Intro
Reflection exercise
Read the case study below
Monica is a driven woman and a new member of the team. Monica is bisexual and is very open about this. She fits into the team well and is an important asset, with years of experience and creativity. However, Monica does not feel completely welcome in the team. Some colleagues repeatedly comment on her sexual orientation and she is hardly involved in informal team activities. Monica raises this with her line manager, but he laughs it off and says that she should not worry: “After all, you’re still new, but you’ll find your place soon enough.”
Discussion
There is diversity in this team, but absolutely no inclusion. In addition, the leadership style of the manager promotes negative behaviour. The manager pays little attention to the needs of the individual team members or the cooperation dynamics.
Think about the social dynamics within your own organisation.
- What negative behaviours do you recognise in this casestudy?
- How far removed are they from the reality of your organisation?
- How would such a situation be addressed within your organisation?
Good practices
- Pay attention to an employee as a person. Always treat them with dignity and respect. Focus on maintaining sufficient contact with employees: talk, listen and give feedback.
- Focus on collaboration and pay attention to mutual relationships. Align processes, ensure a clear division of tasks and roles and do not allow relational conflicts to escalate.
- Make sure the employees are motivated and focus on autonomy, involvement and competencies.
- Ensure clear guidelines and adequate structure, including in terms of desired behaviours, values and norms. This is important, especially when employees end up in stressful situations.
- As an organisation, it is important that the policy on diversity and inclusion seeps through to the work floor in a sufficient and transparent manner, so that managers can also promote this policy to their employees.
- Help convey the welfare policy within the organisation. Again, the manager plays an important key role here. For example, be aware of signs of psychosocial distress among employees and talk to them when you notice signs of stress.
- As a manager, regularly evaluate your own approach and be open to feedback from others.
Reflection exercise
Think back to the Monica and her manager who we discussed earlier.
- How could Monica’s manager have handled the situation differently? Keep the previous tips in mind.
- How could your organisation support a manager in applying the above tips?
- Are the procedures within your organisation clear enough, with a manager knowing how to react when an employee is behaving in an undesirable way?