We recently gave our Collaboration Community access to the inclusion in Bitesize Masterclass focused on ‘Strengthening Your Day-to-Day Leadership Skills’. 

The session was hosted by Amit Popat, EDI Project Lead, who kicked off by discussing the notion that a leader takes people where they want to go, while a great leader takes people where they don’t necessarily want to go, but ought to be. He elaborated: 

“The work we do in EDI can often be outside of our comfort zone. So it requires people to have courageous conversations and be brave with their leadership in an EDI journey.”

The Masterclass took leaders through three key areas to consider, before offering guidance on how to transfer these principles into practice.

1. Psychological Safety: the importance of taking risks and making mistakes

Amit explored the importance of building a sense of psychological safety within organisations, where “it’s okay to take risks, explore ideas and concerns and to speak up with questions and admit mistakes, without fear of negative consequences.”

Within organisations there can be intense pressure to perform, Amit explained, “and often, we’re not ourselves because we fear that people might give us some negative reactions to how we’re behaving, or how we look, our backgrounds, how we speak.” 

While it is not a straightforward process, it’s therefore vital that leaders create environments where employees can be their authentic selves. Leaders need to ensure that they are harnessing the potential of all team members, allowing them to fully participate in conversations and decision-making.

Building this kind of culture helps create an environment where team members feel comfortable taking risks, admitting mistakes and learning from failure, which ultimately results in more creative thinking and can be highly profitable and positive for an organisation.

2. Inclusive Decision-Making: engaging with a diversity of perspectives 

Amit then moved the discussion on to the idea of inclusive decision-making, which is “an approach to considering options and making a decision that actively involves all those who would be directly affected by the outcome of the decision.” 

He then highlighted the importance of leaders not always consulting their ‘go-to people’, of recognising and overcoming their biases and ensuring that people from a range of backgrounds are participating in projects and programmes that influence decisions in an organisation. Considering all the stakeholders who are affected by leadership decisions, and involving them in those decisions, is vital.

“There's a huge benefit to really engaging with a process where decisions are made with a whole group of diversity of perspectives,” explained Amit. Leaders asking for feedback is also a vital part of this process because it shows real inclusion and helps to create psychological safety.

3. Team Motivation: making work meaningful

Amit’s third area of focus was the importance of motivating teams within inclusive leadership. He explored how to personalise your approach to motivating members of your team, whether that be through “regular appreciation, a clear career growth path, learning opportunities or a good work-life balance. It's also really important that we allow people to have specific objectives in their work plans to ensure that we're able to support them in the right way.” 

Making work meaningful for employees is also vital and we mustn’t underestimate the importance of showing how peoples’ contributions impact the bigger picture. To ensure alignment on this, leaders must set specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound goals.

Action Plan: principles into practice

So, how can the principles outlined be put into practice?

Considering the levels of psychological safety team members currently have in the workplace and what actions need to be taken to address any barriers is a vital starting point. Integrating questions surrounding psychological safety into organisational culture surveys is a clear way in which this can practically be carried out, Amit explained.

Reflecting on recent decisions and how inclusive decision-making could be integrated into future ones is another vital process. Widening the circle of those you consult is also important, said Amit, continuing, “try and think about those people in the business that you don't always go to when making decisions, and include them within that process.”

It’s equally crucial that leaders get to know their team, using one-to-one catch-ups to explore their motivations and preferred ways of working. Learn about what drives and engages them.

He rounded off a fascinating session with a final thought: “as a leader, you don't have a choice in being a role model. The only choice is whether to be a good or a bad one, so we really want to be role modelling the best behaviour possible.”

If you’re interested in running a workshop on this subject, please contact Stephanie here or register for any future masterclasses here.

Feeling inspired? Read more of our blogs