How You Can Help Diverse Teams Achieve Project Success

For a team to be successful, they need to work together well. Conflicts can harm outputs, increasing the odds of a project’s failure.

While having a diverse team is incredibly beneficial, as differing perspectives and experiences can lead to innovation, bringing together a variety of personalities can also lead to conflicting opinions. When many different opinions are brought into the equation, it’s up to the manager or team leader to synergize those ideas into the best viable solution for the project at hand.

Even if conflicts don’t arise, different people often require different forms of motivation. They typically have their own unique preferences, priorities, and previous experiences, and learning how to use what makes them different to bolster success is essential.

Whether you handle your hiring internally or take advantage of an innovative solution to hiring such as Talent Direct from nTech, here are some tips for managing diverse teams to achieve project success.

Get to Know Your Employees

If you want to bring out the best in your team, it’s vital you understand who they are as individuals. What skills does each person bring to the table? What tasks excite them? Are there activities that drive them crazy? Do they have experience on similar projects? Do they have expectations of their team members that need to be addressed?

By spending some time learning about your team, you can figure out what talents they possess, what tasks naturally motivate them, and how they can make the best contribution to the project team. This can make it easier to determine what duties should be assigned to each employee, allowing you to make the most of their skills while simultaneously inspiring them to perform and mitigating conflict.

Use Continuous Feedback

For an employee to be successful, they need to know what they are doing right as well as what they are doing wrong. Holding these details in until performance review time is inefficient, as it doesn’t allow the worker to adjust their approach at the moment to benefit the project.

When you tell an employee what they are doing right, you give them a clear path that allows them to continue meeting or exceeding your expectations. They won’t have to second-guess whether those actions were appreciated or preferred, as they will know how you viewed them. If you choose to share these points in front of the team, you also give other workers valuable information that may improve their efforts.

Similarly, by providing an employee with constructive, direct criticism, you empower them to make adjustments quickly. You can stave off larger problems by correcting small issues early in the process, ensuring they don’t compound into something harder to fix. Corrections should always be delivered privately, as receiving negative feedback in front of the group can lead to embarrassment and frustration.

Provide Some Autonomy

Micromanaging is rarely a preferred management style in the eyes of employees. Often, being given a level of freedom and flexibility is beneficial as it shows you trust them to perform to your expectations.

While you may need to outline what needs to be accomplished and set a deadline, once those actions are complete, consider taking a step back and letting your team meet these objectives in a way that suits them. Often, they’ll appreciate your trust and, subsequently, will rise to the occasion.

By following the tips above, you can help your diverse team achieve project success. If you’d like to learn more about managing a diverse workforce, the professionals at nTech can help. Contact us to speak with one of our knowledgeable staff members today and see how our workplace expertise can benefit you.