Mon, August 07, 2017
Diversity and Inclusion are often spoken about in the same breath but rarely framed as two very different things.
Diversity is generally understood as recognising that every individual is unique and recognising those differences. They can be along dimensions of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical and mental abilities, age, learning preferences, religious beliefs, political beliefs, or other ideologies.
Diversity is often measured through monitoring data and can be quantified if done well.
Inclusion quite simply means ‘the state of being included’. However it is harder to quantify and requires a lot more time and effort to achieve. Two commodities that many managers don’t feel they have enough of.
Diversity in itself does not drive inclusion; in fact without inclusion there can be various degrees of conflict.
In order to achieve diversity and inclusion, there has to be more than headcount data. Organisations need to understand the narrative along with the numbers to draw a true picture and that requires inclusive leadership.
As the figure above shows there is a business imperative to create a culture of diversity and inclusion and invest in building inclusive leaders.
The typical characteristics of an inclusive leader are:
Cognizance
because bias is a leader’s Achilles heel
Curiosity
because different ideas and experiences enable growth
Cultural Intelligence
because not everyone sees through the same cultural lens
Collaboration
because a diverse thinking team is greater than the sum of its parts
Commitment
because staying the course is hard
Courage
because talking about imperfections involves personal risk
Inclusive Leadership is the key to unlocking high performance potential.
Decide if you are an inclusive leader by answering the following 10 questions:
Warnford Court,
29 Throgmorton Street,
London,
EC2N 2AT
+44(0)203 909 8640
info@theoceanpartnership.com