Inclusive Leadership: Get the Data You Need to Be A Better Team Leader

Many organizations still champion the image of a charismatic leader guiding a company to success. We love reading about iconic CEOs like Steve Jobs, Howard Schultz, and Mary Barra, but gambling on the talents of one extraordinary individual isn’t a sustainable management strategy. The world is too complex for any individual leader to have all the answers. Today’s rapidly changing business environment requires a different sort of leader – one who can lead an innovative, diverse team. 

The Goal is Inclusive Leadership 

Leaders have to manage the day-to-day challenges of running a business while sustaining team culture, blending the personalities, ambitions, talents, and weaknesses of the people they work with to achieve organizational outcomes. This includes managing across areas of difference including generational differences, cultural difference, physical proximity, and more. Doing all this with empathy, while simultaneously focusing on the rapidly changing business environment, isn’t easy. 

In a recent survey of 2,500 global business leaders, McKinsey found 10 priorities that top executives are grappling with in this “era of perpetual organizational upheaval.” Of the 10 challenges for CEOs, six involve talent management: getting the right people in the right jobs, creating inclusive workplaces, and cultivating effective leaders. By focusing on team performance and building a culture of belonging, inclusive leaders can cultivate more organizational resilience, boost efficiency, and drive retention. Inclusive leadership has also been shown to boost mental health for teams and leaders, improving employee morale and everyone’s sense of well-being. 

“Diverse teams drive better decision-making and more meaningful results, not just diverse demographics but diverse backgrounds, skill sets, and job functions,” says Donald Thompson, CEO and Co-founder of The Diversity Movement.  “Successful organizations integrate DEI into the everyday work experience. In today’s evolving workplace, learning inclusive leadership skills is no longer optional. It’s a core leadership skill.”