One of the first things I did when setting up Born For This was look to see what other groups were representing and supporting women in business in Dublin. After searching the internet, I found the Dublin City Women in Business Network, run by the Local Enterprise Office (LEODC Women in Business), and immediately felt that I had found my tribe. Like-minded women working together to build each other up.
LEODC Women in Business Network works to support women business owners from startup and throughout the growth of their business. They utilise weekly “Coffee Zoom” meet-ups, monthly newsletters and frequent networking events.
Joining is easy and affordable and gave me immediate access to all the available resources and events. Instagram: @leodcwomeninbusiness
Dr Lucy Michael, lucymichael.ie presented at the most recent “Coffee Zoom” with a talk and Q&A on “How an inclusive mindset can help your business”. Lucy spoke of the importance of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion when building a resilient and strong business, in terms of your team, your suppliers and your customers. Some of the benefits highlighted were high levels of education in different fields, alternative individual experience, understanding of other cultures, markets and customer needs. All of which helps to open-up the team’s ideas, options and creativity.
Having developed and grown teams in different companies over the years, the importance and benefits of team diversity is something I have seen firsthand many times. Some people are of the opinion, that to have a strong team, all members of the team must be the same – look the same, have the same mind set, work the same (e.g. technical teams should be made up of white, men with educations in specific technical disciplines; Nurses should be middle aged females with a desire to care for others…the stereotypes are endless). From my experience, this couldn’t be further from the truth. Sameness tends to result in closed thinking and the “we’ve always done it this way” kind of mentality, which has proven to be counterproductive to growth and innovation.
Diverse teams, made up of people with different backgrounds, knowledge bases, cultures and experience allow the team to utilise a more extensive experience-base, to be more explorative, more creative and more dynamic. Don’t get me wrong, managing a diverse team isn’t always easy. You need to be aware of the differences and the similarities between team members. With this knowledge you provide your team with a common focus, strong team identity, unified team goals and a willingness to work together to achieve these goals.
The keys to managing your team’s success are open, clear communication, mutual respect and mutual accountability. These tools are especially important if the team is diverse. Team members need to have an appreciation for what each of their colleagues brings to the table and how their skill sets can complement and build on each other. This level of understanding helps create a unified, strong and dynamic team.
There are many excellent books and articles on how best to manage your team from Patrick Lencioni’s Five Dysfunctions of a Team to David Clutterbuck’s Coaching the Team at Work to Peter Hawkins’ 5 Disciplines of High Performing teams.
Born For This provides coaching for managers/team leads on how best to manage your team. For your team we provide Team Coaching sessions to help your team shift the barriers restricting their progress and performance.
For more information on team coaching, feel free to contact me through our contact page.
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