How to be an Inclusive Leader? Many workplaces are focused on ways to rebuild the resilience and energy levels of their teams, as they adapt to a ‘new normal’ post COVID-19, and continue to lead their teams through uncertainty and change.
When it comes to leadership development, the trend is definitely moving away from ‘toughness’ toward ‘supportive’, ‘inclusive’ and ‘compassionate’.
What is Inclusive Leadership?
Inclusive Leadership is about creating a sense of belonging, while harnessing and appreciating the unique qualities that each individual brings to a team. It’s about celebrating and making the most of the diversity and difference in your team – including people’s strengths, skills, knowledge, ways of thinking and problem solving.
According to Harvard Business Review, inclusive leadership is emerging as a unique and critical capability that can help organisations adapt to diverse customers, markets, ideas and talent. So how can we be inclusive leaders in practice?
Key Foundations for being a Supportive, Inclusive Leader
At YES Psychology and Consulting, we’ve found that five key foundations can help set you up for success:
1. Look after yourself – Being a supportive, inclusive leader starts with looking after yourself. Put on the oxygen mask first! While many of us are familiar with this phrase, when the pressure is on, it can be easy to forget this principle and head down a path that might not be sustainable in the long-term. By taking steps to support our wellbeing and energy levels, we can help maintain our ‘fuel tank’, have the energy and motivation to be a supportive inclusive leader, and role model to our team that it’s okay to look after your wellbeing and prioritise it. Some practical ways you can do this include:
- Reflect on what energises you. Think about the things that keep you energised and balanced. Are you making time for these things in your week? How could you prioritise the most important ones in your life?
- Connect with others. Think about the people in your life that make you laugh, the ones who make you feel good about yourself, the people you turn to when you have a problem to solve, who understand your strengths, or who help you switch off from work. Is there anyone you would like to connect with more often? Or even put in a regular catch-up time with? How could you broaden your network if you see some gaps?
- Plan for busy/peak periods. When it comes to your wellbeing, what do you dial up during peak periods of work? Reflect on this, and have a plan, so when it happens, you’re ready with some tactics to deploy.
2. Take the time to get to know your team – Inclusive leaders take the time to get to know their team. Get to know – and make most of – your team member’s skills and strengths, their values, working style, career aspirations, interests and importantly, what motivates them. Show a genuine interest in your team and appreciation for what they do. Some practical ways you can do this include:
- Check-in regularly with team members – Regular one-to-ones are a great way to get to know your team and build trust.
- Support your team’s development – The latest research shows that inclusive leaders support their team’s development and growth, help advance their career prospects, and guide and support their team when they make mistakes.
- Start a conversation with your team about their values or their strengths. Use some key examples to start a conversation with your team; such as determination; courage; patience; openness; security; contribution; recognition; altruism; learning; respect; team work; sense of belonging; equality and so forth.
3. Create a supportive, cohesive team – Help to create a team environment where people have a sense of belonging, where successes are celebrated, and where individuals feel respected and cared for by others. Below you’ll find some things you can do as a leader:
- Encourage team members to share and build on each other’s ideas
- Get the whole team involved in welcoming new team members, and helping them on-board
- Make time and space to gather your team member’s contributions for decision making
- Allow time for the team to get to know one another
- Encourage team members to support each other
- Celebrate successes as a team
- Encourage your team to collaborate not just within the team, but across boundaries
4. Listen with curiosity – and allow team members to be heard – Listening well and and being open to new ideas are all powerful ways to create an inclusive environment and help people feel valued. Giving your full attention when you’re listening and practice ‘active listening’ techniques – be fully present, check for understanding, and avoid interrupting the speaker.
5. Continually challenge your thinking and learn something new – By continually learning, challenging our thinking and seeking out new ideas, we can help ourselves to stay open to new ideas and make the most of the diverse strengths, ideas, and talents in our teams. Being open to new skills and to things that are new and different can also help us pivot and respond to challenges and changes in our sector, our workplace and in our team. Research shows that our brain is able to continue to grow and change throughout our lives. This ability for our brains to grow and change – called neuroplasticity – means it’s possible for us to change our patterns of thinking and behaving, to develop new mindsets, new skills, and new abilities.
“Why Inclusive Leadership Matters”
If you took a moment to think about the best leader or manager you’ve ever had, and what you most appreciated about them, you might be surprised at how many of the things you come up with are the defining characteristics of an inclusive leader.
When we asked the attendees at our recent inclusive leadership webinar ‘what did your best leader or manager do?’ attendees described behaviours such as:
- ‘They asked my opinion rather than always telling.’
- ‘They included me in decision making.’
- ‘They were encouraging and created a psychologically safe space to be open and honest’.
- ‘They always listened and took action on discussions if needed.’
- ‘They were supportive and asked what we could learn from our mistakes.’
- ‘They “checked in” to see how I was, in addition to regular work.’
In their article Diversity doesn’t stick without inclusion, Sherbin and Rashid (2017) describe inclusive leaders as having six key behaviours: ensuring that team members speak up and are heard; making it safe to propose new ideas; empowering team members to make decisions; taking advice and implementing feedback; giving actionable feedback; and sharing credit for team success.
You’ll see many of the examples of great leaders our attendees described above, overlap with these behaviours.
While our understanding of inclusive leadership is still developing, there is growing consensus that inclusive leaders help people feel connected and valued, create a sense of belonging, and help people feel appreciated as individuals (Korkmaz, van Engen, Knappert & Schalk, 2022).
So what’s led an interest in inclusive leadership to grow so rapidly in recent years?
In our view, inclusive leadership is moving up the agenda because:
- Inclusive leadership can strengthen a team’s performance. Research shows that inclusiveness can directly enhance performance and teams with inclusive leaders are 17% more likely to report that they are high performing.
- The work environment is changing. Organisations are increasingly facing more complex problems and challenges, as well as change. Inclusive leadership focuses on making the most of the diversity of our teams. As this Harvard Business Review article says, ‘different perspectives, ideas, and opinions in diverse teams are essential to achieving breakthrough performance in competitive environments’.
- Post-COVID, we have a greater appreciation of the importance of connection and belonging. Many leaders tell us that it can be harder to maintain a sense of connection and belonging in hybrid and remote working environments. As a result, they are looking for ways to make people feel included.
- Expectations are changing. A recent article by the World Economic Forum, describes how employees are looking to their employer to prioritise wellbeing and purpose. Flexible working, work-life balance and skills development are also becoming increasingly important.
- We may not realise how much support our employees need or want. A recent Australian survey found that over 75% of leaders think they’re providing the support their employees need. Only 33.9% of employees feel this is the case.
Whatever the exact reason, more and more organisations seem are turning to inclusive leadership.
If you’d like to find out more about how you can create a more supportive, inclusive culture in your organisation, please get in touch. We’d love to continue the conversation.