting a diversity-focused mindset, getting to know your team members, dealing with negative behavior, and promoting positive behavior. A positive team culture results in a flourishing organization. But how do team culture, dynamics, and individual behaviors in diverse teams foster cohesion? A team culture is defined as the values, attitudes, and action the team shares. Team culture is important because it sets the stage for high productivity. However, teammates can have personalities that negatively affect the team culture, which results in poor diversity and inclusion. One such personality is the complainer. This person is often not satisfied with the team, outcomes, or progress towards goals, and often makes this known to the rest of the team. This person can bring down the team's motivation. People who don't tend to meet the team's expectations can also hinder progress if they don't meet deadlines or take responsibility for their actions. Unhelpful team members only look out for their own interests. This type of team member has a negative effect on the rest of the team because they're often disengaged, poor communicators, and possibly just wanna do their own thing. A gossiper can be detrimental to the team's wellbeing. This person spreads rumors and may share personal information about others. This type of team member spreads mistrust, which adversely affects culture, inclusion, and coherent team identity. Being a know-it-all is also generally seen as a negative team behavior. The know-it-all isn't good at listening to feedback, which creates inclusivity issues, because they're often unable to see outside of themselves and how their behavior may affect others. They also might be unwilling to listen to other's ideas, which cuts down on the number of ideas being heard at one time. This type of behavior can alienate team members, removing team cohesion and identity. Other examples of behavior that can cause team identity to remain undeveloped, unfunctional, or just plain poor, include allowing blatant discrimination against diverse team members, leaving team members out of conversations and decisions, and other types of harassment. There are several ways that you, as the leader, can help foster and develop an inclusive culture that embraces positive and productive behavior. You can ensure that your team and the organization have a clear mission and values, foster positive communication and collaboration, ensuring that no team members are left out of conversations and decisions that they should be part of, ensure all employees are offered the same opportunities for rewards and promotions, and focus on the benefits of a cultural fit within your organization. A cultural fit means making employees happy and engaged, increasing productivity and commitment and higher profits.

Intermediate Provider : Laura Portolese 6 Lessons · 19m in German, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Urdu, Chinese

Course Description

So, you know why diversity is important, but how do you promote diversity within your team? As a leader, it’s partly your responsibility to be the figurehead that models the appropriate behaviors and ethics that are conducive toward diversity, equity, and inclusion. If you can successfully promote a diverse team culture, you’ll help your organization to flourish and help your team members feel welcome.

These lessons will address the impact of team culture on diversity and inclusion. You’ll learn how to create a diversity-minded team that engages in appropriate and supportive behaviors around diversity and inclusion. Then, you’ll learn about becoming a diversity-minded team manager and leader, building guiding principles that support diversity and inclusion. After that, you’ll learn how you can get to know your team members better, and how to identify both appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. The final lesson will delve into promoting those appropriate behaviors in your team.

What You'll Learn

Describe the key elements of team culture and how they shape diversity and inclusion
Explain how team culture impacts your diverse team
Identify appropriate and inappropriate team behaviors regarding diversity
Recognize and identify your own biases
Build guiding principles that support diversity and inclusion as a team manager and leader
Promote appropriate behaviors and expressions within your team

Key Takeaways

As a leader, it is partly your responsibility to model the appropriate behaviors and ethics that support diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Team culture has a direct impact on diversity and inclusion within a team.
Successfully promoting a diverse team culture helps the organization flourish and helps team members feel welcome.
Becoming a diversity-minded manager and leader involves building guiding principles that support diversity and inclusion.
Getting to know team members individually and collectively supports the creation of a diversity-minded team.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is this course for?

This course is designed for leaders and team managers who want to promote diversity within their team and model the behaviors and ethics that support diversity, equity, and inclusion.

What does this course cover?

It covers the impact of team culture on diversity and inclusion, becoming a diversity-minded team manager and leader, building guiding principles, getting to know team members individually and collectively, identifying appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, and promoting appropriate behaviors and expressions in your team.

What skills will I gain from this course?

The course develops skills in diversity awareness, diversity and inclusion, diversity management, diversity marketing, diversity strategies, and workplace diversity.

How is the course structured?

The course is organized into lessons covering team culture and inclusion, becoming a diversity-minded manager and leader, knowing team members individually and collectively, identifying appropriate and inappropriate behaviors, and promoting appropriate behaviors, followed by a Test Your Knowledge section.

Will this course help me recognize my own biases?

Yes. One of the learning objectives is to learn to identify your own biases, and the course addresses identifying both appropriate and inappropriate behaviors regarding diversity.