Diversity in the Workplace

By Paul Davis, Diversity Consultant

Navigating through a diverse employee work force can be a crucial task to sustain peace at the workplace and a pleasurable environment to achieve productivity. Corporate leaders need to be both firm and gentle when speaking to subordinates to avoid offence and be efficient. Tactfulness, delicacy, and diplomacy are things rarely taught in University.

The goal of a diversity consultant and cross-cultural coach is to cultivate and celebrate difference, empower diversity, elegantly transcend barriers that divide, and bring people together in affinity to achieve increased work productivity.

Here below are a few questions I am often asked and the answers I give.

How do you encourage diversity in the workplace?

1. Encourage and celebrate difference in the workplace.

2. Embrace disagreement as an opportunity to learn various perspectives.

3. Show tolerance and unconditional acceptance even when you disagree.

What place do mentoring and affinity programs have and why are they important?

1. Mentoring programs are important because they cultivate self-awareness and personal development resulting in increased job performance.

2. Affinity programs encourage individuality and diversity, while allowing people to feel safe and accepted by like minded people in the work environment. This builds and nurtures a sense of family which increases productivity.

How does your workplace or company encourage diversity and advancement of minorities?

1. Social and cultural outings that enlarge your heart to happily embrace your world.

2. Empower and give place to minority leaders to speak and address diversity issues.

3. Hear from minorities on matters important to them within the workplace.

How do you encourage professional and personal growth among minorities?

1. Ask them what challenges they face and how we can help.

2. Listen and collaborate with them in coming up with creative ideas to solve problems.

3. Empower, entrust, and financially support minorities to take initiative.

Recognizing the need to behave properly and conduct ourselves professionally at the workplace is easy. It's challenging inherent assumption, having a paradigm shift regarding presumptions, and changing our hearts to become inclusive that is the hard part. Because what is deeply rooted in us will eventually surface.

Transformation requires time and dedication as we address inward concerns and challenges that are often unspoken until a time of tension. If we can facilitate transformation of the heart and mind before the tense time, we can cultivate peace of mind and diffuse hostility and preserve valuable productivity.

Paul Davis is a highly sought after professional speaker, diversity consultant, and cross-cultural coach building bridges professionally across the corporate world to achieve greater productivity.

Paul Davis
Level: Platinum

Paul Davis is a highly sought after keynote speaker, consultant, life coach (relational & professional), change master, turnaround specialist, minister, mediator, liberator, and dream-maker. Paul's...