You likely have reached a point at some time in your career when your team couldn’t agree on a solution, you reported to someone whose feedback felt outright harsh, or you didn’t feel heard by your co-workers. We likely all have, and may have thought, if they did everything like me, this wouldn’t be a problem. There would be no conflict in the office, decisions would be made faster, and we’d all arrive at the same solutions without outlandish ideas throwing us off track. Wouldn’t it be so much easier if we all just thought exactly the same?
Actually…no. It wouldn’t. It would probably make things a lot harder. And a lot less exciting. The truth is, it would create the product or solution that works for people like you… and not for the other 99% of the world.
In these times, we see the situation all wrong, and as a “problem”, when it’s really an opportunity to leverage individual characteristics and unique traits to do something really great. All of the differences in how we think and communicate, how we’re motivated and lead, how we’re energized and triggered, and so many more, all make up cognitive diversity.
What is cognitive diversity?
This is not diversity based on age, gender, ethnicity, etc. It is the type of diversity that you can’t see. According to Harvard Business Review, “Cognitive diversity has been defined as differences in perspective or information processing styles.” Basically, everyone is different- the way we communicate, lead, process, what we are motivated and energized by, and so on. There is nothing wrong with these differences, they are what makes each of us so unique and valuable, and recognizing that is key to any team.
Why is it important?
Challenging and confusing as it can be, we need teammates to see things differently than we do. We need that person who slows us down to consider possible issues and that person who speeds us up to get something completed. We need the person who draws out ideas, and the person who tells us it’s time to stop talking and make a decision. The person who prioritizes relationships and the person who prioritizes hitting the numbers.
Recognizing and fostering an environment of understanding cognitive diversity is so important in the workplace because it gives you insight into how and why your people work the way they do. Knowing how your people prefer to work and applying this can improve your company culture, and lead to happier employees. Cognitive diversity allows for a variety of thinking, energy, motivation, and leadership styles that will lead to a dynamic, effective, and creative team.
How can you become more successful? Seek diversity and you will find more revenue, higher profitability, more innovation, more trust, and more engagement. Why? Well, according to this Harvard study, it’s actually strongly tied to things beneath the surface that we cannot see — cognitive diversity — the different ways of problem-solving, decision-making, working, and communicating. It is cognitively diverse teams that are the best at solving complex problems in the face of uncertainty.
At the end of the day, it’s these different perspectives that create the work we’re most proud of.
EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT
According to Gallup®, “Only about one in three U.S. workers and 15% globally are engaged,” only one-third. Imagine that statistic representing your organization, maybe it does, kinda scary right? But let’s change that. It could be down to what kind of work your employee is doing when it might not be what they really prefer to do.
Take a look at the insight on the right. If Devon is feeling suffocated in her current tasks, it might be because she was given a project that does not allow her to try creative ideas, or she’s on a team that has a bureaucratic environment. But, Devon does not prefer either of these things, causing her to dread her work. Learning how your employees prefer to work might be the difference between them loving and hating what they do. And ultimately when your people love their work, they will likely be a lot more engaged.
PRODUCTIVITY
We are likely a lot more productive when doing work that leans into our strengths. And, this work will likely be more enjoyable because we are good at it. Take a look at the top strengths of the Cloverleaf team. The team members in Executing will likely work best in checking tasks off a list and getting things done and may feel energized by completing projects. Someone in Influencing might prefer to spend their time telling customers about their product and describing why it would be good for them. A relationship-building team member might be in tune with, well- exactly that! They foster connections in the office and welcoming on new staff, but this does not mean that they don’t like strategic thinking like someone in the top right. They just might be stronger and prefer to spend more time building relationships than analyzing or checking off to-dos.
With cognitive diversity, you will get a wide variety of strengths and viewpoints that will be beneficial and allow for balance and effectiveness. When your people work in areas that allow them to really exercise their strengths, they will likely feel more productive and be more valuable to the team.With cognitive diversity, you will get a wide variety of strengths and abilities that will be beneficial and allow for balance and effectiveness. When your people work in areas that allow them to really exercise their strengths, they will likely feel more productive and be more valuable to the team.
PROBLEM SOLVING
The more diverse your team is in thought, the more perspectives there will likely be, along with solutions to a problem. Harvard Business Review noted,
“There is a familiar saying: “We recruit in our own image…Colleagues gravitate toward the people who think and express themselves in a similar way…organizations often end up with like-minded teams…what psychologists call functional bias — and low cognitive diversity. Functional bias is a problem for teams facing new uncertain and complex situations because, with little cognitive diversity, the team will have limited ability to see things differently, engage in different ways…or create new options.”
Without different trains of thought analyzing a problem, a team might miss something huge that would have been seen if there was someone there with another perspective. Take a look at the Cloverleaf DISC circle. Imagine if the team was only made up of everyone in the Dominance quadrant. If the team was trying to solve a problem, there would probably be a lot of people with more “dominant” behaviors talking over each other and showing why their idea would work and is the solution. But if the team was comprised of those that fall in the Steadiness quadrant, they might not even speak up in fear of stepping on someone else’s toes, and a decision might not be made quickly enough.
