3 ways to empower your leaders to unleash potential: Communicating with intent (part 3)

Empowering Leaders to Unleash Potential by Communicating with Intent

Charles Darwin once said, ‘It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change’.? And change is of course upon us, from the diverse composition of teams to the way we now interact with each other.? A leader who is comfortable in this ever-changing landscape – and who can effectively communicate their level of understanding of the changes – is a leader who is able to tap into the collective intelligence of their team and harness its full potential. Like the Pied Piper, it will be easier for this kind of leader to bring others along.

Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is arguably one of the biggest changes in workplace culture today.? In this context, what does a leader need to say, in order to harness the team’s full potential?? I offer 3 things for your consideration:

1. Tie your EDI vision to the business vision

When a leader can eloquently explain the relationship between their EDI agenda and the success of the business vision, that’s when the penny drops.? And this message really must land, because your teams may feel that there are more persuasive reasons not to subscribe to the EDI agenda than there are reasons to go along with it.? This is quite natural, because you are asking your team to change what they have known and how they have behaved up until now.

To make your workplace become more inclusive, you are now challenging:

• What they know (e.g., about neurodiversity, about common biases in the workplace, about the effects of seemingly benign comments upon their recipients)
• How they think (e.g., ‘I don’t mind being interrupted, so why should others?’ or ‘I did it all on my own, so she shouldn’t get any support either,’ or ‘I have lots of experience in this field; I’m definitely the one who knows best’)
• What they say (e.g., ‘Don’t take it so personally, it was just a joke! ’or ‘No offence, but…’ or ‘Don’t be such a girl about it!’)
• How they behave (e.g., interrupting each other, not hearing the ideas of the quiet person in the room, mixing up the names of 2 people from a similar ethnic background, and many other routine, innocent behaviours and statements that preclude another from feeling psychologically safe).

To get the team to buy into the change, a leader needs to provide a compelling reason.?The best reason is to explain the importance of making the change for the sake of the success of the business vision.? It’s important?to spell out the business benefits in the same way as?when making a change to the business model, introducing a new software programme, or going into a new market.? Treating EDI in the same way we think about other business changes will pave the way for success.? So ask yourself:? How would a diverse and inclusive team benefit our work?

We know that whatever the business vision is for the future, a diverse and inclusive team will be better equipped to achieve it.? Being clear on this and articulating it clearly and frequently will create the necessary incentive to put in the effort to ensure everyone in the team feels safe and empowered to contribute fully.

2. Watch what you don’t say as much as what you do say

Consistency is key. It’s not uncommon, however, to say all the right things when thinking clearly about EDI and then inadvertently do or say something that is entirely contradictory. It is difficult to believe the true intentions of a leader, for instance, who talks about the importance of hiring more people from underrepresented backgrounds and yet routinely ends up with people on their own team who look like them. Or one who, despite articulated statements about the importance of EDI to their team, doesn’t show any initiative to support people from underrepresented backgrounds within their own sphere of influence. Or worse, a leader who is overheard making a derogatory remark about a group of people from underrepresented backgrounds, showing their own lack of understanding and ignorance. I heard about one such leader who said to his colleagues, ‘I treat everyone as equal. I treat all my gay friends like normal people.’

Mixed messages like that make people question the true motivation behind the leader’s intentions around EDI. You’ve heard that a leader’s whisper becomes a shout, so it’s as important to be conscious of what we do and say when we’re not talking about EDI as when we are. Naturally, it’s impossible to not misstep, but leaders should remain conscious of their responsibility to model inclusive behaviour. Even the best intentioned, experienced EDI leaders will make mistakes however, and that’s OK, if it’s managed. This brings me to my third and final point.

3. Invite imperfection into your team

When it comes to making changes to routine behaviours and understandings, mistakes and missteps are inevitable along the way.? Reprogramming how we see the world is a life-long journey.? What matters is that we start on this journey and keep going, and it’s important to manage the expectation that our behaviours will change almost instantly.? We all know the difference between wanting to exercise more and actually making it part of our routine, wanting to eat more healthily and actually doing so, or between wishing to make myriad other small changes and actually making them.? Behaviour change is difficult, and we should both acknowledge and allow for this.

A leader who explains that we’re all on a journey and that we will need to be patient with each other while we?learn and improve will have more credibility than one who takes a hard line. Invite?your team to be patient with each other, to find a respectful and polite way to point out missteps and learn from them together.? This sends a signal of understanding to the team that increases the level of trust and the motivation to try.? Asking your team to point out to you when you may have ‘put your foot in it’ is another way to admit that you, as a leader, are on the same journey with the rest of your team.

Of course, inviting imperfection into the team is not an invitation for ‘business as usual’, because we still want to make the change.? It’s simply an acknowledgement that change doesn’t come instantaneously, and that we will all make mistakes as we progress.? That said, we also need to ensure that we learn from these mistakes.

Communicating the benefits of EDI and behaving in a way that is consistent with this communication will not only convey the leader’s genuine intentions around EDI but also gradually normalise it as a way of thinking.? In this way, by changing their own behaviour (as set out in this short series of 3 blogs), the leader will also be shifting their own and other people’s mindset about the importance of EDI.? A leader who understands this will harness the collective intelligence of their team – and this is how we empower leaders to unleash potential.

This blog was first published on the Voice At The Table website ?

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