Inclusive Leadership
Why is Inclusive Leadership important?
Inclusive leaders and inclusive leadership gets the best out of all their people, helping their organisations to succeed in today’s complex, diverse national and global environment. Through their skills in adaptability, building relationships and developing talent, inclusive leaders are able to increase performance and innovation.
Inclusive leadership not only refers to the capabilities of senior leaders in organisations to improve performance but also to those held by managers at all levels. Whilst the drive for inclusive leadership must be led from the top, it also needs to be pushed from the middle.
How Inclusive Leadership is of benefit to organisations
Inclusive leaders help organisations get the best out of all their people and to succeed in today’s complex, diverse national and global environment. Through their skills in adaptability, building relationships and developing talent, inclusive leaders are able to increase performance and innovation.
Driving performance and business growth through Inclusive Leadership
Leadership behaviour has a powerful influence in the performance of employees, whether positive or negative, and the progression of diverse groups in an organisation. Our research reported that over 80 per cent of employees that have worked with an inclusive leader were more motivated and productive, loyal to the organisation and more likely to go the extra mile.
Breaking down barriers through Inclusive Leadership
Inclusive leaders are effective in breaking down the barriers to progression experienced by many women and minority groups in organisations. Over 80 per cent of employees from all backgrounds reported that an inclusive leader helps to increase their self-confidence and make them feel more valued. Over 70 percent said they helped to create career-enhancing opportunities.
Research by the Center for Talent Innovation has shown that organisations with inclusive leaders are 70 per cent more likely to have captured a new market in the past twelve months than organisations without inclusive leadership and 45 per cent more likely to report that their firm improved market share in that same time frame .
How to use the Inclusive Leadership Five Step Framework
Recognising that organisations have unique challenges, the Five Step Framework does not need to be used in a linear way but if this is possible, it is recommended.
Vision
Find out what Inclusive Leadership can mean for your organisation, what kind of actions inclusive leaders take and how your organisation “does” leadership.
1, How to define what inclusive leadership means to your organisation
2 How to build the business case for Inclusive Leadership
Lead
Learn how to identify, engage, empower and work collaboratively with key change agents.
1. Engage and mobilise change agents
Develop
Use this document to identify how many inclusive leaders your organisation may have. Understand the skills leaders need to be more inclusive. If the answer to three or more questions is “no”, your organisation may benefit from developing more inclusive capabilities.
1. Are you an inclusive leader? A ten question document
Embed
Helpful but not prescriptive guidance that can be used when recruiting, promoting and/or assessing the performance of leaders to identify the extent to which they demonstrate inclusive leadership competencies. Area for development can be prioritised.
1. Recruiting and assessing Inclusive Leaders
Evaluate
The recommended ongoing evaluation for Inclusive Leaders includes:
- set SMART objectives
- run a staff survey at the beginning, middle and end of the project
- give 360 degree feedback