Being an Inclusive Leader: What goes into practicing Inclusive Leadership

What makes people feel included in organizations? Feel that they are treated fairly and respectfully, are valued and belong? Many things of course, including an organization’s mission, policies, and practices, as well as co-worker behaviors. But mostly it comes down to leaders.

We find that what leaders say and do makes up to a 70% difference as to whether an individual reports feeling included and valued. And this really matters because the more people feel valued, the more they speak up, go the extra mile, and collaborate, all of which ultimately lifts organizational performance.

Given this formula, inclusive leadership is emerging as a unique and critical capability helping organizations adapt to diverse customers, markets, ideas and talent. A research found that inclusive leaders share a cluster of six signature traits:

1. Visibly Committed: They articulate authentic commitment to diversity, challenge the status quo, hold others accountable, and make diversity and inclusion a personal priority. 
2. Humility: They are modest about capabilities, admit mistakes, and create the space for others to contribute. 
3. Bias Awareness: They show awareness of personal blind spots, as well as flaws in the system, and work hard to ensure a meritocracy. 
4. Curiosity about others: They demonstrate an open mindset and deep curiosity about others, listen without judgment, and seek with empathy to understand those around them.
5. Cultural intelligence: They are attentive to others’ cultures and adapt as required.
6. Effectively collaborate: They empower others, pay attention to diversity of thinking and psychological safety, and focus on team cohesion.

While this might look like a long list, it is also crucial to know which of these traits are the most important one. For this we can look at it from two perspectives, one is that of the leader and the other is that of the employees or peers. For a leader the most critical one out of the six is commitment, because with it, the other five cannot operate fully.

For those working around a leader, such as a manager, direct report or peer, the single most important trait generating a sense of inclusiveness is a leader’s visible awareness of bias. So while all six traits are important and operate as a cluster, a leader’s awareness of personal and organizational biases could be something employees and peers most care about, here is why this could be so.

When a leader “constantly challenges (their) own bias and encourages others to be aware of their pre-conceived leanings” or when a leader seeks insight into their biases by, for example, “[Asking] others to test whether their thought process is biased in any way.” It can bring about a sense of openness, empowerment and open-mindedness for employees, coupled with a sense of acknowledgement.

But this is not all. Employees/team members or peers are not looking for a simple acknowledgment of bias, tinged with a fatalistic sense that little can be done about it. They care about awareness of bias coupled with two additional behaviors:

• Humility: Employees want to see that their leaders are determined to address their biases. Fatalism looks like “Hey, I know I have this prejudice, but whatever, I am what I am”. In contrast, leaders who are humble acknowledge their vulnerability to bias and ask for feedback on their blind spots and habits.
• Empathy and perspective taking: Employees aren’t looking for their leaders to try to understand their viewpoint and experience as a dry intellectual exercise, but empathically. That means understanding others deeply and leaving them feeling heard. The leader’s empathy in interacting with others, makes the leader approachable, trustworthy and shows their eagerness to work with and/or support peers, colleagues and superiors”. 

Humility encourages others to share their feedback while Empathy and perspective taking gives people hope that a leader cares about them and takes their views into account, rather than barreling on with preconceptions or a narrow set of ideas about their perspectives. Moreover, it creates a sense of personal connection between leaders and a diverse set of stakeholders, making it easier to make and implement shared decisions.

Putting these inclusive traits to work

How can leaders put these insights into practice? One tactic is to establish a diverse a group of people, often peers, who have regular contact with the leader and whom the leader trusts to talk straight. These trusted advisers can give leaders granular feedback on everyday interpersonal behaviors that support or inhibit inclusion, for example: Does the leader give equal time to all meeting participants, or favor those who are co-located over those who have dialed in? Does the leader always refer to one gender when giving examples or both? Does the leader use a broad spectrum of imagery when addressing a diverse audience, or imagery (such as sport metaphors or all male iconography) that represents only one group of people? Leaders can receive feedback on whether the changes they make are hitting the mark.

A second tactic is for leaders to share their learning journey about recognizing and addressing biases. We have seen leaders do this by discussing their 360 assessment results with their manager, speaking at a town hall about their growth, during which they or a team member identify what they have learned about diversity and inclusion. These actions express humility, help leaders to test and build on their insights and role model the importance of humility in addressing biases.

A third tactic is for leaders to immerse themselves in uncomfortable or new situations which expose them to diverse stakeholders, for example by attending an employees work committee meeting (or similar ones), or sitting in different parts of the workplace each week. Exposure, combined with open-ended questions, helps to expand horizons and disrupt pre-conceived ideas.

Inclusive leadership is a critical capability to leverage diverse thinking in a workforce with increasingly diverse markets, customers, and talent. Becoming more aware is critical to self-development, but awareness in isolation is not sufficient. Without humility and empathy/perspective taking, it’s difficult for leaders to gain deep insights into the nature of their blind spots or remedial strategies and, therefore, to grow.

Leaders who are humble and empathetic will be open to criticism about their personal biases, and greater self-insight into personal limitations prompts greater humility, empathy and perspective-taking. Not only are these behaviors critical for leaders’ personal development, they also serve to make others feel more included along the way. Which of course is the whole idea of inclusive leadership.