This is the second blog post about the book The PRIMES by Chris McGoff. Author McGoff says “The PRIMES show up every time people join up in groups to solve problems, drive change and transform systems.” There are 46 PRIMES, so there is a lot covered in the book and it’s all great.

But I know that people are time-stared and may shy away from reading a whole book. When I recorded this video book review of The PRIMES, I decided to offer the checklist below as a way to take the “PRIMES” concepts and immediately apply them to actual situations you may be facing in your work group.

Check out the list below. Are any of these team challenges cropping up in your project teams? If so, buy the book (I get no commission from this), then use this roadmap to help you get started.

Good luck!

Disclosure: I received a copy of the book for the purposes of writing a book review.

I believe that employee recognition is a vastly underused tool in a leader’s toolkit. Recognition need not be expensive, elaborate or time-consuming—but that’s how many leaders see it.  Therefore, I’ve teamed up with the recognition specialists at Baudville. They’ve agreed to pass along some great advice to the readers of The People Equation on how to use recognition (hint: it’s not just for bosses anymore!) to build employee morale, foster teamwork and achieve business results. This is the first of a three-part series on Employee Recognition. I invite you to read, enjoy and pass along to those who would benefit.

Guest Post by Cori Curtis, Certified Recognition Professional

In business these days it’s easy to become so focused on the top and bottom line that we forget about the people in the middle: employees. Your staff is the lifeblood of the organization. Without their unique talents, contributions, and efforts, you wouldn’t be in business! So how are you showing your appreciation?

Many leaders may delegate the responsibility of employee recognition to an administrative assistant or human resources, but top management needs to be actively involved and supportive of all recognition efforts. Particularly now; surveys show that 50-60% of employees are looking to change jobs.

Some organizations may downplay employee recognition as being purely about making employees feel warm and fuzzy. What they may not realize is these tools are part of a larger strategy designed to improve employee relations and ultimately business results.

If leaders want to develop a strong and successful team, they need to take employee recognition seriously. The regular practice of employee recognition has been shown to improve employee engagement and retention, saving organizations from turnover headaches and expensive recruiting campaigns.

Employee Engagement. Employee engagement is the degree to which employees are satisfied with their job, believe their work is meaningful, and are dedicated to their employer. Recognizing employees on a regular basis can have a significant impact on their level of engagement. When employees are recognized for their work, they feel better about themselves and their employer. The Gallup Organization has found that companies with higher employee engagement yield higher sales, higher productivity, and higher retention than companies with low employee engagement.

In a recent employee recognition case study , we implemented a recognition program for an organization that suffered from low employee morale, engagement, and retention. After the program had been implemented for two months, the organization experienced a 66% increase in overall satisfaction. With the simple yet strategic use of employee recognition, they were able to turn around engagement and retain valuable talent.

Employee Retention. According to the Department of Labor, lack of appreciation is the number one reason for voluntary turnover. It costs approximately 150% of the position’s annual salary to find and train a replacement. Thankfully, this expensive problem can be remedied!

Regular employee recognition can cultivate loyalty and dedication to the organization. When employees feel their contributions are appreciated and acknowledged, they are more likely to stay. Let your employees know they’re doing a great job, and they’ll strive to do even more for your organization. 

Employee engagement and retention are just two of the benefits of practicing employee recognition. Organizations that focus on employee recognition also experience higher employee morale, greater teamwork, innovation, and cost savings. For more information on the return on investment in employee recognition, download Baudville’s free employee recognition white papers.  

Cori Curtis is a Certified Recognition Professional (CRP) and Marketing Communications Specialist at Baudville. She speaks at industry events about the strategy and benefits of employee recognition and blogs regularly on the topic on the Baudville Blog.  Baudville, the place for daily recognition, is a leading provider of employee gifts and employee awards and has a robust Recognition Resource Center with articles, ideas, and resources on employee recognition.

Even the most plugged-in leaders get it wrong sometimes.

