Proactive preparation enhances leaders' abilities to use team members' strengths and avoid their weaknesses, getting the most out of their teams. Preparation is especially important when you have a diverse team, with team members who may have very different perspectives, work styles, and communication skills.

Think about a great manager who's really motivated you in the past. What comes to mind? Many people describe such managers as fair, respectful, encouraging, objective, clear, and good listeners. The key in a diverse work environment is to be this way with everyone, and not only with the employees you feel comfortable with. Managing a diverse team requires a commitment to demonstrate these kinds of behaviors with everyone on the team.

The more you can really connect with each of your team members, the more you'll be able to create a highly productive environment. Once you've established your initial approach to managing diversity by building diversity awareness in yourself and your team, you need to use different techniques to maintain the approach. The techniques for managing a diverse team are to communicate inclusively, consider individual needs, delegate fairly, and evaluate objectively.

Communicating inclusively

The first technique, communicating inclusively, means being careful that your language doesn't make anyone feel marginalized. All team members should feel comfortable and know their contributions matter. And listening is one of the most important communication skills. Listen actively to what team members have to say to be sure you understand what they're trying to communicate. You also have to be clear when you communicate. Especially in diverse environments, you need to check to make sure all team members understand you.

In addition to listening well and being clear, to communicate inclusively you can use two specific techniques:

1. be open – share all appropriate information, recognize and accept differences, change, and new ways of doing things, and respond honestly
2. use inclusive language – call people by their preferred names, avoid stereotypes, and avoid using metaphors that may exclude someone

Do you know the background of each of your team members? Demonstrating an open and flexible mind is easier when you know who you're communicating with. Remember that communication is a two-way process, and every team member has had experiences that have shaped their views, opinions, and biases. You also have opinions and biases. So you'll need to adjust your language in a way that helps all your employees feel like part of the communication process, especially when they come from backgrounds different from your own.

Because language is powerful, you need to be careful you don't use language that makes others feel excluded. Inclusive language is nonsexist and nonracist. Some people think using "politically correct" phrasing is a trivial matter, but words can shape people's realities. Not many little girls grow up wanting to be a "chairman." But children of either gender can see themselves as a "chairperson."

You can use more inclusive language in several different areas:

• gender – Avoid gender-specific pronouns, and don't use language that suggests human beings only come in one gender.
• stereotypes – Respect team members' desires to name themselves by using the language they prefer. But equally importantly, avoid stereotypes and labels.
• Metaphors – Avoid metaphors or other comparisons that can cause confusion and be off-putting to someone who doesn't know what they mean.

If you can't avoid gender-specific pronouns altogether, alternate them by using "he" and "she" equally or change to a gender-neutral plural form such as "they," "their", or "them." Use "people" or "humanity" instead of "man" or "mankind." Substitute a descriptive, neutral term for titles that end in "man" or refer to the person's gender. For instance, woman doctor, male nurse, and female supervisor all should be simply doctor, nurse, and supervisor. And chairman should be chairperson, while mailman becomes mail carrier, and so forth. Ask team members what term they prefer to be referred to by, such as African American, Oriental, or Senior. But remember, there's no need to refer to someone as a member of this group unless it's relevant. Team members should be defined by who they are as individuals and what they accomplish, rather than by their religion, race, age, or cultural background. Referring to people by a group designation can lead to stereotyping. It gives nonpertinent information that may affect how others behave toward them, while not grouping them includes them more fully. When communicating with people from different backgrounds, the image a metaphor creates is often unclear. As a result, the people from different backgrounds are left out, excluded from the communication. Sports metaphors are particularly problematic. A baseball metaphor like "three strikes and you're out" will leave people out of the conversation if they don't understand it. Military metaphors can also exclude. Many military metaphors are hard to understand unless you're part of the military or interested in it.

Considering individual needs

The second technique to manage a diverse team effectively is to consider individual needs of the team members. You have to decide how to implement policies without showing favoritism, while at the same time, recognizing each person's differences. It's a fine line to walk, especially when you have to enforce company policies and guidelines.

It may sometimes feel as though you're expected to treat everyone the same, but also differently. But it's not as hard as it sounds, since the most important thing is to be fair. Being fair doesn't necessarily mean treating everyone alike. As any good manager knows, to get the most out of each person, you have to tailor your message so that person can best understand it. While every employee has to be held to the same work expectations, policies, and procedures, managers can still accommodate individuals. Different approaches to areas such as coaching and motivating, communicating, and resolving conflicts will help to promote an environment of inclusiveness.

Another way to consider the needs of all individuals is to learn your team members' professional aspirations and support their efforts to achieve them. To make career development programs more effective in a diverse environment, take an interest in your employees' careers, and create opportunities for talented team members to interact with company leaders they might not otherwise meet. Each team member can then follow their own path to success.

Delegating fairly

When considering individual needs, you may need to delegate different tasks to help team members achieve their individual goals. But be sure to delegate fairly – don't always delegate to the same people by default.

To develop all team members – and not just the ones you know will do good work because you've delegated to them before – you need to identify projects, tasks, and responsibilities that can build individual skills. Once you decide to delegate a task to a person, be specific about what you expect and what the end result should be. And of course, be available to coach the employee as needed. But also, be supportive of different ways of doing things. Be positive, and try to avoid judging or insisting that your way is the only way to complete a task.

Evaluating objectively

Another technique for managing a diverse team effectively is to evaluate objectively with regard to performance. To avoid the appearance of favoritism or discrimination, you need to monitor, observe, assess, and evaluate each employee's performance on a regular basis. When you give feedback continuously, neither you nor your team members will be surprised when it's time for performance reviews.

