Getting Started as an Inclusive Leader
As leaders, we want efficient and collaborative teams. Most of us also want our teams to enjoy working with us and collaborating together, creating a productive, unified whole to achieve the mission and purpose of a company. We aim to create inclusive companies that bring out the best in all of us. We want to work creatively and productively, making something greater than the sum of its parts. This is inclusive innovation. But inclusion requires sustained, coordinated effort, and often challenging changes to the structure and norms of a company. One-off efforts don’t make a lasting impact. What are the immediate changes leaders can make to lay the foundation for durable inclusive innovation in a company?
Leader Wellbeing
Leader wellbeing is essential to building an inclusive company. Inclusion is understanding and meeting the needs of all stakeholders — beginning with you. When you are well, you can be clear and present. Clarity and presence enable us to see new, win-win possibilities: these are opportunities for inclusive innovation.
- Rest — Take breaks between meetings. Walk during calls as appropriate. Reserve time for independent work, separate from meetings. This practice is good for you and models a sustainable pace for your team. Move quickly when it will make a difference, not as a default.
- Zoom out — If you notice that you feel solely responsible for the success of the team, you may not be sharing enough responsibility or inviting the perspectives of others. Carrying more than your own work is unsustainable. Over-ownership excludes your team and robs them of their opportunity to contribute.
Leader Awareness
Know your blind spots and examine how you contribute to an exclusive work culture. We all hold biases, and it can be tough to accept your own once you see them. If you have data on your own implicit biases, you are increasingly able to confront them. Addressing our implicit biases equips us to thrive together in diverse spaces with diverse perspectives.
Create Team Wellbeing and Awareness
Wellbeing. Encourage your team to care for themselves in whatever ways they need. Go beyond modeling this mindfulness and build the practice into the norms of your team. Emphasize that water and bathroom breaks during long days on Zoom are necessary. Make it easy for your team to connect via Slack channels, interest groups, or experiential activities. Connection creates a company as a strong community. Work becomes more meaningful when employees and leaders feel connected to each other.
Awareness. Integrate self-reflection into performance management. Ask your team to examine their progress in order to make both healthy and productive changes. Create opportunities for collective reflection, too — this can happen publicly at All Hands meetings. When we designate time to dialogue about what works and what doesn’t, we are more aligned in our work and create stronger relationships within the workplace. Pause, reflect, and design next actions.
Wellness and awareness are the building blocks of inclusive innovation.
Lenore Champagne Beirne
Lenore is the founder of Bright Ventures, and an expert in Inclusive Innovation. Under her leadership, the team at Bright Ventures invests in and coaches startup leaders, and cultivates equity and access in the entrepreneurial ecosystem. Lenore is deeply committed to developing and partnering with leaders to build a future that represents the needs and interests of communities of color.