This fact was driven home to me the other day as I listened in on a phone conference led by a regional manager named Pete who manages a group of customer service teams spread across the northern half of the United States. My purpose in joining the call was to gather background information to help me prepare for a project that Pete’s boss hired me to do.

It was recommended that I shadow Pete for a few days to learn more about the company. Pete was selected because he is widely respected at all levels in the organization. He uses many different avenues to stay in touch with his organization, from the front-line employees on up to his direct reports.

One of the ways Pete stays ”plugged in” is by holding Town Hall-style conference calls during which he informally chats with employees and addresses their questions.   Pete briefed me on the call’s agenda: he was going to gather input on a proposed change in company policy that would impact the way his front-line employees handle customer complaints. Pete’s take on the proposed change:  “I’m 90% sure the people on the call [the front-line customer service supervisors] will say they want to do X with the policy, but I’m going to put it out there for discussion to look for any slight modifications we’ll need to make in the recommendation to senior management.”

So imagine Pete’s surprise when the majority of the group recommended not “X” but “Q” as the preferred change to the policy. Pete had misjudged the importance of the underlying issue that people on the front-lines were grappling with.  They acknowledged that issue “X” was important, but it wasn’t root cause. Making tweaks to the policy with option “Q” would best address the issue, they advised.

When Pete and I debriefed after the call, he ruefully muttered, “Wow, so much for being 90% sure.” It’s a good thing that Pete works continually on staying tuned in with his region.  Imagine the fallout if he had relied only on his self-rated 90% score and proceeded in making a recommendation to senior management.

If it can happen to a competent, plugged-in leader like Pete, it can happen to any leader. Do yourself a favor and double-check your “gut” impression. Most of the time, it’s on target, but occasionally faulty wiring fries the quality of your perceptions.

Looking for specific ways to stayed tuned in to your team? See my article Leadership Reality Check: 5 ways to tell if you’re really in touch on the Smart Brief on Leadership blog.

To me, springtime means track meets. Back in the day, I used to run track for my high school’s girls 440 relay team. Even all these years later, I can close my eyes and feel it:  legs churning, heart pounding, as I round the curve, ready to pass the baton. I’m reaching my right hand out to place the baton in my team mate’s waiting, outstretched palm.

Most days, the hand-off went smoothly, but once in awhile we botched it and the baton would fall to the ground with a sickening thud. A dropped baton in a relay race nearly always assured defeat. I felt horrible when it happened, thinking, how hard can it be to pass off the baton? My guess is plenty of spectators (and perhaps, even my coaches) thought the same thing. 

It’s actually harder than you might think. It takes a lot of practice to get the mechanics down. The person passing the baton has to run full force towards her awaiting team member, who must take off running at just the right time to gather momentum. The baton receiver can’t accelerate too fast, or she’ll run out of the zone for baton passing. If she’s too slow, she gets nearly run over by her approaching team mate.

Teamwork and relay races are similar in that way. Every day at the office, there are dozens of hand-offs that need to occur. And, just like on the track field, not every single transition is a smooth one. If you’ve been part of a rough hand-off, perhaps you too have wondered, how hard can it be? And, like me, you’ve probably felt badly. It’s tough to let your team down.

Here’s what running a sprint relay race has taught me about teamwork: when people make mistakes, a good team will work together to correct the problem. There won’t be finger-pointing about who was running too fast, or who didn’t have her hand out quickly enough. What will happen is that the team will huddle and figure out how to address the problem. Most likely, that team will have a good coach too—one who will work on tweaking the relay line up to suit the strengths of the runners. (That’s why I never ran anchor; I wasn’t fast enough. But I was a fairly decent lead-off runner.)

The next time you’re in a situation at work and “how hard can it be?” crosses your mind, take a step back. There probably is more to it than you (or the spectators) know. The key is to move beyond the judgment and towards the resolution.

Turn how hard can it be? into this is what we can be.

