Here’s a list of the most common behavioral traps that keep managers from responding effectively with a deeply (deliberately) diverse mix of employees. I invite you to consider each behavioral trap and honestly assess to what extent you may be subject to that performance trap. Later, I will offer tips for how to manage these behaviors and how to create an environment that welcomes, supports, encourages, and develops all employees all the time.
1. Limiting your “inner circle”.Everybody has an inner circle made up of friends, confidants, advisors, and counselors. We trust them to tell us the truth.Our natural tendency is to stick with people who are just like us, so our inner circles are often full of people who think the same way we do. They agree with us and endorse our ideas. The problem is, if we’re all thinking the same way, we can’t compensate for each other’s weaknesses. We end up going down the wrong path and missing information that could lead to better decisions.
2. Believing that “you know how they are.”Stereotyping is a natural and useful mechanism of the human brain. The trap comes when we behave as though the stereotypes are true or representative of your employees’ beliefs or practices. Whether spoken or not, there is a natural tendency to assign a label to an individual and then think, “and you know how they are.”
3. Making up “others’” story. When you encounter a person who may become a part of your work life, based on certain triggers and cues, you may begin to make up a story about them that can easily become (in your mind) their story.
4. Assuming what others want. Since we are comfortable with some situations and uncomfortable with others, you may assume that you can project what others will find comfortable or uncomfortable. That leads to making decisions for them that may or may not represent their desires.
5. Assigning motive to others’ behaviors. Believing you know why someone does what they do. That explanation allows you to support or demonize the other based on what you think is their motive.
6. Neglecting corporate culture (in favor of ethnic culture). In an effort to be seen as diversity friendly, you may be tempted to relax the requirements of your corporate culture to appear to be sensitive to the ethnic culture of others.
7. Perpetuating kind. Selecting the best person for an assignment based on a pre-conditioned sense of what the selected person should look like or is like. In the extreme, this trap results in more than 45% of male senior executives being 6’1’or more in height when less than 10% of men in America are 6’1” or more.
8.Under-managing and over-leading. Avoiding the one-on-one, face-to-face, day-to-day interaction necessary to make sure all persons have what they need to be successful (management) in favor of declaring boldly that diversity is a respected value (leadership).
9. Clumsy communications.That nagging feeling of discomfort when you encounter someone significantly different from you can cause your communication to be clumsy. You are so concerned that you will offend, say the wrong thing, or accidentally disrespect that your natural flow of communication becomes stilted.
10. Acting naturally (failure to pause).Your biases, prejudices, and stereotypes will naturally generate ideas about a person. Left unchecked, those natural ideas will convert to natural behavior. And, acting natural can have unintended consequences.
11. Failure to provide preferential treatment. Every person is unique. Treating everyone the same is unfair. It is a lazy way to manage and will result in many people feeling unappreciated and disrespected.
12. Overlooking the need for “fit”. Arbitrarily hiring or selecting a person based on demographic factors and overlooking the need for a cultural fit to the company will often lead to a drastic mismatch that may lead to early departure (quit and leave) or worse, becoming an unproductive outlier on the team (quit and stay).
13. Managing a type rather than an individual. You want to be a diversity friendly manager so you look for ways to manage “those people” (women, men, minorities, gays, etc.) instead of learning what each individual needs from you as their manager.
14. Seeking harmony. Can’t we just all get along? Attempting to squelch constructive conflict and disagreement in an effort to create a harmonious (however low performing) workplace.
15. Listening with your eyes.Allowing visual cues to affect your impression about the value an individual may bring to the team and to your life. (I don’t know, he seems to know the notes, but he doesn’t look like a traditional French horn player).
16. Not respecting ‘others’. Expecting superior results from a team member you have paid little attention to because you unconsciously don’t expect them to be productive.
17. Avoiding getting to know ‘others’. “I have to be careful about getting too close to her. It could look inappropriate.” Or, “I always feel strange around him. He doesn’t get my jokes and he is too quiet for my taste.”
18. Not assuming competence.Your company hired the people you manage. Someone assumed they could help the business in some way. When they exhibit a pattern of non-performance, you may be tempted to believe it is because they lack the competence to perform. It that is your belief, it will show up in your behavior.
19. Ignoring your biases. It is good to be mindful of the humanity of others. In the process, you should also remember that you, too, are human. As a great manager of diverse people be aware that because you understand human nature does not mean you are immune to it.
20. Denying your ‘blind spots’. People (including you) know what they know and they don’t know what they don’t know. No one else can demand that you know what he or she knows. Be aware that sometimes you miss what is happening simply because you can’t see it. Welcome input from others who can fill in the blanks for you.