Inclusive leadership seems to be a mantra these days given everything going on in the world. More than a momentary “catchphrase,” inclusive leadership is an ability that differentiates good leaders from great leaders, as inclusiveness yields a stronger sense of belonging, which leads to higher engagement and tangibly better business results.
But what exactly do inclusive leaders do? Heidrick & Struggles’ research reveals that the most inclusive leaders value individuality, create a sense of belonging and build deep purpose and engagement in the organization.
To value individuality means to lead in a way that appreciates, attracts and leverages all talent, including diverse talent. This involves boldly seeking out new perspectives, forming strong relationships with a diverse range of individuals, playing to the diverse strengths of team members and supporting colleagues in ways that makes them comfortable bringing their authentic selves to work. A leader who values individuality is careful to focus on the development of others and realizes that they themselves always have something to learn.
In order to create a sense of belonging, leaders should foster a psychologically safe environment that inspires colleagues to speak their minds and share ideas, which encourages experimentation and learning. Additionally, as leaders intentionally role-model vulnerability, sensitivity and regard for others’ feelings, it demonstrates a respect and value for others that can be equally motivating and inspiring. Finally, it reinforces the ability for everyone to bring their authentic selves to the workplace.
To build deep purpose and engagement in the organization begins with leaders who can communicate a compelling vision that builds commitment in the organization. These leaders openly and willingly consider viewpoints that might challenge their own and consult and involve others as appropriate when planning future changes. These actions can help others find meaning and purpose in their work, and ultimately create a sense of energy and purpose in the team.
Skills vs. capabilities
Many leaders have relied on their technical skills and competence as a solid foundation for performance, as have we, as a trial lawyer and an engineer out of MIT. However, it will be our human capabilities — to understand an ever-changing context to experiment, develop and create new ideas, and form strong relationships to achieve better results — that will help us all endure beyond any technological advance and disruptive change.
We know that some skills are becoming obsolete as we transform digitally at an enhanced pace through the global pandemic. There are rising concerns that developments in the future of work will eradicate jobs across multiple levels. Manual and repetitive jobs are already being replaced by automation, and it is being mooted that artificial intelligence algorithms can replace corporate board members and highly paid CEOs to create objective, data crunching, emotionless decision-makers in an ever-changing marketplace, which may create a wave of unemployment that will fundamentally require a change to the social contract we have with people about how wealth is distributed. The question then becomes; how do you create an inclusive culture in the organization during periods of such change?
What the global pandemic has emphasized is the importance of the relationship above the transaction sought. Changing customer needs and expectations, the need to build longterm relationships and an economy that demands new skills to be refreshed at a rate that none of us can keep us with will require us to rely even heavier on our human capabilities to create a competitive advantage and see a new importance in our ability to learn, unlearn, experiment, pivot, collaborate and adapt at a head spinning pace.
If the future is capabilities-focused, then the future is human-centered too.
Following the research completed for my book “The Leader’s Secret Code” (with co-authors Ian Mills, Mark Ridley and Professor Ben Laker) I created seven components of human-centered leadership. They include:
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- Inclusivity. Overcoming the need for interpersonal comfort to drive organizational change and strive instead to capture diversity of thought. More and more executives now are courageously and proactively seeking opinions that are diametrically opposed to their own so that they may unlearn and learn simultaneously.
- Personal purpose. Having a strong, values-driven “north star” in an ever- and increasingly changing landscape.
- Vigilance. The ability to remain abundantly alert and deeply curious to detect, sense, make and act on the earliest signs of both threat and opportunity. For many the term ‘ambidextrous leadership,” may be common as leaders strive to both exploit and explore on a daily basis.
- Curiosity. The desire to challenge the status quo, explore, discover, and learn on at least three levels; self, others, and the world, in line with the work of Stefaan Van Hooydonk.
- Humility. Self-awareness and the ability to appreciate the strengths and contribution of others whilst being open to ideas and feedback on own performance.
- Empathy Vicarious introspection to put yourself in the shoes of another whilst being aware of ethical fading when empathy is taken to extremes.
