Enhancing Leadership In Diverse Workforces

Introduction

In the recent era of globalisation, there is increasing numbers of diverse workforces across the multinational corporate firms, where the leaders and managers aim at managing the diverse workforce and strong talent pool for successful achievement of the organisational objectives (Shresha and Taylor, 2017). The study aims at reviewing own practice and team development activities where it would possible to assess the strengths of myself and identify the areas of improvement. So that it would be possible for the individual to lead the team and contribute positively by working in a diverse team.

Own role and contribution

In the diverse team work, I am playing a crucial role by taking active part in the midterm project and the class activities. For me, it is necessary to participate efficiently and gather more knowledge and skill for further improvement. I try to attend the class activities and encourage more question answer session to interact with others and ensure an active class work for gaining more deep insight about the project activities. After gathering the in depth skill and knowledge, I also try to take active initiative to lead the diverse team work so that the project aim can be established. The midterm project needs to be completed efficiently, where it is necessary for me to participate efficiently and fulfil the project activities strategically. In this regard, I also try to manage the workforce efficiently in order to manage the people and lead them towards project completion. My role is also to monitor the team progress and the project activities so that it would be easier for me to control the team work and lead the people towards a successful achievement of the project.

Issues related to cultural differences

Working in the diverse workforce is difficult for the people in order to rising conflicts among the team members. It is difficult for the manager to develop strong cooperation among the team members to perform better collaboratively (Ravazzani, 2016). Hereby, the major issues in the diverse workforce are lack of cooperation and poor communication for which the members sometime fail to meet the project aim and objectives. Moreover, there are other issues in the diverse workforce which are internal conflicts and resistance to change, where the people are not satisfied with their co-workers and internal conflicts arises (Chidiac, 2018). The resistance to change is also another major issue where due to cultural diversity and lack of cooperation, the employees resist accepting change at during the project. Other problems related to the diverse workforce are lack of management, poor integrity and respect for each other, language gap among the employees and lack of trust and corporate bonds. These are the major issues for which the team members may suffer in working in the diverse workforce to complete the project successfully.

Strategies to overcome the problems in the diverse team

It is mandatory for the people to overcome the issues related to working in the culturally diverse workforce. The leader must focus on arranging cultural training program to improve understanding among the people bout each other’s culture. The organisational culture is also necessary to be developed to support the workers in the team (Ozgen, Nijkamp and Poot, 2017). The leader and managers must cooperate with all of them and improve communication so that they can understand the working practice. The managers also need to share the information and give equal opportunity to the workers so that the workers can feel valued in the team. For the team members it is also necessary to communicate with each other though there is cultural diversity among the members (Khawam, DiDona and Hernández, 2017; Ravazzani, 2016). Rather than increasing confusion and internal conflicts, it is also mandatory for the team members to discuss the issue with others and make fruitful decision to work cooperatively. Contribution of the members in rising communication and improving cooperation are also effective for mitigating the issues related to cultural diversity. Moreover, the members need to give respect each other and improve partnership working practice through developing trust and corporate bonding which further help the team members to cooperate with each other and work efficiently by mitigating the internal issues in the diverse workforce.

Leadership experience

For leading the team members towards achieving success, it is necessary to develop proper leadership style and in this regard, transformational leadership style is effective for the leader to convince the team members and encourage them to work in the culturally diverse team (Western, 2019). In the present project, it is also beneficial for the leader to develop transformational leadership skill, through inspiring the people in the workplace as well as managing organisational culture and developing strong bonding with the individuals (Roberson, 2019). I as a team member in the project, try to develop my leadership skill, where I try to manage the diverse workforce through developing strong bonding with them. I try to inspire them and manage them as well through improving internal communication, discussion among the employees, managing the team commitment and motivating them in leading the project successfully. I also aim at managing the individuals in the diverse team through developing partnership working practice, where I try to encourage people’s creativity to lead the project as well as motivate them as well to archive future success. On the other hand, situation leadership style is also effective for leading the diverse team members, where supportive and directive behaviour of the leader is contributing in achieving the project aim (Tompos and Ablonczy-Mihályka, 2018). I this context, I also try to support all the team members and help them to mitigate internal conflicts and encourage them for better performance. Additionally, I also try to direct them by sharing the project activities and sharing the important information so that they are interested to perform as a team and contribute positively to achieve the project success. I am efficient to cooperate with all the members and create values for the through continuous support, monitoring their performance, giving them advice and inspiring them for better performance.

Belbin’s team role

As per the Belbin’s team role, the roles are team workers coordinator, resource investigator, plant, monitor, specialist, shaper, implementer and finisher (Bolman and Deal, 2017). In this regard, the roles are effective to develop strong team work in a divers working culture (Salas and Bisbey, 2019). I try to follow the roles in order to manage the adverse workforce and improve my leadership skill for better performance. I try to investigate the resources and monitor the performance so that it would be possible to improve contribution of each member. I also observe that I am efficient to implement the plan as well as efficient in team worker and coordinator, where I try to cooperate with each member for better collaborative working practice. I try to give complement to each other through appraising them, improving recognition at workplace, creating values for the staff which further helps me to manage the team members and achieve future success by contributing productively in the project.

Own strength

My own strengths are,

• Cooperative
• Open minded
• Problem solving skill
• Understanding other people
• Strong personality trait
• Emotional intelligence

I try to develop strong bonding with all the team members at the diverse workforce, through utilising my personality trait and emotional intelligence. I try to understand the perspective of the worker at the team and try to convince them to perform better cooperatively. I also aim at inspiring them through cooperation and developing collaborative working practice. This is also effective for me to work in the diverse team and manage the members for better performance. Apart from that, I am good in problem solving skill, where I try to solve the internal problems and understand the project activities for better achievement. Through problem solving skill, I also support the team members to perform efficiently and achieve the future success. Open the other hand, respecting other members, positive body language, fair treatment and encouraging all of them are also my strengths where I try to manage the diverse workforce to achieve future success.

Areas of improvement

It is necessary for me to improve my skill and efficiencies to perform better in the diverse workforce, and the areas required to develop are,

• Communication skill
• Analytical skill
• Decision making skill

I try to improve my communication skill as well as critical analytical skill and decision making skill, so that it would possible for me to represent the information in front of others as well as develop suitable decision where all the members can perform better and complete the project successfully.

Conclusion

Managing diverse workforce is challenging for me where I try to utilise my leadership skill, convincing power, and relationship building activities, cooperative manner as well as emotional intelligence and personality trait to lead the people towards achieving future success. For better personal and professional development I would like to improve my critical analysis skill as well as decision making skill and communication skill to improve my efficiency to work in the diverse workforce and lead the members towards success.

Reference List

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