To avoid evaluating employees unfairly, remember to check your assumptions about them. While it's never easy being completely objective, managers shouldn't base judgments about an employee's work on stereotypes about age, gender, or ethnicity. Also, it's imperative to give employees clear job descriptions and goals. If clues from management regarding objectives and desired job behaviors are unclear, employees often can't do a good job no matter how much they want to. These descriptions should include the criteria for measurement used in performance evaluations. When you have clear criteria for the skills and expectations for the job, it's much easier to be fair with every employee.

It's important to know your team members' backgrounds. In some cultures, feedback is discouraged, especially from a subordinate to a superior, or from a younger to an older person. In cultures that emphasize facts, feedback about feelings may be particularly difficult.

Some managers think a diverse team achieves its goals in spite of the team members' differences. But a well-managed diverse team can make you realize that diverse teams can achieve deeper, more successful solutions precisely because each person lends a different perspective. Helpful techniques for managing a diverse team are to communicate inclusively, consider individual needs, delegate fairly, and evaluate objectively.

A diverse team gives you a wide pool of skills and ideas from different perspectives. This can lead to enhanced creativity and better team decisions. But you need a proactive management approach to achieve these benefits, including planning for and committing to diversity as a core strength. Preparation can help your team achieve synergy, where the team is greater than the sum of the individual members.

Many managers – and team members – question their ability to manage diversity. When someone is different in looks, language, or actions, people may initially feel uncomfortable and wonder how to communicate. After all, the influences that make people behave and interrelate the way they do are complex, and someone unfamiliar with diversity may feel intimidated or confused. But building an approach based on awareness and understanding of the issues will enable you to lay the foundation for the effective management of a diverse team.

Three strategies can help you when preparing to manage a diverse team:

1. build diversity awareness – build diversity awareness by going beyond just considering the differences between team members
2. understand employees' diversity issues – understand diversity issues among your employees by identifying the values, perceptions, and expectations of team members
3. reinforce group norms – reinforce group norms, which are the rules and practices guiding the way the team generally functions

Building diversity awareness in a team involves two distinct elements: self-assessment and team analysis. Before you can manage people in a diverse team, you have to know what the values, perceptions, and expectations are – for yourself, and for them. Your team members need to know this as well. Only when you understand your own beliefs can you develop an awareness of other viewpoints and different backgrounds. Your feelings about certain differences might range from disapproval to complete acceptance.

A diversity self-assessment is a four-step process:

1. examine your response – examine your first response to someone who's different
2. review your assumptions – review your assumptions about the other person
3. check the reality – check the reality behind your assumptions, understanding that some commonly held ideas aren't true
4. find common ground – find the common ground that will allow you to build trust and rapport

A team diversity assessment can help a manager assess whether the team members can count on one another, no matter how diverse their backgrounds. In other words, the team environment supports diversity. The manager should note whether members have appreciation of the talents and skills of each individual, and if they feel comfortable bringing up problems and conflicts. The members should be open to differences of opinion, and be able to deal with interpersonal problems and conflict.

Understanding diversity issues

Self-assessment and team analysis build diversity awareness. But simply being aware of diversity isn't enough. You also have to examine the specific kinds of issues that can impact your diverse team. Most diversity issues fall into at least one of three common categories: values, perceptions, and expectations. Taken together, these three issues reveal important aspects of diverse cultures.

When team members are from diverse groups, they often have different sets of values. Values include work ethics; views of authority or individualism; and how feelings are expressed.

Your cultural values lead you to have certain perceptions about people and situations. One person's viewpoint can be opposite from another's in many areas:

1. age – regarding age, some people might perceive an older teammate as experienced and capable, while another might view the same person as rigid or conservative
2. accents – some people might perceive a person with an accent as slow or less intelligent, while a teammate with a similar accent would have no such perceptions
3. personal space – a person in a wheelchair might guard her personal space highly, and feel that someone leaning down to talk to her is a personal affront, while that person might just be trying to be polite

Just as values influence perceptions, varying perceptions can determine what team members expect from themselves and from others. Do you know how your perceptions affect your expectations? Do common stereotypes of cultural groups – or a limited exposure to differences – influence your expectations of people you've just met? When you're interacting with people who are different from you, pay attention to when you feel confused, anxious, frustrated, impatient, or angry. These emotions can signal a problem with expectations.

Reinforcing group norms

Team norms are the generally understood rules and practices that guide how a team functions. They may be implicit – evident, but not necessarily spoken about – or explicit – formally agreed to and documented. Norms arise out of any group's interaction, and reflect the way things usually happen in that team's interactions.

To reinforce positive group norms, help your team set ground rules, remind the team of these rules whenever necessary, and lead by example. When you lead by example – known as "walking the talk" – you can display and encourage positive norms.

Ground rules are like norms, but are more specific. They describe how to prevent problems with team interactions. Ground rules are usually in writing and are formally adopted by the team. Ground rules are preventive measures, and need the consensus of the team. When you involve your team in establishing ground rules, everyone understands them and adheres to them. You might set rules for conflict resolution, meetings, team behavior, or decision making. It's up to you and your team to decide what's acceptable.

Specific ground rules concerning diversity allow people from different backgrounds to understand each other and work cooperatively.

Diversity ground rules can cover various activities:

• all members must contribute – working out how decisions will be made – for example, by consensus or not – while emphasizing that all members must contribute and share ideas
• all members must discuss their values – specifying that all team members must compare and discuss their own values, perceptions, and expectations
• all members must help resolve conflicts – making it clear that all team members must help resolve any conflicts

Good managers understand and appreciate each person's uniqueness, no matter how diverse a skill set or background. Preparation will help you manage a diverse team. Such preparation includes building diversity awareness in yourself and your team, understanding the diversity issues your employees have, and reinforcing group norms. Group norms are the basic standards of conduct that reflect the way things usually happen in your team, and positive norms need to be reinforced.