One of the toughest changes we can face is changing ourselves. And yet, this is the starting point when we learn how to better communicate, collaborate, and build great relationships with our diverse teams and customers. How to become a better inclusive leader is one of those personal changes. Once we became more inclusive as leaders our positive interactions will in return influence others and together we create a more inclusive environment.
How to become an inclusive leader
We change ourselves first by increasing our self-awareness which potentially uncovers what we’d rather keep buried in our unconsciousness. We may uncover for example that we have a bias which we did not know about (because it was unconscious) and which is against our existing conscious beliefs!
At some stage, changing ourselves almost certainly pushes us out of our comfort zone or at the very least disrupts some of our long-established and treasured habits. Like any change, changing ourselves requires us to have courage and confidence to deal with uncertainty.
How can we succeed in achieving our inclusive development goals?
What will help us to further develop our inclusive leadership skills? We find the answer in a holistic approach to learning to create new inclusive habits. Inclusive Leadership comes down to what we think, feel and do. We need to engage three parts in our learning, our Head, Heart, and Hands. Interestingly, these three aspects of learning correlate with three forms of intelligence being IQ, EQ and BQ (behavioural intelligence) which are driven from specific parts of our brains. (Todd Maddox, FEB2019)
HEAD stands for our logical, analytical abilities, which are usually measured by IQ tests. Head also stands for anything we learn including learning about ourselves. For example to be a more inclusive leader, we learn how to make less assumptions, how to be open to other points of views and make decisions based on facts.
HANDS stand for doing things differently which is the desired outcome of most trainings. New skills only matter when they are applied! After a training on Inclusive Leadership we would expect to act more inclusively with people who are different and to help others to be more inclusive as well. We can call this Behavioural Intelligence as “…one’s ability to affect their environment through overt behaviour” (Todd Maddox, FEB2019).
HEART stands for being aware of emotions, regulate emotions, and being empathetic, often described as Emotional Intelligence. HEART also stands for knowing our core personal values and knowing what we stand for and why. The HEART is the bridge between knowing the right thing to do (HEAD) and doing it (HANDS) because we are feeling strongly about it.
HEAD, HEART, HANDS is a simple model to help applying inclusive leadership skills. The model helps to be prepared and alert, for example, when you hear someone from a recruitment panel say, ‘Women are more often away from work than men.’ You can then apply the model by asking yourself three questions.
I’ve met managers who had all the right answers on how to be inclusive leaders but struggled to act accordingly. Unintentionally, this makes them appear as inauthentic. In the picture below, you see further questions which can help us to become more inclusive leaders. The HEART has the function of a motivator and inner compass to do the right thing even if it is sometimes difficult. The HEART is our bridge to go from HEAD to HANDS. We need all the help we can get to change ourselves and our HEART is our biggest supporter on this journey.
Example for applying HEAD, HANDS, HEART
For example, spending a day or even only a few hours in a wheel chair would make us feel more aware and empathetic of the daily challenges of people with different abilities. For an employer this emotional experience (HEART) can become a bridge to engage more with people from different abilities. The resulting positive experiences (HEART) are likely to shape their views (HEAD) about the employability of people with different abilities. This employer is more likely to create (HANDS) a work environment in which people can equally contribute.
Many people are learning about Inclusive Leadership which is great to raise awareness. Awareness, however, is only the first step and does not necessarily translate into change. In addition, participants of my workshops focus on learning how to deliberately engage their HEART in the process of becoming an Inclusive Leader. Finding the heart of Inclusive Leadership ensures successful learning transfer, behaviour change, and culture change. The HEART is the bridge between knowing the right thing to do (HEAD) and actually doing it (HANDS). With the help of our HEART we can be authentic, consistent, and persistent in creating inclusive organisations.
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