Diversity Training: How to Get Along with All Your Employees

Leaders frequently ask me why they can’t get along with certain employees in the workplace.  The answer that most often comes up after some exploration is that they are interacting with others based on reactions, assumptions and behaviors that don’t yield positive results.

Many  leaders and managers get along with certain employees at work because their peresonality and actions make sense to them in some way.  That connection is usually based on the examples the observed in their families, social circles and workplaces.  They have no problem getting along with the people they understand but, if someone doesn’t fit their view of the world, it’s a whole different story.

So how can you get along with all your employees instead of just a select few?  When I facilitate diversity training we talk about building self-awareness, which is the key to getting along with others.

Self-awareness is the act of knowing yourself well and how your thoughts and behaviors affect you and others.  It's an ongoing process focused on feeling comfortable with yourself and the people around you in the workplace.  When you understand who you are and how you affect others you tend to make positive choices regarding workplace interactions.  If you don’t know yourself very well or don’t like yourself you'll tend to attract people who reinforce those perspectives or behave in a similar way.  The idea is to understand our thoughts and behaviors and become healthy so we can attract healthy people into our work lives and create positive workplaces. 

There really is no special skill required to get along with others at work, it just takes feeling better about yourself first.  What’s been demonstrated time after time is that healthy people attract other healthy people and build happier workplaces.

Connecting with a diverse group of people takes some work on getting yourself as healthy as possible and practicing positive behaviors in the workplace.  You'll feel great when you and your employees get along well and get more done.  You'll also get to show everyone how great you are.  What will you do to connect with everyone in your workplace?

Take care,

Guy
Diversity Training, Effective Communication and Team Building