None of these quadrants are right or wrong, but it is important to have a team pulling from each of these quadrants to have balanced effectiveness. Perhaps someone from the Steadiness quadrant organizes the meeting to prioritize diversity of thought, and then someone from Conscientiousness can write up the plans. A team member from Dominance will focus on accomplishing goals for whatever solution is reached, and a team member from Influence might talk to a customer about why this solution could help them.
So who thinks differently than you on your team? Let’s take a look! Here’s how:
- Head to your TEAM dashboard
- Look for someone in a different assessment section than you
- Click on their avatar to get insight into how they do their best work
- Take a screenshot of the first insight you see that’s different than you and strikes you as “spot on” that person
- Send them the screenshot, and say thanks for the perspective they bring to the team
It is so vital to have a diverse set of members on a team. If you have 10 of the same person, that will likely lead to a lot of conflict later on, whether it’s disengagement, dry ideas, or poor communication. Cognitive diversity, while not seen, cannot be ignored for a high-performing team.
Are you intrigued on how you can make this happen? Start here.
Whether you want to get a new client started out successfully, or continue to sustain your current clientele, it’s important to have the right coaching skills to help them thrive. Therefore, we want to help you in your effective coaching journey by providing a list of the do’s and don’ts of coaching in the workplace.
DO: ASK OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS
One of our best coaching tips is that asking “yes” and “no” questions will not lead anywhere. If your client does not expand on what they are saying, the conversation may end too quickly and provide no meaningful context to work off or toward goals.
Good example: Ask: what do you find challenging about that? This leaves the conversation open for your coachee to speak on challenges and to expand as much as possible. This also may draw out more than one answer.
Bad example: Ask: do you think that is challenging because of your schedule? Your client may respond yes or no and leave the conversation there. They also may feel as though you are leading them to an answer, causing them to answer favorably. This does not leave room for them to discover problems or solutions on their own.
DO: Build Trust
Without a solid foundation of trust, your client will likely not speak freely about issues and areas of improvement, which will have an impact on their well-being and overall job satisfaction.
Good example: During coaching conversations, be an active listener, ask questions, be empathetic, don’t judge, and focus on your client (meaning don’t get distracted – no one likes meeting with someone who gets distracted by everything in the background and doesn’t make eye contact).
Bad example: Don’t pry into their client’s personal life (unless they want to), and don’t socialize (this could be unprofessional and make you seem like you’re always available).
DO: KNOW THAT EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT
Every person may need to be coached in a slightly different way. This is a learning process. Remember to be flexible and to tailor your approach so you don’t scare them off or underwhelm them. Using Cloverleaf for Coaches as a tool will prepare you with their preferred style of work, communication, conflict, etc.
Good example: A good coach takes time to learn how new clients work, as they will likely all be different.
Bad example: Jump in with the same attitude every time, as this will be accepted differently by different clients.
DON’T: TELL THEM WHAT TO DO
You are not your client, so when they ask you what you would do, know how to change the direction, and act as a leader, don’t just give out directions.
Good example:
Client: “My manager told me to do x task, but that’s not in my job description, so I didn’t do it. Now we have a meeting on Monday. What would you do?”
Coach: “Well, let’s dive deeper into this first. Why do you feel…?”
Bad example:
Client: “My manager told me to do x task, but that’s not in my job description, so I didn’t do it. Now we have a meeting on Monday. What would you do?”
Coach: “I would have done…”
DON’T: TALK MORE THAN YOUR CLIENT DOES
Your coachee should never feel like they are in a lecture or being talked at. So make sure you are asking questions to guide the coaching sessions, but they should also be talking most of the time. Be an active listener and ask follow-up questions. This will allow them to be comfortable with you and reveal underlying issues they are having.
DON’T: TALK ABOUT CLIENTS WITHOUT PERMISSION
You should never be talking about Sally’s work issues with Ryan to mentor him on what he is going through, that’s not right. But, you can pull the same coaching tools from different experiences and use them across clients.
Keep in mind this serves solely as a methodology in your backpack. If a client goes through a certain issue that you feel would serve as a good example, ASK them for permission before you do. If they say no, respect their boundaries.
In summary, remember that to be a great coach you need to ask open-ended questions, build trust, and recognize that everyone is unique.
HELP YOUR LEADERS MOVE FROM A BOSS TO COACH!
Inside you'll learn:
- Strategies for developing essential leadership skills within your managers
- Best practices for communicating and coaching your team
- Insight for navigating conflict and change
- Practical ideas for enhancing teamwork and motivating team members
Where is your organization at in terms of employee engagement? Does your organization have a system for understanding workplace productivity? Answering these few questions may help you better understand where your organization is and explain how higher engagement between employees and managers can result in more employee productivity.
