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The world is changing fast and the skills needed to lead our workforce into the future are also changing with it. The internet revolutionized the way we work and connect, making the world a seemingly smaller place, and since the pandemic, the world has become even smaller and more connected. As leaders, we are faced with the new challenge of adapting to the diversity of employees we work with, whether in-person or remotely. This shift in diversity requires a new type of leadership—one that is inclusive in its approach to captivating and retaining the best talents, as well as creating working environments that are safe, healthy, and productive.
We want to help you meet this new demand by sharing these 10 amazing qualities that are a must-have for an inclusive leader in today’s workforce.
1: Fairness
Fairness is the centerpiece of inclusion in the workplace. Fair leadership understands and promotes equitable access to resources and opportunities for their employees; it is reasonable, unbiased, inclusive, and respectful. This helps foster unity and cohesiveness among team members, creating a psychologically safe and healthy working environment. When a leader lacks fairness, it can often lead to employees feeling punished, undervalued, and overwhelmed.
2: Empathy
Another important quality of an inclusive leader is their ability to demonstrate empathy towards others. Not to be confused with sympathy (feeling sorry for someone’s misfortune), being empathetic is the ability to step outside of yourself in order to see and understand something from another person’s point of view. This requires a certain degree of emotional intelligence, as different people may experience similar things in different ways. With empathy, an inclusive leader is able to better understand and facilitate the needs of others, making the people around them feel seen, heard, and valued.
3: Ability to Influence Your Team
Inclusive leaders must leverage the resources in their toolkits to ensure that their team members receive fair and equitable treatment. This sounds really well—until its fruition hinges on making tough decisions that some persons might not readily understand or accept. In such cases, your ability to influence the attitudes and behaviors of your team without strictly resorting to your authority over them will be paramount to your success. A great way of cultivating such influence is by building trust and understanding of what motivates your team and leveraging these with support and cooperation.
4: Advocacy
Leadership is a two-way street, in that you have a responsibility to not only provide your team with directives but also to serve their needs and ensure that they are treated fairly. This role is especially important at the junior to middle management levels. In some organizations, most employees won’t have the access, influence, or authority to advocate for their own needs beyond reporting those needs to their immediate supervisors. As leaders, you must therefore be willing to advocate for the rights and needs of your team, both internally as well as to external stakeholders.
5: Fosters Allyship
When leading diverse teams, there will sometime be persons who need a bit more support in certain areas than others. Quite often, these are persons from historically marginalized groups such as persons with disabilities, or others who find themselves in the category of “the only one” (the only woman or woman of color, the only person of color, the only foreign national, etc) or an otherwise small minority. As an inclusive leader, you have a responsibility to ensure that the appropriate resources and systems are put in place to help affirm and reassure those team members that they too have a voice and a place in the organization just as much as everyone else. This doesn’t mean that you’re giving them special treatment or that you’re showing favoritism. Rather, it’s an acknowledgment of their needs and providing equitable solutions to ensure that they feel and know they belong.
6: Collaboration/Collaborative
Leadership without collaboration or consultation is one of the telltales of a dictatorship. Inclusive leadership by definition suggests that you include or involve others in the leadership process. Inclusive leaders understand that it is impractical to get everything done by themselves, so they form partnerships and connections with others and seek the input of the people they lead, especially when making important decisions that will affect those people. Demonstrating genuine interest in the thoughts and opinions of others is also a great way to foster trust and loyalty. As the African proverb says, if you want to go fast, you may go alone, but if your desire is to go far, then you must go with others.
7: Cultural Intelligence
In the highly connected and increasingly diverse world we live in today, cultural awareness is somewhat of a superpower and a critical skill set for leaders to have. Yet, despite our ability to communicate and interact instantaneously with others all across the globe, not enough people actually take the time to learn about the cultural norms and nuances of those around them. It’s important to note that when we speak of culture, it is not limited to race or nationality, but that there are also subcultures within and across communities, classes, and castes. Therefore, a major component of leading diverse teams is the ability to be sensitive and respectful to the variety of cultural differences you will encounter in creating a sense of belonging for everyone within your workplace.
8: Empowers Their Team
Great leaders help create other leaders by paving the way for those in their charge to learn, grow, and be prepared to elevate themselves and their careers. An inclusive leader is not intimidated by the progression of their subordinates, but instead, prioritizes the distribution of power and responsibility among them. Empowering your team not only makes your work as a leader less hectic but also creates greater synergy within the team and increases their respect and loyalty to you as a leader.
9: Fosters psychological safety
Psychological safety in the workplace enables employees to share thoughts, ideas, and questions without fear of persecution or prejudice. An inclusive leader understands that in order to get the best out of people, they must feel safe to make mistakes, share opinions, learn, and interact constructively with others within their team. A psychologically safe work environment builds trust, fellowship, and a sense of belonging among team members.
10: Inclusive Leaders LEAD
Cultivating an inclusive workplace culture can often be seen as going against the grain, especially among those within the organization who choose to hold firmly to their traditional values or beliefs. As a leader who champions the principles of inclusion, you must acknowledge and accept that your approach may often be met with varying degrees of resistance, some subtle, and some not so subtle. How you navigate these resistances, both before and after they arise, will determine how effectively you are able to call out inequities and call in all the stakeholders needed to fix these inequities. This requires a great deal of patience, perseverance, and diplomacy, but also a firm, unwavering commitment.
For more in-depth knowledge on how to become an inclusive leader in today’s diverse workplace, visit our website and sign up for our 8-week Inclusive Leadership Lab, which features 5 Modules and 20 lessons with practical exercises to sharpen your leadership skills for today and tomorrow. Get ahead of the competition and click the link to find out more. See you there!