As a manager, one of the things you're going to be doing is managing teams. And it's not true that there's no I in team because the power of a team comes from a diversity of its individuals. So consequently, the first and arguably most important thing to do, if you have the chance to select a team is to select for diversity. And whether you can select your team or not, you may be given a team and have to deal with the people you've got. The next thing you can do is to understand the strengths of each individual so that you can play to those strengths. You can harness them and you can maximize the effective diversity of the team you've got because each of us have different professions.

Ways of dealing with situations we have different aptitudes and skills, were intelligent in different ways to get the best out of your team, another important thing to do is to make sure you create an environment of respect where everyone in the team is respectful of each other, regardless of the differences, skills, aptitudes, and levels of knowledge that they bring. And part of the reason for this, is that we know that if you were to take a team of experts and substitute one of those experts, but an outsider who has no expertise, no prior knowledge in the subject. That's he will actually perform better in terms of problem solving and decision making, as long as that outsider is treated with respect and that intelligent question And comments and observations are entertained fully, and responded to well, by the team. The final thing is to give your team raw information rather than processed information when they're trying to solve problems or make decisions.

And the reason for this is that whoever processes the information, whatever means they have of selecting information, analyzing it and presenting it. All of those things, the selection, the analysis and the presentation. Introduce bias. teams work at their best when individuals with diverse abilities are able to make their own assessment of which information is relevant, how to interpret it, and how to present it to their colleagues in the debate, so you will get far better problem solving you'll get far better decision making when the team has access The raw information rather than processed information. And it's not a coincidence that the US Army has apparently banned the use of PowerPoint presentations in any meeting, which is required to make a decision, because the choice of information and how it's presented can bias the discussion. So my four tips for a new manager working well to get the best of your team are Firstly, select for diversity.

Secondly, encourage and use the strengths of each of your team members in different skills and aptitudes they have. Thirdly, create an environment where the team is respectful of one another. And this can often simply mean good, effective processes for ensuring that people are listened to and responses are couched in an appropriate manner. And finally, give your team access to the raw information. from which to draw their conclusions, to have their discussions and to make their decisions.