Who is a leader? The first, the one that leads, is influential. The associative flow is a self-confident, assertive, and determined person who solves problems rationally, opens and closes meetings, and has answers to all questions. Such a dominant paradigm was highly valued in earlier times within highly hierarchical organisations, and societies characterised by power distance. And while all the recent evidence supports emotionally intelligent leadership, very often we notice these antiquated attitudes erecting walls and damaging relationships which makes people feel isolated and consequently, insufficiently involved.
People want to belong, as it gives them a sense of contentment and safety. They attempt to fit in with the expectations of the dominant group, even if it makes them uncomfortable. You can probably recall the experience of a first day in a new workplace. This experience can be positive or negative, and it depends on whether you feel welcome and to what extent, and how much you need to adjust to be accepted.
We all bring our backgrounds, a personal package of life experiences into every relationship, and these experiences impact the expectations we hold for ourselves and for the people we encounter.
Being socially aware enough to recognise other people’s expectations and allow them to truly belong in a group or organisation is an art.
It is an ability usually held by inclusive leaders who, with their communication style, relationships, and leadership, recognise various needs while considering experiences and expectations that people bring to the team.
When we talk about inclusive leadership, it is through the prism of inclusivity of all age groups, different education, and experience, not the semantics tied to the minority groups and people with disabilities.
It’s important to move from this narrow definition of inclusivity and to expand our awareness of the importance of inclusive leadership, as it helps us achieve numerous advantages in times of uncertainty and crisis.
Despite numerous attempts to introduce new metrics for success tied to the sense of happiness and contentment, today’s leaders are, much like their predecessors, under immense pressure to generate growth.
Growth requires a competitive advantage, which often includes innovation. And so, we need different experiences, knowledge, and expectations as they are the backbone for the creation of innovative products and services. Uniform teams with similar experience and life habits think in the same way – uniformed and coordinated. Diverse teams think differently, often disagree, challenge each other’s opinions and viewpoints, are not equally loud or equally quiet. While some need encouragement to engage in discussion, others need to limit minutes of presentation during the meeting.
It’s clear that leading such diverse, more demanding teams is a task for leaders who are sensitive to differences, who continually adapt to the changes in the environment, and those open to changing their thoughts, values, and activities. They don’t think they’re always right and are ready to re-think their dominant paradigms. Those inclusive leaders have an irreplaceable role in encouraging innovation, growth and maintaining competitive value because creating an environment in which everyone can present their idea regardless of how different or strange it may be, enables the creation of innovative, more complex, and better products and services.
Managing a diverse group of people is significantly more complex than managing a team of similar backgrounds, as it is necessary to harmonise the mutual understanding, behaviour, and respect of different individuals.
Well-led diverse teams in time achieve better results than uniform teams, which are initially significantly more straightforward to manage.
Leadership must therefore develop its own self-awareness of diversity and advocate for it, using inclusive skills to reconcile differences among the team members. It is crucial to become aware of and recognise unconscious biases, mark them, and remove from everyday relationships. Successful inclusive leadership requires certain traits and competencies that inclusive leaders possess and develop.
Just as the question whether leadership can be learned is legitimate, so too is the question of inclusive leadership. The answer is ‘yes’ because it does not appear automatically. It is related to the exposure of individuals to different people and situations that challenge existing beliefs, confront them with their own expectations and force them to notice and overcome unconscious biases that are an integral part of our everyday life. More inclusive leaders are those who have been exposed to different cultures through their developmental journey. Although, certain qualities are needed to make this kind of leadership possible because they reflect the personality and values we hold dear.
Inclusive leaders are the agents of change who question deeply rooted attitudes and practices. They are an excellent choice in times of transformations, mergers, and acquisitions, which require an integration of different cultures.
The best description of inclusive leaders in one word would be vulnerability, as it carries a high degree of self-awareness, curiosity, and empathy, thanks to which biases that stand in the way of dealing with changes in oneself and others can be overcome.