Photo credit: istockphoto.com  Tatiana Popova

Kevin Grossman at Glowan Consulting Group is hosting this week’s Carnival of HR and has declared it a “rock and roll” carnival. This theme opened the door for me to write this post, which admittedly, I was having a hard time reconciling with The People Equation’s theme of workplace dynamics. Now it fits perfectly. Thanks, Kevin!

What a Rock Guitarist with a PhD Teaches Us About Collaboration 

In August, I listened to a Fresh Air broadcast in which host Terri Gross interviewed Brian May, former guitarist with the rock band Queen.  May is now an astrophysicist with a Ph.D., having left his rock guitarist days behind him. He was on Fresh Air to talk about his research on space dust (wow, the guy is smart) and to promote his book A Village Lost and Found.

From a human resources and career perspective, I was certainly taken with May’s transformation from rock guitarist to astrophysicist— talk about rebranding yourself! But what really stood out in this interview for me was a section during the interview in which Ms. Gross returned to May’s time with Queen. She asked about their rock-opera styled song Bohemian Rhapsody, one of Queen’s enduring hits.

At this point in the interview, Gross asked May about the lyrics.

Gross: “So, can you tell me the lyrics ‘scaramoush, scaramoush, can you do the fandango?’ means?”

May’s reply is surprising. “No, I really can’t.”

Gross: “Why not?”

May: “Because I don’t know what the lyrics mean. You’d have to ask Freddie [Mercury, Queen’s lead singer and author of the song] what they mean.”

Gross: (sounding incredulous) “So, you mean, you were singing lyrics that you didn’t know the meaning to?”

May: “Yes.”

Their conversation then proceeded to explore the dynamics of the band’s collaborative process.  May recalled that in the early days of the band, they didn’t really question each others judgment on the song-writing process. “We just trusted that the writer knew what he was trying to convey and we went along with it.” For Bohemian Rhapsody, May said, Freddie Mercury had an overall vision of what he was trying to accomplish. According to May, Mercury explained his vision for Bohemian Rhapsody to his fellow band members and helped them figure out the proper emotion underlying the lyrics. Then the band got to work on creating the music.  No second-guessing, just the creation of a catchy (albeit odd) tune.

Here’s what struck me: the level of trust required for this type of process to work is astonishing.  If you are familiar with Bohemian Rhapsody, you know it defies classification. The song’s “sound” was a blend of rock and opera, which at the time was very unusual. Add to that the fact that some of the lyrics made no obvious sense.  It required a leap of faith on May’s part to engage fully in the recording process. According to May, he did so without trepidation.

This interview prompted me to reflect on how trust impacts a team’s ability to make progress. Admittedly, it’s is a stretch to compare the dynamics of Queen’s creative process to a workplace collaboration scenario.  There is a connection and it’s this: both scenarios require the element of trust in order to produce a quality product.

 The interview left me wondering how people in a workplace setting would react to May’s total trust in his band mate’s vision.

 If you are a member of a work team, in what ways does trust shape how your team gets things done?  Is the trust level high enough that if your team leader said, “Follow my lead, I know what I’m doing” you’d be willing to take that leap of faith?

 Would you be willing to sing a song without knowing what the lyrics meant?

Postscript: Want a good laugh? Watch the Muppets sing Bohemian Rhapsody (which was approved by Queen’s estate) on You Tube.

 It was a typical day for Pete, a division manager who oversees the work of 1200 employees for a large multi-national enterprise. Like many others, the day was full of meetings, deadlines and urgent tasks, when one issue rose above the rest: rumors had surfaced that the company was planning on selling off one of its subsidiaries and would then reorganize the remainder of the company. The source of the rumor: a leading industry blog.  Pete had a staff meeting with his direct reports planned for later in the day to make the announcement, but the grapevine had already beaten him to the punch.

