The Secret Every Inclusive Leader Must Know

I do a lot of speeches on diversity and inclusion, and in every speech I always repeat one thing. I tell my audience that this is not a comfortable talk. It can’t be. I cannot give “fluff” talks, where I pat people on the back and say what a great job they’ve done. Why? Because we are focused on inclusion and inclusion takes hard work. It takes courageous people standing up to say this may be the way we’ve always done it, but here is the way we are going to change it. Because it’s not just about what we do in the workplace; it’s about how we lead it. How we lead it, inclusively.

See, if you’re reading this, then you have the power to be an inclusive leader, in whatever space you lead. You have the ability to transform cultures, to drive inclusion, and to ensure that everyone in the spaces in which you are in has the ability to not just belong, but to succeed. That’s what inclusive leaders do.

Now to understand how to get there, I want to tell you a secret. The most important secret I know about inclusive leadership.

Think of the first five words that come to mind when you think of leader. 

If you’re like most people, you’ll come up with words like “visionary”, “inspirational”, “authority”, "commanding", "expert", "confident", "success", "manage", "power", "motivate". Those are all good words. But now I want you to think of one more. Who are these leaders projecting these characteristics on to? Who is judging whether they are even good leaders or not? Who is driving the innovation? Who is delivering the work? Who is telling the story of their success? Who will be standing with the legacy they leave behind? I’ll tell you who.

People. 

See, as an inclusive leader, you need to remember this secret about leadership. It's not just about direction, or vision, or goals, or inspiration. All of that is important, but none of that matters if you don't have people.

People are the power behind any organization. As a leader, you'll start with a title. That's why they'll follow you. But they're not following you because they want to. They're following you because it gives them status, or money, or because they have to. A title doesn't make you a leader. 

If you want to inclusively lead this world of collaborators, and innovators, and change makers, your people are going to follow you not because they have to, but because they want to. You're going to have to make them feel liked, cared for, valued, trusted. You're going to have to help them produce in a world that emphasizes efficiency and shortcuts over long-term thinking. You're going to have to develop them, and most of all, you're going to have to see them. To see them for who they are and what they can achieve. 

Because the secret is people. Teams of people. Departments of people. Organizations full of people. And those people are all very, very different. 

So what do inclusive leaders do? First, they acknowledge differences. The challenges of being a first generation professional, or of working across multiple offices and in multiple cultures, or of being a veteran returning to the workforce, or of being a parent with young children or elder relatives. An inclusive leader recognizes the discomfort that a man might have bringing their same sex partner to the workplace, or the pain and isolation of undergoing gender transition. 

And then inclusive leaders take it one step further. They don’t just understand and value differences. They actually make those differences work for the people who work there.

See, we all work in a knowledge-driven economy. Where the advantages come from our ability to innovate, to create new ideas, to find new revenue streams, to serve our customers better. Inclusive leaders understand that you need to use all the unique knowledge, all the skills, all the potential from all of us. 

What client relationships do we build? Where do we find them? What technologies do we use? How do we form teams? How do we manage teams? How do we deliver feedback? When do we deliver feedback? What type of external vendors do we use? How do we involve customers in our work? Innovate compensation. Innovate teams. Innovate work. 

Because we are all different. We have different lives. We come from different spaces. We communicate differently. We compete differently. We work differently. That’s what inclusive leaders do. They make those differences count.

The secret is people. Make their differences matter. Make their diversity matter. That’s inclusive leadership. 

Michelle Silverthorn is the Founder & CEO of Inclusion Nation, a diversity consulting firm delivering presentations, workshops, and e-learning to companies across every industry. She’s the author of the forthcoming book, Change the Rules, Change the World: How to Recruit, Train, and Lead a Diverse Workforce. Want to learn how to be an inclusive leader? Contact us for our workshop, Step Up to Lead: Ten New Rules for Inclusive Leadership. Want to learn more about Inclusion Nation? Sign up for our newsletter or email michelle@inclusionnation.org.