- Presence. The manifestation and combination of charisma, confidence, decisiveness, gravitas and congruence. At times silence is enough.
At the very heart of the seven components of human-centered leadership are humanity and dignity as leaders strive to “treat people as they want to be and you help them become what they are capable of being,” according to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.
An exemplar of such inclusive human centered leadership is Novartis CEO Vas Narasimhan. Since stepping into the role of CEO, Narasimhan has led the company in strategic and cultural transformation, inspiring employees to “reimagine medicine.” He has sparked an “unbossed movement” — calling himself CEO and “unboss” of Novartis — aimed at reimagining leadership and developing “servant leaders who put their teams’ success above their own.”
I had the opportunity to engage with Vas when I facilitated a women’s leadership program for Novartis when he was still the chief medical officer. He was an executive sponsor and repeat speaker in the program, and I was awed by his adeptness at meaningfully connecting with the diverse group of women on the program (valuing individuality), his openness to and appreciation of candid dialogue with the women around issues, challenges and opportunities they saw in the company (sense of belonging), and his capacity to share a compelling vision for evolving medical care in a more patient-centric way (deep purpose and engagement).
Abraham Maslow, the creator of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, is said to have observed that, “Perhaps the way to change the world is through organizations, because most people are part of one.” Indeed, a leader’s ability to multiply his or her leadership by galvanizing, inspiring and empowering the social capital of an entire organization as a collective is a competitive advantage to create real momentum for positive and sustainable change.
The need for the rise of the inclusive human-centered leader is a very human issue – cultural issue that will require enormous and continued effort. As John Amaechi told me in our research, “Leadership is energy expensive, and leader’s set the tone of organizational culture,” and our ability to be positive role models knows no bounds.
But how do leaders build an inclusive, human-centered culture?
From Heidrick’s decades of helping shape healthy, thriving cultures, we know that five key principles are at the core of a diverse and inclusive, human-centered culture:
- Purposeful leadership. In addition to the strong sense of personal purpose requisite for human-centered leaders, since the collective of senior leaders in an organization actually propagate the culture, they need to be clear on the “why” for the organization. These leaders have to articulate a compelling, authentic story of why an inclusive, human-centric culture matters for the business, and then be role models for the desired behaviors and mindsets.
- Personal change. Leaders must be self-aware and embrace a journey of learning and growth in order to demonstrate the desired behaviors and mindsets. This involves surfacing, confronting and changing outdated personal and organizational orthodoxies that can underlie exclusionary and toxic cultures. The curiosity, humility and empathy of the inclusive, human-centered leader provide a strong platform for positive change.
- Broad engagement. Mass and momentum are required to cascade the behaviors and mindsets of an inclusive, human-centered culture. This requires leaders to engage across levels and disciplines in the organization in order to reinforce the cultural norms that shape new thinking and behavior in the organization.
- Systemic alignment. In order to embed the new culture and norms in the organization, leaders have to ensure that all of the people-related systems and processes of the organization reinforce the desired culture. This involves actively working to remove bias from those systems so that progress made around diversity, inclusion and human-centered leadership are not erased due to incongruent incentives, policies or practices.
- Representation. True inclusivity calls for a level of diversity appropriate for the aspirations and strategic objectives of the business. This factor will be different for every organization, and requires leaders to be intentional in attracting, developing and sponsoring diverse talent so that they are able to thrive in the organization.
The benefits of an inclusive, human-centered culture are tangible and can provide competitive advantage. For example, companies with higher ethnic and gender diversity have been shown to have financial performance that is 25–36 percent greater than those with lower levels of diversity, have been shown to have a 17 percent increase in team performance, and are 6 times more likely to be innovative and agile as an organization. Inclusive, human-centered leaders and cultures result in a higher sense of belonging for employees in the organization. This has a huge payoff, since employees with a high sense of belonging take 75 percent fewer sick days — avoiding the equivalent of $2.5 million in lost productivity annually per 10,000 employees — and they see a 56 percent increase in job performance, which translates to a $52 million gain annually per 10,000 employees.
