Do you have team members who nod their heads during a meeting in agreement with everything the majority says, all the while secretly having a meeting of their own in their heads?
Do you have team members who stay back after a meeting to have another quick meeting with you to share their thoughts on the matters discussed?
If the answers are yes to the above, it clearly means that the concept of inclusivity in your organization’s culture needs to be re-looked at and most importantly, that the concept of inclusivity in your leadership needs to be refreshed.
Being an inclusive leader is not always easy, given that all the team members are different from each other. However, if one invests their time on getting to know their team members on a personal level, the process would be much smoother. If one could identify what is important to the team members as an individual, the leader is able to proactively create an environment with mutual support for all, despite the differences. Once we build a close relationship with all team members, it will be easy to listen to and understand the voice of the team members.
Relationship building does not refer to having one’s own subset of people to discuss and finalize decisions with. One should have an open mind and build and maintain relationships with all team members. One must allow all individuals to contribute in discussions and in appropriate level decision making. Unconscious bias is one of the factors that sabotage the concept of inclusion in an organizational culture. For an instance, if someone we didn’t like in the past or a person whom we’ve heard negative things about, joins our team, we should not automatically continue with the past perceptions. We should always give the opportunity to everyone to speak up for themselves and prove themselves instead of judging them for what they have done or what we’ve heard in the past.
Our minds automatically think that a person who is different to us is a potential threat and on the other hand, a person who we know is similar to us, is safe. We tend to find common grounds, all the while determined that we are non-bias. No leader is born with the mindset to be un-bias. As leaders, it is our responsibility to learn to be un-bias. Re-building trust is very important in this context. We should always understand people from past encounters but we should not judge another upon their past behaviors.
An inclusive leader plays a huge role in creating work settings where all team members feel psychologically safe to bring up their differences. As leaders, we should take the initiative to suggest and create structures which assist in lowering the differences. One of the proven successful methods of doing this is, prior to making a final decision on any activity, offer the opportunity to everyone to state two reasons why people might agree and disagree with this decision. That allows them space to speak up even though s/he did not voice the concern earlier and gives a whole new perspective towards the decisions made. This assists in taking another fresh look at what was discussed without dwelling on the differences of individuals.
Many believe that diverse groups enable quality growth of an organization. True, but this only applies when diverse groups are managed well. Connecting through one’s common grounds to explore the differences is definitely the right way to proceed. Tapping in to the creative elements of each individual while making sure they are given adequate training and recognition is very important. We should always listen to understand instead of listening to respond. We should be approachable and open to both giving and receiving feedback. Such a feedback rich culture enables an organization to grow with understanding and accepting the differences while encouraging positive impact.
