Leadership Skills

What is Diversity

Diversity is about what makes us different from the other people around us. Those differences include race, gender, age, ethnic group, education, income, lifestyle, social class, personality, learning style, job title, body type, hair color, etc. Realistically, there are few, if any, situations where we are identical to everyone around us. Even twins have slight differences.

How can your team take advantage of diversity? Simply by acknowledging that there are differences, and then finding individual strengths that can be leveraged. Consider these marketing examples that could have benefited from diverse thinking:

The Chevy Nova was marketed in Mexico, but unfortunately Nova translated to “no go.”
When Clairol introduced their “Mist Stick” curling iron in Germany, they discovered that “mist” is slang for poop.
Gerber marketed their baby foods in Africa with the same packaging as in the U.S.; however, in Africa, companies put pictures of the contents on the package because many people cannot read.
Gerber also had a problem in France because “gerber” translated as “to vomit.”
Pepsi used the “Pepsi bring you back to life” slogan when they took their products to China. Unfortunately, the translation is “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.”
Also in China, KFC’s “finger-lickin’ good” slogan translated to “eat your fingers off.”
Coors “Turn it loose” slogan translated to “Suffer from diarrhea” in Spain.
UPS trucks in Spain resembled hearses, so they were repainted. In Germany, the UPS drivers’ uniform color was changed because of the connection to the “brown shirts” of WWII.

While the examples above are from companies not doing their research before marketing in foreign countries, these types of errors are similar to the ones we make if we do not take diversity into consideration. By sharing our thoughts and ideas with those who are “unlike” us, we are able to gain a broader perspective and create better ideas.
Many of us have stereotypes about people based on our experiences. Valuing diversity allows us to have new, unbiased experiences without being burdened by how things were in the past. To build on your teams’ strengths, ask questions.

What skills are needed?
What individual strengths do we have?
What makes your team unique?
What questions have we not asked?
What might we be missing?

Encourage your team members to take different perspectives because if everyone is agreement, you will be making decisions in a silo. If you have quiet members on your team, ask them to share their thoughts, and then be supportive. If you negate thoughts, that will encourage the quiet members to remain quiet.

Leading & Motivating
Home Page

Velda Arnaud, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Lead, Educate, Serve Society
leadeducateserve@gmail.com