4 Segments of Inclusive Leadership

It is now well accepted that creating an inclusive culture starts at the top, with a critical mass of leaders’ role modelling inclusion.

And here lies the challenge. What constitutes inclusive leadership – beyond awareness of bias - is often not well understood. Moreover, it is often hard for leaders to see their own shadow and understand the impact of their behaviours on others. Indeed, research by Deloitte shows that leaders often overestimate how inclusive they are, which can lead them to be less vigilant and intentional on a day-to-day basis.

To help address this knowledge gap, we present a new model of inclusive leadership - the Inclusive Leadership Hallmark. As its name suggests, this model orients leaders' attention towards the four critical sites of influence and action, helping them role model inclusion more intentionally across different leadership contexts. Importantly, when applied as a 360-assessment tool, the model allows leaders to understand their shadow, including any blind spots, and to make changes to their behaviours to better harness the diversity of their people for improved performance.

Traits of Highly Inclusive and Effective Leaders:

Broadly speaking, inclusive leadership is a new approach to leading whereby an individual’s belief in the social and economic importance of diversity motivates them to focus energy on adapting to and empowering diverse talent, as well as harnessing people’s differences to create value.

More specifically, our research shows that inclusive leaders exhibit four practices which span the related but distinct dimensions of self, others, team and organization:

1. Embrace difference (Self)

2. Empower diverse talent (Others)

3. Enable diverse thinking teams (Teams)

4. Embed diversity and inclusion across the organization (Organization)

Embrace difference (Self)

The path to inclusive leadership starts with the leader themselves - the personal values, beliefs and attributes that influence their motivation and ability to behave inclusively in an authentic and sustained way.

These include strong egalitarian views and a belief in the value of difference, along with a willingness to subordinate their self-interest for the benefit of others where required. They also include personal attributes such as an openness to different people, ideas and change more broadly; a high degree of self-awareness enabling adaptation and self-regulation; and humility, with their preparedness to be vulnerably promoting connectivity, learning and growth.

Empower Diverse Talent (Others)

The mounting expectation toward a "more human kind of leadership" is deeply rooted in how inclusive leaders relate with others.

At a foundation level, inclusive leaders treat people with dignity and respect - regardless of their differences - and exert considerable effort to self-regulate their own biases and treat others fairly. They view their employees through a very human lens, understanding their uniqueness and career aspirations, and demonstrating genuine concern for their well-being.

Driven by the goal to help diverse talent thrive, inclusive leaders also encourage autonomy and delegate decision-making authority to people, balancing this with their availability for consultation on problems when the need arises.

Enable Diverse Thinking Teams (Team)

Inclusive leadership is often thought of through an individual lens and concerning the inclusion of diverse employees. As we describe above, this is a critical dimension. However, with the shift towards teams and the value inherent in harnessing their collective intelligence, a focus on leading diverse groups is equally important.

Inclusive leaders recognize this and focus on inspiring a sense of shared purpose across diverse team members. They lean into their personal attributes of humility and curiosity to create an environment of psychological safety where members feel safe to speak up with ideas, concerns, questions or mistakes. Inclusive leaders are skilled facilitators enabling the constructive exchange of different views: managing dominant voices and encouraging quieter ones, coaxing creative abrasion while avoiding unproductive conflicts.

Understanding their role as coaches and the dynamic nature of leadership itself, inclusive leaders also support team members in becoming more inclusive themselves. For example, they set clear standards of acceptable behaviour, create opportunities for dialogue about differences and facilitate capability development.

Embed Diversity & Inclusion Across the Organization

To unlock its full potential, diversity and inclusion must run through the core of the organization, with business systems aligned to enable and sustain the cultural shifts required.

Knowing this, inclusive leaders step up and use their power to challenge the status quo, influencing the creation of new systems and structures that reinforce the centrality of diversity and inclusion to the organization's purpose and business strategy. For example, they articulate a compelling vision, emphasizing inclusion as a fundamental organizational value. Similarly, they integrate diversity and inclusion into business reporting and accountability measures and work to ensure these aspects are important considerations in talent-related processes. In addition, inclusive leaders and managers are visible advocates for flexibility across the organization.

Final remarks

There is a groundswell of support for more inclusive workplaces globally. However, change only happens when leaders take action. The first step is understanding what inclusive leadership means and how inclusive they are perceived to be by the people they lead. Armed with this insight, leaders can more intentionally leverage their strengths and address their gaps, moving themselves, their teams and their organizations towards true inclusivity.

Looking for DEIB based leadership assessment toolkit? Connect with us!

UpgradeHRM is the leading provider of a unified D&I platform with its state-of-the-art Integrated D&I - Business Impact Model. Globally, successful enterprises rely on UpgradeHRM's industry-recognized high-impact platform to develop and deploy complex, strategy-driven, and employee-engaging business applications. We unlock inclusive workplace culture with speed and agility for organizational change and cultural diversity transformation. We use evidence-based methods with scalable strategies and effective tools to transform an organization's culture and people while linking its DE&I strategy with the business. We offer continued education and business opportunities to DEIB enthusiasts through our online certifications and masterclasses.

Categories: : Inclusive Leadership