Strengthening workplace relationships is the key to better business outcomes. There will always be challenges in how we can maintain a diverse workforce, as it powerfully influences the team’s trust and motivation. Building a more personal connection with your coworkers is extra complex than ever in today's environment of hybrid offices and remote organizations. How do you establish trust, and how do you keep up with each’s uniqueness? Will it cause disparity and disconnect or help improve teamwork? “Teamwork makes the dream work” is a common remark that has a lot to unpack.
Individual Differences
We're all unique, and our differences can lead to a variety of perspectives, which can promote dynamism and innovation. Even though it is a sure path to an even more successful work product and services, it can also cause disunity among the teammates, it is a matter of discretion on how we let diversity impacts us. Differences are rooted in many reasons and here are a few; unconscious biases, communication styles, social methods, generational learning, and working pattern.
Think of the first-given reason, we perceive to like a person who is similar to us, it is assumed that you can function better with someone familiar to how we are as an individual, thus unintentional prejudices.
Now, of course, we expect others will communicate the same way we communicate to them. Comprehensibility, how information was conveyed in the manner we anticipate, and what are the things they talk about, are just a few of the grounds that may cause a communication breakdown or prosperity.
With social styles, we have the amiable, expressive, analytical, and driver, you’d more likely group yourself into which you fall within.
At last, different generations, different working and learning styles. Commonly, the older and younger generations clash on how things are perceived and how they should be done. All these gaps are learning curves of how we can transform obstacles to be beneficial for the business. Build on what makes the team different, build on that complementarity.
Trust and Motivation
An outstanding team requires a high level of trust and goal-oriented behavior. Trust and motivation are big words, so to simplify things, let’s start with motivation. Daniel Pink has broken it down into three elements. Autonomy is the desire to direct our own lives, purpose—the aspiration to do things in service of something bigger than yourself—and master, the thirst to look for ways to improve yourself.
Trust, on the other hand, was portioned into seven factors by Brene Brown; boundaries are referred to as the clear limitations of what’s okay, what’s not, and why. Reliability is for what people promised to deliver. Accountability represents the ability to own up to our mistakes. Vault is described to be the exclusivity of the information entrusted to you. Integrity is choosing what’s right at all times. Non-judgment pertains to helping and seeking assistance while still feeling at ease and generosity is having the best intentions in the relationship.
What’s the best approach?
Respect differences, embrace possibilities, and be accountable. Learning is movement from moment to moment, differences should not be a hindrance to the continuous expansion of knowledge obtained from one another. Diversity and inclusion are fundamental to enriching the employee’s experience and strong teams start within the individual—us, you. Celebrate differences and it will reward the business with absolute growth.
Key Topics:
Trust and Motivations Definitions
Elements of Motivation·
Elements of Trust
Psychological Safety vs Trust
Intrapersonal and Interpersonal
Individual Differences
Theories X and Y by Douglas McGregor
Building Team Psychological Safety