I pondered this today while I sat in our team staff meeting. As I looked around the table I was amazed how the diversity of who we are as people. We all come from so many different backgrounds which contribute to form who we are. Although we are all different, we have a common goal to support the Rescue Mission, each other and the clients we serve. The diversity of each individual team member contributes to the importance of our success.
As a leader it is imperative to have people around you with diverse strengths. Many leaders struggle with this concept. They choose team members that are most like them. Unfortunately this sets them up for a long road ahead. For example, one of my strengths, based on Tom Rath's book Strength Finder 2.0 is Positivity. Meaning I always try to create a positive environment wherever I am. Understanding this personally, my limitation is that I can be so overwhelming positive that I could lose sight of some perspective. Knowing this, it is important that I have people on my team that have a great way of keeping a good perspective.
We as leaders should not look at this as a threat, but a way to helping us achieve great success. Diversity within our team/organization is healthy. It contributes to molding us and shaping our leadership styles.
I have heard many times that, "Leaders are Learners." If that is the case we should always strive to learn from those we surround ourselves with. When we have diverse team members, they can contribute in a way that you personally can't.
I encourage you to look at your team members diverse strengths and how the contribute to success. Strive to set your team up for success, by giving them tasks that are within each strength. This will maximize your team/organization and increase the team/organizations productivity.