HRHeadStart #57: Importance of Inclusion; Networking Skills; Self-Doubt

The Talent Agenda

One of the biggest goals all companies chase is sustainable growth, which is a function of how well the company innovates and differentiates in the marketplace. There are multiple factors which drive an organization’s ability to innovate and one of them is diversity in its talent pool.

Diversity enables nonlinear novel thinking, taking multi-faceted perspectives on products/customers and well-rounded decision-making. A BCG study used, as an indicator of innovation, the portion of revenue from products and services launched within the last 3 years. Companies with above-average diversity produced a greater proportion of revenue from innovation (45% of total) than from companies with below average diversity (26%). This 19% innovation-related advantage translated into overall better financial performance.

However, diversity alone is not enough. While diverse teams tend to outperform and out-innovate homogeneous teams, they can also at times be significantly less effective. Diversity, if not activated through an inclusive workplace, can cause chaos.

Managing people with different backgrounds, ideas and behaviors requires real empathy and skill—much more so than when everyone in the team shares similar backgrounds and experiences. Inclusive leadership becomes vital.

Dive in deeper into building inclusive management practices.

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Working Better

As they say, your network is your net worth. But building networks is hard and deliberate work. How do we build networks which go beyond the transactional and evolve into meaningful ‘give and get’ relationships? Hear from Adam Grant from Wharton on how to get better at networking. He has also put together a helpful set of questions to help you reflect on how you network.

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Tiny Thought

In every endeavour in life, we have to choose between energy and self-doubt.