Future proofing your organisation through inclusive leadership

Diversity and inclusivity. You can’t have one without the other. If you want to reap the benefits of hiring a diverse workforce, global research shows that you must effectively cultivate inclusivity in the workplace. To move beyond tokenism, the importance of having strong inclusive leadership is crucial.

Why is inclusive leadership so important

People feel included in organisations that treat them fairly, respectfully and make them feel that they belong. And while there may be policies and mission statements to this effect, successful inclusivity is mainly reliant on leaders. What they do and say makes a huge difference to how included their team feels. And when people feel included, they speak up more, collaborate better and go above and beyond. 

This is why strong inclusive leadership is increasingly seen as a unique and critical capability that can help organisations adapt to diverse customers, markets, ideas and talent. 

Diversity Council Australia (DCA) has been researching and tracking inclusivity and leadership in the workplace for a number of years. Their study, based on interviews and reviews of national and international research, found that inclusive leadership capabilities amongst Australian managers left room for improvement. 

The average score for inclusive leadership was 5.8 out of ten, with 26% rating it as either 5 or 6; and 17% rating it below 5. Earlier DCA research found that only 11% of Australian workers strongly agreed that their manager actively seeks out information and new ideas from all employees to guide decision-making, a key capability of inclusive leaders. Workers from culturally diverse backgrounds were up to three times less likely to experience feeling included.

This is evidenced by recent research by Indeed* that found that 25% of working Australians didn’t know what their organisation did to promote D&I, while 17% said their organisation didn’t promote D&I at all. It also revealed that 81% of working Australians said that promoting diversity and inclusivity was important to them. That’s a big number with big implications. Not just from the point of view of workforce stability and performance, but also from how your organisation is perceived from the outside. “Is this the type of organisation I want to work for, do business with, or become a customer of?” “Does this organisation reflect and respect my identity and values?” These are questions job seekers are asking when looking for their next role.

What are the benefits of inclusive leadership

The DCA found that strong inclusive leadership leads to a range of benefits:

• Improved profit and performance, as well as higher returns on income and productivity. 
• Greater creativity and improved innovation brought about by a shift to a flexible rather than fixed view of identities.
• More engaged teams with individuals experiencing higher levels of commitment and satisfaction, and better job opportunities and career advancement.
• A higher sense of employee wellbeing and psychological safety, as well as feeling valued and respected.
• More effective and productive conflict resolution and integration of differing viewpoints, leading employees feeling more satisfied as a result of having worked through the resolution.
• More advanced attitudes about social identity, a key attribute of inclusive leadership, are linked to more positive inter-cultural group relations and less cultural bias, resulting in lower levels of harassment and discrimination of people from traditionally marginalised groups. 
• On average, a 33% lower turnover in organisations that encourage employees to voice their opinions and be involved in decision-making.

How to become a better inclusive leader

The single most important trait a leader needs to generate a sense of inclusiveness is their own visible awareness of bias. This requires an understanding of where you stand in relation to what inclusivity means; to take the time to consider your own mindset in relation to these key attributes of an inclusive leader as set-out by the DCA:

1. Being open to learning about your own and other people’s identities, such as age, gender, culture.
2. Creating diverse teams and networks where people feel they belong, and are valued and respected.
3. Being curious about new and different perspectives from a diverse range of people.
4. Being flexible and responsive to different people and perspectives.
5. Challenging accepted practices and incorporating different perspectives into how business is done to improve growth.

Moving beyond checkbox leadership

Checking boxes is probably the greatest block to effective inclusive leadership, where well-intended policy forms strategy, rather than a genuine desire to bring about change. So how do you go beyond the theoretical to demonstrating tangible inclusivity?

In one of Indeed’s recent Hire Potential with Indeed podcast episodes, Allisa O’Connell, Head of People and Culture at Flight Centre, discusses the importance of implementing meaningful D&I strategies that go beyond checkbox exercises. While Allisa is referring to an organisation as a whole, from a leader’s perspective, there is plenty to take away from her experience.As with the key attributes set out earlier, it’s important to understand who your workforce is, and setting goals to ‘fill the gaps’. Where do you want to go? What do you want this to look like? It’s also vital that you bring everyone along for the journey. Think about all the people involved and the differing outcomes that are important to them. Make sure everyone understands what is happening, which often means changing how you approach the conversation based on the differing perspectives at issue. Actively involve your staff in groups working collectively to drive improvements.

Most importantly, Allisa stresses that there is no such thing as the perfect workplace. She’s a big believer in progress over perfection. Are we doing better today than we were yesterday? And while tracking and metrics are important to gauge progress, the numbers should match what your people are telling you about your workplace. Can people feel the difference? If you’ve got it right, you’ll see it in improved performance, stability, growth and innovation.

*The research in this report was commissioned by That Comms Co. on behalf of Indeed and conducted by YouGov. The study was conducted online between 11 - 17 January 2022, involving 2,076 participants.