Why Your Leadership on Building Inclusion Matters

By Emeizmi Mandagi

Office hallway. Photo by Nastuh Abootalebi on Unsplash.

As more companies begin to increasingly focus on implementing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, it's important for leaders of color and especially white leaders in the workplace to model and commit to inclusive behavior. However, the reality is that many managers are not properly equipped with the skills and tools needed to lead and connect with Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) employees.

A recent article in Harvard Business Review by Salwa Rahim-Dillard notes that the physical traits, values, behaviors, and workplace identities of BIPOC employees continue to be compromised, minimized, and excluded at work. This points to a need for white leaders to become adept at bridging, that is, connecting with those who are different from them. While BIPOC leaders must become more skilled at bonding, or connecting with others who are similar to them.

Both bridging and bonding are behavioral practices that are critical among leaders in the workplace to ensure that BIPOC employees feel included and do not feel inclined to engage in the practice of "mirroring", which is the internal process in which a BIPOC employee will mimic or portray what is considered a normative professional workplace identity in order to be perceived positively and rewarded by their white manager. This ultimately allows them to advance their career much further than if they strayed from the image of what is considered a "professional" workplace identity.

Employees who mirror their white supervisors simply seek to belong and successfully navigate a corporate world where many of their colleagues may not look or act like them. Yet, despite mirroring their white and more senior counterparts, many continue to possess limited power and autonomy in the workplace. Instead, they are often misunderstood, micromanaged, and rarely share an authentic connection with their managers.

A study featured in HBR assessing cultural competency (ability to bridge) of over 100 white leaders (manager level and above) found that more than 89% severely lacked the ability to bridge and authentically connect with people who were different from them. Many white leaders lacked the ability to build trusting relationships with BIPOC employees and were not skilled at leading inclusively, as this requires one to both acknowledge and value the authentic uniqueness of others different from them, and facilitate positive interactions that will create an environment of equity and belonging.

However, since white men comprise more than 85% of Fortune 500 CEOs, they are critical in creating inclusive and anti-racist workplaces. Senior-level BIPOC leaders also need to ensure that their behaviors do not perpetuate workplace inequities and work to authentically bond with other BIPOC employees. Leaders who are not effective in cultivating equity and inclusion at work oftentimes drive BIPOC employees to mirror their white managers in order to survive in a corporate world that is not built to allow them to excel as their authentic selves.

Inclusive leaders first and foremost work to build inclusive teams where all employees, both white and BIPOC, are empowered and valued for their authentic and unique identities. They should enable BIPOC managers to lead their teams without interfering or micromanaging, and ensure that employees at all levels of the organization feel like they belong.

You might be thinking to yourself, this sounds all well and good, but I don't quite know what building inclusive teams looks like in the day-to-day or what actionable steps I need to take.

To that end, Rahim-Dillard recommends that leaders start by:

• Reflecting on their behaviors and assess how these behaviors negatively impact BIPOC employees. They should particularly focus on behaviors such as their ability to empower BIPOC voices, encourage BIPOC individuals to lead in the decision-making process, model authenticity and vulnerability, admit to their personal bias and work to deconstruct them, bridge cultural divides, etc. Their strengths in behaviors such as those listed should be further improved, while their skills gaps should be further decreased.

• Cultivate psychological safety. When people feel safe in the workplace, they are more inclined to express themselves authentically to their managers and colleagues rather than mirror the behaviors and values of their white colleagues and managers. As a leader, you can cultivate psychological safety through behaviors such as actively listening and soliciting the perspectives of BIPOC employees, anticipating conflict and working to resolve them in an equitable manner, and pushing through discomfort and fear to stand up when BIPOC individuals are excluded whether intentionally or unintentionally.

• Practicing empathy and cultural awareness to bridge divides. Leaders should cultivate the ability to bridge cultural divides with ease. One can do so by empathizing, valuing, and seeking to understand the history, feelings, and perspectives of people from historically marginalized groups. They can also bridge these divides by educating themselves in others' cultures and actively engaging and immersing themselves in a variety of cultural experiences.

• Openly acknowledging personal biases and working to deconstruct them through self-reflection. Leaders should constantly challenge unsubstantiated assumptions they may hold with regards to the talent, performance, and practices of BIPOC employees. It is also critical that leaders recognize how these biases manifest in our society's institutions and how they negatively impact BIPOC folks.

Yet, even if as a leader you adopt these behaviors or implement these initial steps, leading inclusively and creating an inclusive environment is a continuous process, and it will require sustained and active effort. So remember, it's a lifelong marathon — not a sprint. The most important thing is to remain encouraged to keep growing as an inclusive leader all the while leading other white and BIPOC leaders in becoming inclusive leaders themselves.