and yet feel a sense of true inclusion
and ownership.
How can a leader en-
gender a sense of inclusion in the face of
such diversity?
People feel
included
when
they belong to meaningful groups and
are accepted and treated as
insiders
and
not
outsiders
by others, can access the
information, resources, and networks
necessary for effective job performance,
have the chance to influence decisions
and to develop and advance.
Engage in Two Sets of Behaviors
To bring about this
sense of inclusion
,
leaders engage in two sets of behaviors:
1. Authentically value and respect all
individuals for their talents and contri-
butions.
Leaders’ words and deeds must
demonstrate an authentic appreciation
for the diverse identities, backgrounds,
talents and contributions of all team
members. Leaders should first be aware
of their stereotypes, biases, and mental
models that impede valuing diverse
others. They should allow and recog-
nize diverse identity expression from
their employees. They should
hold oth-
ers accountable for disrespectful behavior
toward different others. Inclusive lead-
ers should articulate the value of diver-
sity for team effectiveness and show a
commitment to diversity in hiring, ad-
vancement, compensation, and reten-
tion practices. And, inclusive leaders
should demonstrate a willingness to
learn from diverse perspectives.
2. Actively create a high-engagement
culture by encouraging the input and
initiative of all employees.
Leaders
should monitor their own behaviors to
ensure that they treat all opinions
equally and respectfully. They should
engender a sense of shared purpose
and clear paths among team members,
promoting a common vision based on
shared values that are directly linked to
team outcomes. Leaders should create
Inclusive Leadership
L
EADERSHIP IS ABOUT
engaging and ener-
gizing people, and
inspiring them to give their best, to
stretch, to achieve, and to excel. We’ve
all been in places where leaders have
served as role models and examples of
the behaviors we want to emulate—
where they’ve sought our input in
making things better, made the work
we do meaningful, recognized our
skills and talents, treated us fairly, and
served as stewards and champions of
the human assets into the future. When
working with such leaders—we are
engaged
,
energized
,
willing to give our all
,
to be challenged
,
improve
,
achieve above
and beyond what we imagine is possible
.
In other workplaces, we’ve felt the
opposite. Our bosses have been con-
cerned with self-interest—with their
own private gain and ego aggrandize-
ment. These
so-called leaders
are con-
sumed by power and control. They hold
back their people; keep them tethered
to stagnant jobs; share information
only on a need-to-know basis; favor
some staff over others; treat their
employees as small cogs in a big
wheel; obsess about their image, how
good they look in the short run; and
constantly spin information. At best,
under such leadership people become
stealth employees
who spend inordinate
energy trying to fly under the radar
until
some other work option
materializes.
The difference between these leaders
is palpable.
Inclusive leadership
is ener-
gizing and motivating; each employee
feels authentically valued and respect-
ed and is
engaged
in achieving a shared
vision. Inclusive leaders effectively lead
diverse teams by creating workplaces
where
all
employees feel valued for
who they are, and know their ideas
count. They enable their people to feel
like
owners
of the system—like they
have a stake in its future—not
renters
.
By acting as owners, team members
can leverage their diverse
perspectives
(ways of
thinking
) and
approaches
(ways
of
doing
) to enhance learning and
growth and drive business success.
On today’s diverse teams, members
may differ in several characteristics
team conditions
that encourage members
to speak up about ideas, opportunities,
problems, and errors, and to engage in
vigorous debate about these if neces-
sary; such conditions include a sense of
psychological safety that allows the
voicing of dissent or imagination, and a
learning orientation. By their words
and actions, leaders should promote
team relations that are fair, democratic,
supportive, and welcoming of ques-
tions and challenges, rather than team
relations that are authoritarian, unsup-
portive, defensive, or based on favor-
itism. Inclusive leaders increase the
transparency of team decision-making
and processes.
By undertaking these two sets of
actions, leaders can engineer a shift
from an exclusionary and stagnant cul-
ture that is de-motivating and de-ener-
gizing, to an inclusive and open culture
that brings out the best of people, ener-
gizes them, encourages collaboration,
and supports initiative and innovative
contributions from all individuals. Such
inclusive leadership leverages team
member differences to tap into new
opportunities and innovate new ways
of doing business. By propagating a
sense of inclusion and ownership,
inclusive leadership is persuasive and
inspiring, and people are motivated to
invest themselves in achieving extraor-
dinary results.
Increase Gender Diversity at the Top
Companies with more women on
boards and executive teams outperform
those with fewer women on a broad
range of indicators—and yet women
leaders are still sparse.
Why?
First, indi-
vidual women may choose to not seek
the top jobs, fail to obtain the qualifica-
tions, or scale back on full-time work
during the career advancement years
that coincide with family demands.
Second, organizations may not facili-
tate women’s career advancement
because they: permit a culture that is
inhospitable to women, impose higher
standards of performance for women,
allow unconscious preferences for gen-
der similarity, practice conflict-avoid-
ance in personnel decisions, take no
action in the face of gender prejudice
and stereotyping, or constrain women’s
access to developmental opportunities.
CEOs can
take actions
to more sys-
tematically advance women to the top
and thus bring women’s perspectives
to executive decision-making.
LE
Diana Bilimoria is KeyBank Professor of Organizational Be-
havior Weatherhead Executive Education. Visit ww.case.edu.
ACTION: Create a high-engagement culture.
by Diana Bilimoria
L e a d e r s h i p E x c e l l e n c e
M a r c h 2 0 1 2
1 3
LEADERSHIP
INCLUSION
E f f e c t i v e l y l e a d i n g d i v e r s e t e a m s .
