The Sunday Mail
Women & Leadership
Maggie Mzumara
A LOT has been said about the need for leadership to be inclusive.
The inclusion of all types of people, including both gender types in the leadership matrices of organisations has been identified as not only a democratically-correct move, but also a Constitutional imperative.
As a result of much agitation around this, with courageous voices demanding social and economic equality, the call is on leaders within many organisations to examine their own attitudes and practices.
Many leaders have good intentions, but there’s a big divide between intentions and outcomes.
In practice, inclusion often goes amiss, strategies for change go flat, and the potential for excellence is lost, according to leadership practitioner, Lolly Daskal.
According to Daskal, here’s how executives, business owners and other leaders can start doing things differently:
Increase your self-awareness. Inclusiveness starts with the leader at the helm.
Begin by honestly asking yourself how well you genuinely embrace and engage in inclusion.
Many leaders understand the importance of inclusion and diversity in theory and are happy to advocate for it with their words, but they’re far less comfortable taking the kind of action that creates change.
Commit to taking that action and make it a priority. When you do, your commitment will reverberate throughout your organisation.
Expose your blind spots
Implicit bias is built in to the human brain. That means that even the best of us — individuals and organisations — have blind spots that keep us from seeing things objectively.
It takes an outsider to identify and start eliminating those blind spots, so find a consultant or coach you trust and give them a broad mandate to help you achieve change.
Deepen your relationships
After you’ve developed a higher level of self-awareness, you’re ready to begin working on social awareness — the way your beliefs and implicit biases affect your relationships with others. If you want your company to become more inclusive, start working on your own ability to create authentic relationships with your colleagues and employees.
Changing an organisation’s culture begins with simple acts of connection.
Invest in change
It’s one thing to say you want change, but to make it happen you need to add money, time and effort to your words. Invest in resources and people.
Spend time and energy working to confront challenges and create opportunities.
Identify and study your gaps and find ways to bridge them.
Do what it takes to make sure every employee feels valued and knows they matter and belong.
Embody courage
Being an inclusive leader isn’t easy. Some will criticise you for your commitment, and others will criticise you for not getting the results you want right away.
But I believe that every leader should pursue this path with as much determination as possible.
Change requires courage, and the best way of making it happen sooner rather than later is by forging ahead.
Lead from within
All change has to start somewhere and genuine, meaningful inclusiveness has to begin within you as a leader.
◆ Maggie Mzumara is a leadership, communication and media strategist as well as corporate trainer, who offers group trainings as well as one on one coaching in various areas of expertise. She advocates women leadership and is founder of Success in Stilettos (SiS) Seminar Series, a leadership development platform for women. Contact her on [email protected] or follow on Twitter @magsmzumara