The company grapevine is nothing new, but it now has a super-charged conduit via social technologies such as blogs, Facebook and Twitter. Leaders have always played a key role in disseminating information to their teams. Now, with the increased speed and access that employees have to information, the emphasis for leaders has shifted from that of acquiring and sharing information with employees to the interpretation and assimilation of that data. As shown by Pete’s story, the information now comes from multiple (and potentially uncontrolled) sources and often puts the leader in a reactive position.

Now, more than ever, it’s key for leaders to help give context to the information that employees have in their possession.  In Pete’s case, because he was a latecomer to the information sharing, he did not have the chance to frame the information in a way that was best for the audience receiving it. Therefore, when he did lead his staff meeting, he had to start with: “I understand that some of you have heard X; here’s what this means to all of us.”

People crave answers, especially when a sudden, uncertain future appears before them. In a blog post for the Center for Creative Leadership, Doug Riddle wrote “Humans are conclusion-drawing animals and we will never leave dots unconnected.” Yes, people will go to extraordinary lengths to connect those dots, even displaying contradictory behaviors in the name of forming a “conclusion.” In a 2005 study reported by Communication World Magazine, employees listed their number one preferred source of information as a “meeting with their direct supervisor”, citing it as the most credible. Interestingly, however, employees stated that although they deemed the company “grapevine” as one of the least credible sources of information, it was their most-used source of initial information-gathering, even prevailing over a meeting with their supervisor. See figure.

Where Do Employees Get Their Information?

It would appear that the need to get some form of information quickly supersedes the need for reliable information. This is puzzling behavior to be sure, but helpful for a leader to know. Leaders who understand this aspect of human nature can better prepare themselves to “connect the dots” for their contributors. Here are six ways a leader can provide context when sharing information:

Ask: “What do you think this means?” Leaders are always surprised to hear the variety of interpretations that people ascribe to the “same” data. Listen for misinformation and be sure to clarify inaccurate data.

Discuss how this information will impact the team’s daily work. Identify to what degree the information being discussed will cause a disruption in team members’ daily work tasks.  Identify a plan to help minimize the disruption.

Connect it back to your group’s goals. This is especially important if the information doesn’t seem relevant to the team.  Help them see how what they do on a daily basis does connect to the information.

Ask: “Who else needs to know this?” Often, key groups are overlooked or are brought into the loop late.  Your team most likely can help you find the key players who may not yet know information necessary to help your team make an informed decision.

Have some fun with the grapevine. One especially clever leader I know helped her team ease the anxiety of an impending change by asking team members to name the most outlandish rumors that had surfaced related to the change.  Not only does this acknowledge the existence of a grapevine, but it can help alleviate the stress associated with inaccuracies of the rumor mill.

Keep it on the front burner. Before wrapping up the meeting, ask, “When should we reconnect to revisit this issue?” By keeping the issue from fading into the sunset, you signal to your team that you’re committed to helping them work through the issue at hand.

There’s little leaders can do the slow the speed with which information now travels throughout the workplace. With some advance planning, and a nod to human nature, they can however be prepared to help their teams wade through the onslaught of information in a way that builds team confidence and camaraderie.

Perfection Messing Up Your Corporate Mojo?

Have you ever noticed how pervasive “perfection” is in our language?

• The phrase “perfect storm” is used to describe a “rare combination of circumstances will aggravate a situation drastically”.
• Last month, ump Jim Joyce ruined a “perfect” game for Detroit Tiger pitcher Armando Galarraga.
• Recently, corporate success coach Ann Farrell ruminated on striving for the “perfect” life.

Perfectionism isn’t limited to solely to our language, either. As a practice, The Quest for Perfect shows up on a regular basis in the workplace, most typically as a byproduct of a company’s culture.

When thinking of how workplace culture shapes employee behavior, a senior leadership work team that I consulted with comes to mind. The team was comprised of the top six leaders of a small manufacturing company and they were grappling with trust issues..  We were working offsite, trying to come up with some workable operating guidelines to ensure a more trusting, productive environment.  At one point, a Vice President bravely stepped out and said, “We are so demanding of each other, there’s absolutely no room for mistakes.” We explored this issue for a few minutes, with several people contributing their perspectives.