1. Communication Style: How does your organization tailor to different communication styles?
Whether someone responds better to a personal, collaborative style or a task-oriented, right-to-the-point attitude, a manager can tailor their communication to different people around them. According to The Economist, different communication styles are the most frequently cited cause of poor communication at 42%.
Download the Cloverleaf Assessment Guide
- A comprehensive list of the assessments that Cloverleaf offers
- Summary of each assessment and what insights you get
- Anticipated time commitments for each assessment
2. On a scale of 1 to 5, how productive is your business? 5 being maximum productivity and 1 being an unproductive business.
Forbes states that engaged teams have a 17% higher productivity rate than disengaged teams. Remember, productivity does not mean the same thing as time in the office. It is very possible to have a highly productive team that is not overworked or on the cusp of burnout.
3. Work Style: How does your company promote and leverage work-style diversity?
According to this HBR article, bringing different styles into a workspace can create productive friction which results in powerful collaborations that lead to a bump in workplace productivity. Tapping into employees’ different work styles is key whether a team member may be full of ideas and easily brainstorm, follow precise instructions with timelines and responsibilities, or look for opportunities to solve open-ended problems.
4. Motivation: On a scale of 1 to 5, how well are employees’ motivators understood by the organization?
When a manager knows what motivates each employee, they can better inspire performance. Statistically, however, Gallup® claims only 1 out of every 5 employees strongly agrees that their company’s system motivates them. Do you understand what motivates your team members?
5. Conflict Triggers: When was the last time a workplace conflict arose from personality clashes? A month? A day? A week?
As SHRM explains, conflict can be costly as U.S. employees spent 2.8 hours per week dealing with conflict and nearly 10% reported that workplace conflict led to project failure. These can affect the work environment and take away from your team’s productivity.
Whether you think you rated high or low on these questions, it is always good to do a quick check-in to see where you think improvements can be made inside an organization to increase productivity. At Cloverleaf, we believe that motivation, communication style, work style, and conflict triggers are critical to working well together as an organization. This is why we provide Insights focused on these areas. If you are interested in learning more about culture, productivity, and performance, read our research here.
HUMAN SKILL PROGRAMS ARE HITTING LIMITATIONS...
- Close the widening gap between learning and on-the-job application
- Overcome the tension of pausing productivity for development opportunities
- Integrate learning so it is actually in the flow of work
- The evolution of human skill development
- What Automated Coaching™ is and how it works.
David DeSteno, a professor of psychology at Northeastern University and the author of The Truth About Trust: How It Determines Success in Life, Love, Learning, and More wrote a recent story for the HBR about how identifying commonalities on a team can lead to effectiveness. This is a concept that Cloverleaf was founded on. The belief is that the first step towards building anything great is truly understanding the labor force that is working to accomplish the task. According to DeSteno:
"For people to work together, they need to know that both labor and credit will be shared. In short, they need teammates who understand their feelings (i.e. empathy) and care about their wellbeing (i.e. compassion)."
At Cloverleaf, we have built a platform that helps managers discover not only the commonalities but also how the differences that each team member brings to the table contribute to the whole. Cloverleaf also provides a common cultural language that helps team members from different backgrounds celebrate the parts of their collective selves that value the same things and understand the unique markers of their team.
Coming back to Desteno, he says, “when it comes to empathy and compassion, the most powerful tool is a sense of similarity – a belief that people’s interests are joined and, thus, that they’re all on the same team and will benefit from supporting each other.”
He encourages those teams interested in becoming more effective to “take time to learn about team members, find commonalities or shared interests and begin to highlight them in a discussion. Develop a team identity and encourage people to categorize themselves as part of it.“
Kevin Delaney, the co-founder of Quartz an online news site recently wrote about how something weird happened with their startup when they crossed the 150-employee mark in their growth. He mentions that this was an experience that many startups encounter. He writes that once the staff exceeds 150 people, employees are no longer the single, cohesive, culture-reinforcing unit they were during the company’s earliest days.
According to Delaney, one of the more prominent examples of an organization that worked hard to prevent this erosion in commonality and group identity is W.L. Gore & Associates, the maker of Gore-Tex fabric.
“[Gore] has an unconventional approach to managing the changing dynamics that come with growth. The privately held manufacturer, which has over 10,000 employees, generally doesn’t allow the staff at any of its factories to exceed 150 people before building another, self-contained factory next to it. That’s because founder Bill Gore felt that when a unit of workers got big enough, “we decided” became “they decided,” as management writer Gary Hamel, who has studied the company, explains it. Gore understood that workers in a 150-person unit could all know one another, and share a commitment to group goals and values—and that any growth beyond that would change those dynamics.”
At Cloverleaf, we are building solutions to help you manage teams of 5, 150, or 1,000. We understand that teams are constantly evolving as is the culture and the ability to execute a plan. That is why an organizational design tool like Cloverleaf’s is critical to getting the most out of your talent investment.