Using Inclusive Leadership to Reset and Recharge Racial Diversity

Inclusive leaders guide conversations around bias in the workplace and take conscious, proactive steps to ensure that all employees are supported at work. At 10x Psychology, our Solutions are uniquely engineered to provide real-time insights based on the Personality, Motivations and Competencies of every employee.

Introduction

Diversity and inclusion strategies have become increasingly linked to organizational success; both in terms of culture, and profit. In this context, renegotiating exactly which strategies authentically drive racial diversity is integral to organizational success.

Whilst the broadness of the term ‘diversity’ lends to its inclusivity, there is an ambiguity that can lead to strategies that fuel minimal inclusion and creates a dynamic in which only white women are perceived as the primary beneficiaries to D&I efforts.

Inclusive leaders are those that recognize the spectrum of identities that make up a diverse organization, and actively seek to promote representative, aligned behaviours at work that empower all talent.

In this article, we’ll explore the ways that inclusive leadership impacts retention, performance and employee experience, and advise on how our Solutions at 10x Psychology complete the diversity puzzle.

What makes an Inclusive Leader?

“The single most important trait generating a sense of inclusiveness is a leader’s visible awareness of bias”
Harvard Business Review, 2020.

Inclusive Leadership offers an opportunity to move away from traditiona D&I strategies, to authentically reflecting and representing considerate, empathetic practice on a day-to-day level.

According to research from the Harvard Business Review, an inclusive leader first and foremostly communicates an awareness of bias.

Once that bias is made visible, inclusive leaders lead with empathy to create conversations, strategies and processes that work against bias and improve wellbeing.

Doing this improves feelings of inclusion by up to 33% in employees, boosting their likelihood to stay, and establish meaningful connections in the workplace.

Critically, inclusive leadership focuses on internal growth and psychological safety — it does not start with merely hiring more BAME employees.

By cultivating an environment and culture where diversity can flourish, inclusive leaders can minimize the effects of bias in the workplace and reap the benefits of a diverse workforce.

Individuals not Groups

Pre-pandemic research from The University of Twente indicates that pre-recorded interviews may offer a subjective impression of a candidate’s competency.

“There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not lead single-issue lives”
Audre Lorde, Feminist LGBTQ Writer and civil rights activist.

Every individual across the racial spectrum has different motivations, competencies and personalities that make up their identity, alongside their race.

At 10x Psychology, we support an intersectional approach to inclusive leadership with our industry-leading psychometrics.

10x Optimize uses our psychometrics to tailor full development plans for every employee, team and geographic location — with all data displayed on a visual interactive dashboard.

This empowers every employee to gain a full, comprehensive insight into their motivations and competencies to ensure that they’re moving in the right direction, are getting what they need, and are in the right place.

It doubly provides organizations with the opportunity to re-engage with their people by reforming their reward strategies, and proactively recognizing talent without the influence of bias.

“65% of black employees, and 16% of white employees feel that black employees have to work harder to advance”
Coqual, Being Black in Corporate America — an Intersectional Exploration

Despite black employees being statistically more ambitious than their white coworkers, 35% of black employees intend to leave their current companies within two years (Coqual, Intersectional Exploration). Our Solutions establish equal visibility, preventing individuals who may be typically overlooked from being left behind. This increases the likelihood of people actualizing their potential and meeting their ambitions, establishing a turning point for those who had planned to leave.

Counteract loss of talent by reconsidering what development means in your organization, and enable all people to meet their potential.