How to manage differences for a smooth working relationship

Members of staff should be made to appreciate differences. PHOTO | FOTOSEARCH 

By PHILIP VARGHESE

More by this Author

Summary

• Over the years, process improvements have transformed the way people require to engage.
• Inspirational leaders/managers supposedly ensure target setting with shared decisions.
• In the event differences are seen as enriching, rather than as in opposition to each other, the two heads will indeed be likely to come up with a better solution than either one alone.

Managing differences is a relevant situation everyone would encounter within their respective work premises.

We witness business managers/owners who have turned obsolete within a modern engaging environment, but nevertheless they cling to their jobs for dear life, by digressing from a relevant leadership role, to a role of misusing their position of power.
The fallacy of ‘I’ set targets, ‘I’ take the decision is an integral part of their engagements within organisations.  It’s the ‘I’ that holds supreme, and there is no one like me’. Such individuals have run out their bandwidth, and neither are they able or eager to foster team building.
Such dysfunctional individuals/managers are always geared towards meeting their self-centred requirements. They also stand to be on an advantage by evolving process maps, designed selfishly to suit their primitive ways. However, it is incredibly difficult for such individuals to realise or conceive how different issues look from someone else’s perspective.
Over the years, process improvements have transformed the way people require to engage. With such change has come an equally broad transformation, which self-centred managers require to subscribe to. Top-down autocrats are slowly being given a window seat, and bottom-up teams are being seen as the dawn of a new business order that would ensure cohesive, congruent and collaborative team formats.
Inspirational leaders/managers supposedly ensure target setting with shared decisions.
Inclusive approaches within a working environments, instils togetherness, a belonging, a meaning and purpose in assignments.

The challenge to manage differences are twofold:
To be able to step out of one’s own perspective and understand how others accept target settings. There may be many different perspectives that require to be understood, rather than force others to understand’Building an appreciative work environment amongst those involved in the task, showcasing importance of all the different perspectives held by everyone else.
Underlying sources of dfferences are personality, work culture, responsibilities, expectations, national culture, values and experience
MANAGING DIFFERENCE FOR ENRINCHMENT
“Two heads are better than one” given that two heads often represent a richer set of experiences and they can bring to bear on the problem from a  greater variety of insights.
In the event differences are seen as enriching, rather than as in opposition to each other, the two heads will indeed be likely to come up with a better solution than either one alone.
To manage differences within the team, we need to:
Make team members aware of the differences that may arise.Encourage them to appreciate differences.Resolve differences constructively for the purpose of improving team performance and increasing creativity.
We could often achieve (1) and (2) by having staffs participate in team workshops. It is often worth getting an experienced facilitator to help to plan and deliver a workshop, focusing on the types of differences. Resolving differences constructively. Number three is an on-going process.