Finally, the leader of the team (who held the title General Manager) blurted out in frustration, “Jennifer, you simply don’t understand!  Quality is one of our company’s core values.  We’re at nearly zero defects per million on our products.  We live and breathe perfection. It’s who we are.”

Yes, indeed, Mr. General Manager. Your Culture of Perfection, while admirable for creating superior products, is eroding the relationships of the senior management team.  Our discussion then took a very interesting turn in which I was able to share an alternate perspective on perfection:

Strive for perfection in process and grace with people.

A process doesn’t have feelings, but people do.  When team members demand relentless perfection of one another in the workplace, they create unrealistic expectations for both work output and interpersonal effectiveness.  This is not a call for tolerating mediocrity.  On the contrary, in the workplace people should continually seek process improvement. All the while, they must be mindful: The creatures in charge of the process are human. Mistakes happen.  People misjudge situations.  Tempers flare. As humans, it’s what we do. Expecting perfection in the way humans relate to one another is like expecting every golf game to have a hole-in-one shot. It’s unrealistic.

Back to our struggling leadership team— we invested time defining areas in which “perfection” was an appropriate goal, and situations in which we should encourage a more forgiving stance. We also discussed that pesky gray area of “good enough”. As you might expect, there were varying opinions on when something should be deemed “good enough” to pass inspection— be it a process, a document or an interpersonal relationship.  All in all, it was a fruitful discussion.  Even though we didn’t create the definitive list (there’s no “perfect” list, after all!), we did bring this issue out into the open and develop some perspective around it.

Here’s the rub. . . this company was “successful” by nearly every measure: commitment to its core values, profitability, steady growth, quality products and employee satisfaction.  The company’s culture highly influenced achievement in these metrics. That’s a good thing. Even so, this company still wasn’t perfect. All workplaces, even the highly productive and positive ones, have their downsides because corporate cultures, like the humans that comprise them, are dynamic, influential and yes, sometimes flawed.

The General Manager in my example had his eyes opened that day. He realized that the culture he helped to create, while enviable, still had it drawbacks. His company’s culture of perfection wasn’t so much a problem to be “fixed” so much as it was a dynamic to acknowledge and direct. Leaders of organizations who recognize this and create interpersonal practices that allow some slack are the ones who create vibrant, sustainable corporate cultures.  Imperfections and all.

Photo credit istockphoto.com © Robert Hadfield

Crickets at your team meetings?

So I’m sitting at a large round table, talking with a team of eight senior-level leaders who work for a large corporation.  These are smart, sophisticated people, who have both street cred as field operatives and many years’ experience leading various types and sizes of work groups.  We’re discussing how to ensure that our communications are less command-and-control.  Comments start to flow:

• “We need to be more open-minded”
• “Our younger workforce expects to be part of the conversation”
• “How do we invite more participation?”
• “It’s a more informal process these days….”

Heads are nodding in agreement.  The group is engaged, building on each other’s responses.  Then, one person is brave enough to be the Devil’s Advocate:

“OK, so let’s say that I do all of these things.  I’m asking for input, I’m trying to get them involved. Which, by the way, I think I’m pretty good at.  So I ask for feedback and all I get is, you know, The Crickets.”

To which I inquire— Crickets?

“Yeah,” he says.  “You know—so quiet you could hear the crickets chirp?”

Ah, yes, I do know.  And the other leaders around the table chuckle and nod their heads in understanding.  What leader hasn’t tried to draw out his or her team, only to be met with silence or perfunctory “Nope, we’re all good. Nothing to say.”  While there’s no “truth serum” to get people talking, there are some ways to ensure that your team members will participate when asked.

Think about how you ask the question. Are your questions truly open-ended, or are they statements disguised as a question?  Phrases like, “What’s your reaction to the idea on the table?” and “Who has an alternative idea to offer?” are neutral and invite discussion. If you say something like, “Can we all agree that we need to do XYZ?” or “That’s a great idea, don’t you think?” tend to put the emphasis on your opinions and agenda.  These statements are good for bringing a dialog to a close, but not for creating discussion.

