"inclusive management"

To be effective, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) starts with creating awareness and establishing a broad understanding of how employees can help cultivate a more inclusive work environment.

Disruption. It’s the only real certainty in today’s shifting business environment. From a pandemic to a labor shortage to a pressing inflation problem, organizations are grappling with a lot. To cope with what they have in front of them, and what may be ahead, they need to be resilient and nimble—which is only possible with an innovative, productive, and collaborative workforce.

Inclusive leadership can make the difference between organization-wide engagement with diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) and widespread indifference. But while there’s a fair amount of talk about inclusive leadership, there’s much less in the way of guidance on how to put it into practice. This makes cultivating and engaging inclusive leaders a sometimes unseen or little mentioned DEI strategy.

Let’s look at how inclusivity can support organizations during a time of change and go over building blocks for inclusive leadership.

As you embark on the journey to becoming a more inclusive manager, remember that there will be progress as well as setbacks.

When it comes to culture, let’s agree that creating change is everyone’s responsibility. No one person or group of people holds the exclusive power to create a more diverse, equitable and inclusive culture. However, some people do have the ability to affect change in a particularly dramatic way. They are “people managers” who interact with and influence employees on a day-to-day basis.

We already know that in 2022, a focus on inclusivity is reinforcing the charge that all people must be treated with fairness and respect. Accompanying this realization is a whole new sense of what is considered acceptable behavior and what is not—but what exactly does that look like for hybrid employees?

You already know managers are critical to ensuring your organizational DEI efforts are successful. But did you know that to be a constructive part of DEI, managers have a specific set of needs that must be met?

What does it take for managers to leverage the power of these diverse teams? And, how can you ensure they get the support they need to create an environment that makes employees want to stay? The answer is in cultivating inclusive management practices throughout your organization.

We live in politically charged times, with a misperception emerging that diversity, equity and inclusion efforts are part of a political agenda. But DEI is politically agnostic. Why? Because the focus is on basic life principles, like how we understand and treat people who may be different from ourselves.