Inclusive Leadership and Organizational Culture

Introduction

National Urban Fellows (2017) defines inclusion as “being at the table at all levels of the organization, being a valued contributor and being fully responsible for your contribution to the ultimate result.” An inclusive leader, therefore, is one who brings all members of a team to the table so that their input can be effectively communicated and received. It recognizes that a diverse team has valuable perspectives that, when contributed in a meaningful way, helps to form a more unified front that leads to a cohesive organizational culture. With a team whose new members are from Germany, Greece, Iran and Singapore there are considerable differences to be expected. As the GLOBE data indicates, the German and Greek members are more likely to be assertive than the Iranian and Singaporean members, while the member from Singapore is most likely to be the most future oriented. Gender equality is not likely to be especially high as an ideal among any of the four new members but other issues like a sense of individualism vs. collectivism is more likely to be strongly felt by the Asian member than by the Western members. Understanding how ethnicity and communication style are likely to be presented, it is crucial for inclusive leaders to know what to expect and how to prepare so that the team can work to promote a positive organizational culture that will enrich one and all.

Inclusive Leadership

The traits of inclusive leadership include the ability to self-monitor individual behavior and to promote this monitoring, and having a cultural intelligence that is akin to social and emotional intelligence (Ayman & Korabik, 2010). Inclusive leaders will display a willingness to hear others but also the skills necessary for communicating effectively with a diverse group—such as knowing what types of people are more likely to avoid conflict and what types of people are more likely to be assertive.

Knowing these cultural aspects can help to reduce the risk of confusion and personal offense when certain members display methods of communicating that are different from those generally displayed by others. Inclusive leaders have to be socially, culturally and emotionally aware of how interactions affect others based on cultural backgrounds and expectations. Additionally, by knowing how various cultures communicate in the workplace, inclusive leaders can help to create the right type of environment of respect and appreciation among members (Maier-Lorentz & Leininger, 2008).

Key Leadership Skills

Key leadership skills needed to create an inclusive organizational culture include the ability to build networking bridges—i.e., to align members of the team who are most compatible so that they can work productively with one another; the ability to demonstrate respect to all people of all backgrounds so that a culture of appreciation and openness is generated by the example of the leader; the ability to build and strengthen relationships among workers who are less compatible so that they may be able to work together well in the future—a task that requires extensive planning and preparation and the implementation of team building exercises where different members are paired with people whose views and methods of communication contrast so that they can work on learning the ways to communicate more effectively; and the ability to promote awareness within the team. All of these skills help to shape the culture and to promote an organization that is full of self-aware individuals.

Leadership Characteristics That are Most Influential

The leadership characteristics that are most influential in creating an organizational culture of this group will be cultural intelligence, personal charisma, and concern for others—i.e., the characteristic of putting others first and showing support for those who need it. Compassion and strength, confidence and transparency are all very helpful characteristics for building an effective organizational culture (Ayman & Korabik, 2010).

Other characteristics that will be influential will be the leader’s commitment, courage, awareness of cultural or social bias, curiosity, and willingness to collaborate. After all, a leader is there not to dictate to followers but rather to inspire, to bring them together, and to make them feel like they are all part of something special (Maier-Lorentz & Leininger, 2008). Commitment is highly influential because it shows to new members that they will not be abandoned and can give them confidence to continue on with their work even if they do not initially feel like they are clicking with their team members within the organization.

Courage is another characteristic that can be influential because it is contagious and the more that a leader demonstrates a courageous character the more likely followers are to feel like they too can have the courage to voice their thoughts, feelings and ideas and thus contribute to the overall group in a positive manner.

The awareness of how cultural bias can contribute to blockages in communication or can lead to hurt feelings or slightings is also in important characteristic that leaders should have. Awareness of bias helps lead to prevention of bias by way of safeguards that can be put into place through training, exercises and instruction.

Curiosity is another quality which is very influential: it shows members that the leader is interested in hearing what they have to say and is not just paying them lip service. Genuine curiosity for the ideas of others will help them to feel more comfortable about sharing and contributing to a culture of openness as well as to the spirit of collaboration that the team leader must seek to establish.

How Inclusive Leadership can be Applied

In order to meet the challenges and opportunities inherent in a global environment it is particularly important that inclusive leadership be applied by recognizing that every individual from every culture offers a unique experience and perspective that can be useful in developing an organizational culture for a company that truly wants to be global. As every culture is different in some way, which is shown by the GLOBE scores of the members from Germany, Greece, Iran, and Singapore, it is necessary that leaders embrace inclusivity by engaging in exercises among members that will facilitate the development of the skills and characteristics described above. Leaders are not the only ones who should be expected to demonstrate these skills and characteristics: on the contrary, through team building drills and exercises, leaders can help others to develop these skills and qualities too. That is the number one aim of inclusive leadership when building a new organizational culture that will help members to overcome challenges in the global environment and embrace opportunities. The more that leaders can raise awareness about how to effectively communicate in a diverse team, the more effective those leaders will be at guiding the organization in the global environment.

References

Ayman, R., & Korabik, K. (2010). Leadership: Why gender and culture matter. American Psychologist. American Psychologist, 65(3), 157-170.

Maier-Lorentz, M. & Leininger, M. (2008). Transcultural nursing: Its importance in nursing practice. Journal of Cultural Diversity, 15(1), 37.

National Urban Fellows. (2017). Inclusive leadership. Retrieved from http://www.nuf.org/inclusive-leadership-model