Every business, no matter the size, is constantly looking for that next competitive advantage. What is the next edge that they can find to drive more customers, more growth, and a stronger bottom line? Typically, they will focus their attention on new products, new technologies, and new operating strategies to get this done. But what if we were to consider the impact of inclusive leadership on business success?
It’s well understood at this point that the quality of your leadership has a significant impact on how the organization is going to perform. After all, the tone and values of an organisation come from the top. What few companies do though is take that idea to its natural conclusion – that your leadership structures need to represent the rest of the organisation.
Having inclusive leadership that celebrates diversity is actually a competitive advantage, for some of the following reasons:
Supports Innovation.
In order to nurture regular innovation within your organisation, you have to create a space for diverse thinking. If you’re only going to listen to one perspective, you’ll never come up with anything truly unique that is going to set your organisation apart from the rest. Diverse viewpoints are worth their weight in gold because it’s the intermingling of different experiences and ideas that create new innovations. This is true throughout every level of a company, but it’s crucially important at the top where key strategic decision making takes place. Without it, you’re likely to stick with the status quo and render yourself irrelevant as the ground shifts underneath you.
Increases Productivity.
Your employees take their lead from what they see at the top of the organisation, and a lack of inclusive leadership can be very demotivating for BAME employees. When they don’t see a leadership team that is representative of the community it’s serving, there’s a corresponding drop in productivity which harms the organisation. Inclusive leadership, on the other hand, can serve to energize teams because they feel aligned with the mission and can see individual growth potential that motivates them to bring their best to work every day. It’s staggering how efficiently things can run if people have the right role models and incentives in place.
Improves Social Cohesion.
A company only runs effectively when everyone is pulling in the same direction. And every employee requires different things in order to feel a part of the overall mission. Inclusive leadership is a much stronger foundation to build upon as you try and get the best out of your employees because you can deploy different approaches for each employee according to their background, personality, and values. Having a leadership team that is broadly representative of the company itself means that every employee, regardless of background, can find some common ground with their leaders. This makes for a more cohesive social environment, and it makes for more consistent alignment with the mission.
Those are just a few of the reasons why inclusive leadership can be so powerful for an organisation. To delve deeper into this topic, we are curating a fascinating roundtable discussion with the Housing Leadership Network and a distinguished panel of speakers that promises to be a fantastic event.
The speakers are as follows:
- Loraine Martins MBE FRSA – Director of Diversity and Inclusion, Network Rail.
- Denise Fowler – CEO, Women’s Pioneer.
- Kerry Tromanhauser – Director of Business Change, Eastlight Community Homes.
The event is set to take place via Zoom on 11 June 2021 from 14h00 – 15h15.
We would love to have you join us and share some of your experiences around this very important topic of inclusive leadership. Be sure to register for the event here and bring all your ideas to the table as we learn from each other and advocate for the changes we want to see in our industry.
