In most companies, promotion to management is highly related to technical abilities and 1 in 4 managers never receives any management training at all after they are promoted. People management skills especially for diverse talents are underestimated. As a result, most managers don't know how to be an inclusive leader while they have the intention. Lack of self awareness, cultural wisdom, engagement and empathy are leading employees to leave or disengage while human resources department put so much investment into diversity.
The Benefits of Inclusive Leadership
According to a Deloitte research, inclusive leadership brings 70% individual feeling of inclusion increase in experience of fairness, respect, value and belonging; psychological safety; and inspiration, 29% increase in team collaboration, 20% increase in decision making quality and 17%increase in team performance.
Here, we listed 6 tips that will help you to be an inclusive leader in 2020.
1- Goal Setting:
"What gets written down gets done".
Diversity and inclusion topics will continue to be hot topics and trends in 2020. However there is only very little changes in actions and results over decades. Let's do something different this year and have a diversity and inclusion goal in our agenda for 2020.
Download your inclusive leaders goal setting worksheet PDF here and start planning your year. You can also share the goal setting worksheet with your colleagues or friends.
2- Podcasts:
There are great resources for workplace culture and diversity and inclusion either as podcasts or videos. You can plan to listen to one episode on a regular basis such as on the way to work. Here are our selection for you.
3- Books:
“Reading is still the main way that I both learn new things and test my understanding.” - Bill Gates
Books are great ways to learn new and tested leadership methodologies as well as to increase cultural intelligence. Here are our selection of books that will help you to go forward in your inclusion journey as a leader.
Brené Brown Dare to Lead - Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts. Link
Arianna Huffington Thrive - The Third Metric to Redefining Success and Creating a Happier Life Link
HBR Emotional Intelligence Series (6 Books) - Mindfulness, Resilience, Influence and Persuasion, Authentic Leadership, Happiness, and Empathy. Link
Erin Meyer Culture Map - Decoding 'How People Think, Lead, and Get Things Done Across Cultures' Link
Caroline Criado Perez Invisible Women - Exposing Data Bias in a World Designed for Men Link
4- Mentorship:
Mentorship is a two day learning system. It's a fantastic way leverage a person's personal or career development while learning something new about another culture.
Do you have mentorship programs within your workplace? If so, invest in time to mentor a colleague at work or outside of work this year. If you don't have a such a program within your workplace, then it's the perfect time to pioneer and start this initiative yourself or with your colleagues.
According to McCarthy mentoring, 25% of employees who enrolled in a mentoring program had a salary-grade change, compared to only 5% of workers who did not participate. ... Retention rates were higher for both mentees (22% more) and mentors (20% more) than for employees who did not participate in a mentoring program
5- Events:
There are many diversity and inclusion related events happening all over the world. Here is our event page where we host 4-6 events annually.
We know that, time can be challenging for some people to attend them after work. In this case, you can find a remote conference/event that works the best for you and you can attend online. Keep in mind that some conferences also provide access to their talks online after the event. This can be an option for you too.
6- Open up conversations:
The final message is what you can take action from today or even from this moment.
Being more vocal about your thoughts and intentions and opening up conversations about diversity and inclusion will help others to prioritise the topic and result in more practical actions.
Would you like to learn about Diversein's Inclusive Leadership Development Program? Contact us at diversein.com@gmail.com or discover more about us here
Wishing you a very happy and inclusive new year !
Furkan Karayel, an inclusive leader advisor; women in tech and female founders ambassador. Founded Diversein.com after 10 years of software engineering experience. Diversity and Inclusion lead at Startup Week Dublin. Advisory board member at InspiringSTEM and Sprinters, global organisations to support diverse female entrepreneurs and young generation STEM. Honoured with "Diversity and Inclusion Role Model in Business" and "Trailblazer" Awards.
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/furkankarayel