Inspect your consistency. Do you consistently ask for input?  Or, do you only ask on the “easy” stuff—things that don’t take a lot of time to work through?  Leaders who establish a track record of inviting diverse opinions are those who will, over time, get valuable input from their teams. Many leaders say to me, “I’d love to ask for input, but it takes too much time!” This is true; there’s an upfront investment.  Ask yourself, “Will the investment of time upfront pay off in the long run?”  If there is a true urgency and no time for extended discussion, you can still ask for input, but set a clear parameter: “Team, we’ve got a time crunch for this—we can only do a quick 15 minute huddle—what can you give me quickly to be sure we still make a good decision?”

Review your track record of taking action. The biggest mistake that I see from leaders is that they ask for input, (“because that’s our culture—we need to be team-based”) but don’t intend to do anything with it.  If you know you won’t (or can’t) take any action on the team’s suggestions, don’t bother asking.  Of course, you won’t be able to implement all suggestions, so again, set the framework: “I’m looking for 10 – 15 ideas.  After that, we’ll whittle the ideas down to the ones that make the most sense, given our time and budget constraints.”

Do you close the loop? Which of their ideas did you use? Be sure to let them know. Moreover, be sure to let me know if you didn’t use the suggestions—and why.  Be as specific as possible about why the suggestion couldn’t be implemented.  By giving specific feedback now, you can inform the team’s thought process for later, helping them understand the bigger picture issues of budget, strategy, resources, and yes, even organizational politics. This will pay dividends for future “I’d like your input” discussions.

Enjoying the serenade of cricket night-song at home on a balmy evening is a delight.  “Crickets” at your team meetings—not so much. Follow these four simple tips and you’ll reduce the silence at your team meetings.

What’s your favorite dialog-starter?  How do you invite discussion that’s productive and open?

Photo credit: istockphoto.com © Tatiana Popova

I was out early this morning snapping up some bargains at one of my favorite mass-merchandise retailers. In what appears to be a developing theme with me, I overheard another conversation with Human Resources implications. (See my other HR eavesdropping observation here.)

 Overheard:

 Employee: “Do I really need to take two breaks and a lunch today?  My shift is only seven hours.”

 Floor Manager: “Yes.”

 Employee: “Really?  I don’t need all that time.  How about just the two breaks instead?”

 Floor Manager: “Yes, really.  I need you to take both breaks and the lunch. . .” He then went on to briefly explain his reasoning for scheduling her in this way.

 At this point, I started to move away from the conversation, fearing the store’s security crew was probably looking askance at my lingering in the Misses separates section.

 For just a moment, let’s imagine I was the Human Resources Manager for this store and wanted to use this situation for a coaching opportunity. (As a former Human Resources Generalist for a department store retailer, that’s not too much of a stretch.) Here’s what I would say to the players involved in this conversation. In writing, it’s kind of in stilted Corporate-Speak; in real life, it’d be more conversational

 To the Floor Manager: You are to be commended. Thank you for upholding your company’s staffing and HR policies.  From what I could hear, you did so with subtle authority and an appropriate amount of explanation….neither heavy-handing it or over-explaining.

 To the Employee: I admire your work ethic. Please know that there are reasons for the company’s retail floor scheduling. Sometimes these rules are based on labor laws, sometimes they’re based on company policy.  To be consistent, even if you don’t personally need that much time off the floor, we need you to take the breaks.

How would they receive this coaching?  When I had chats like this with Department Managers they were receptive, even if the feedback wasn’t as positive as the exchange shown above.  When working with employees, it depended on the maturity level of the employee— the more mature the employee, the less likely to get the dreaded eye-roll.

So, to my Human Resources readers. . . how do you discuss these types of issues with your company’s employees?  How do you convince them to follow a company policy even if they don’t agree with it?

Ways to encourage diversity on your team beyond race, religion or sexual orientation. 

Several weeks ago, I got an unexpected Skype call.  It was from my long-time client Pete. He was calling from Germany to say “hi” and let me know he’d just landed a new job as Director of Operational Excellence for a large metalworking enterprise. This exciting opportunity has offered a new challenge for Pete: leading a team that’s physically located across four continents. His nine direct reports are spread throughout the U.S., China, Germany and India. Beyond the logistical challenges of varying time zones, Pete now contends with communication issues that are heavily influenced by his employees’ cultural backgrounds.

Pete’s going to succeed at creating a cohesive, high-performing team.  His learning curve will be a bit longer this time, because he’s doing it for the first time with a global work team, but he’ll get there. How do I know? Because I’ve seen him do it repeatedly over the past 12 years.  He’s hired me to consult with him on several projects requiring people-skills development, thus enabling me to see up close how he interacts with his employees. Right now, Pete is working on providing developmental opportunities for his direct reports; that’s why he contacted me.  As he’s thinking through his options, he’s paying attention to the fact that anything he does will also need to acknowledge the multiple national cultures that his employees hail from.

Anyone who’s held a leadership position knows that it’s tough to get an entire team on the same page.  Adding diverse cultural backgrounds only makes it that much harder. Pete does have an advantage because his previous job had him traveling the globe for the past six years. I think his success is going to come from his highly tuned interpersonal skill set rather than extensive cultural awareness. Even though this is Pete’s first go at leading a global virtual team, he’s going to do well because he has a track record of doing the following four things to value diversity.

Change Up the Definition

The basic premise of most corporate diversity initiatives is that creating an inclusive workplace is about honoring all people, regardless of skin color, faith, or lifestyle. Pete goes beyond that notion to the root of the word.  “Diverse” means differing from one another . Notice there’s no value judgment in that definition.  The “difference” is neither bad nor good, it’s just different. By taking this more all-encompassing view of encouraging “diversity” on a team, he removes himself from having to be the expert in all forms of cultural, ethnic and religious norms. It’s not possible, so he doesn’t even try.  But he does come from a place of valuing each and every person for their uniqueness, which is Pete’s second success factor. 

Value Their Uniqueness

Pete is consistent with company policies, but flexible in his interpersonal approach. Even the newest supervisor knows this truth: every single direct report is unique.  So, the key to learning to bring out the best in each contributor is to figure out how to interpersonally “deal” with him or her. Pete has honed his powers of observation. He’s continually assessing, ” Is this person outgoing? Introverted? Which team members thrive on deadlines? Who is embarrassed by public recognition and who loves it?” Pete cares enough about his team members to know these details. This allows him to tailor the “must haves” of company policy in such a way that they fit an employee’s preferred approach.

Encourage a Variety of Viewpoints

The third way that Pete encourages diversity is that he is always seeking multiple viewpoints, both from inside and outside of his team.  He taps multiple sources of expertise to be sure he hasn’t missed something.  He’s open to hearing the “bad stuff” as well as the good. I’ve witnessed people say some fairly inflammatory things in his presence and he has remained calm and open to their opinion.

Be Respectful at All Times

Above all, Pete is respectful. His respect is genuine; it goes beyond the political correctness that sometimes masquerades as respect. That’s why he can get away with saying, “I was raised on a farm in Kentucky; I’m fluent in ‘Kentuckian’ as a foreign language.”  He can acknowledge who he is and where he comes from without it sounding like a put-down to others of similar backgrounds.

Pete’s story demonstrates that you don’t need to have an advanced degree in multi-cultural affairs to be an effective advocate for workplace diversity.  By doing the four things outlined above, leaders ensure that team members are bringing their whole selves to the picture— including, but not limited to, the beliefs shaped by their race, religion, etc. This mindset allows leaders to honor their employees’ diversity yet remain focused on the task at hand: delivering value to the customer.