Developing "Swing" as a Team

Yesterday, we had a mid-term election with the divided populous still wondering “who won”. Why is inclusive leadership so rare, but needed more today in our divided communities and organizations? Most elected leaders gave “lip-service” to the concept of including diverse individuals and their opinions during the campaign on camera. But how will these leaders represent us behind closed doors or when the pressure to sacrifice principles becomes too strong?

In the March 2020 Harvard Business Journal article “The Key to Inclusive Leadership” by Juliet Bourke and Andrea Titus, research concluded that six key attributes drive inclusive leaders. The thesis statement from Bourke and Titus was that?the more people feel included, the more they are willing to speak up,?go the extra mile, and collaborate — all lifting your community and raising organizational performance. Crucial conversations only happen when people feel empowered to speak and act according to their personal guiding principles or consciousness.

To be an inclusive leader the most important attribute is:

Visible commitment: They articulate authentic commitment to diversity, challenge the status quo, hold others accountable, and make diversity and inclusion a personal priority in both business and personal decisions since we should be transparent and intentional when making decisions.

Most importantly, leaders must be truly humble and teachable.

Humility: Leaders are modest about their own capabilities, admit mistakes, and create the space for others to contribute. They give credit and acknowledge their colleague’s contributions publicly.

Other important attributes identified by Bourke and Titus included:

Awareness of bias: They admit personal blind spots, as well as flaws in the system, and work hard to ensure a meritocracy.

Curiosity about others: They demonstrate an open mindset and deep curiosity about other’s prespective, listen without judgment, and seek with empathy to understand those around them.

Cultural intelligence: They are attentive to others’ cultures and adapt as required.

Effective collaboration: They empower others, pay attention to diversity of thinking and psychological safety, and focus on team cohesion.

Given the political debates and lack of empathy for those who oppose our personal views, these skills are much in demand today. What happened to empathy and mercy for one’s adversary or opponent in our current political process or organizations? In this week’s election, it was rare to witness empathy and forgiveness for one's opponent since it is characterized as weakness, even in an acceptance speech. Great leaders should overlook small disagreements, not hold grudges, and demonstrate empathy when their teammates or even opponents make mistakes.?

Many leaders don’t want to do the hard work and undergo the painstaking process of compromise inherit in inclusive leadership. It is easier to try and create a community or organization that has the most admired characteristics and backgrounds. Most often we see this manifest in leaders choosing successors just like themselves. Similarities and outward appearance are valued over substance and diversity by most people. Many narcissistic and accomplished entrepreneurs and leaders fall into this trap, and it limits our ability to practice inclusive leadership. The truly inclusive leaders maintain an emphatic heart for those who don’t demonstrate or “look the part” of a winner in how our organization or society defines winning.

To understand why true inclusive leadership is so difficult, I introduce the concept of grafting.?True inclusive leaders graft in very different people and viewpoints and compromise.?Grafting is a pain-staking and difficult process found primarily in agriculture but can be metaphorically adapted to leadership training. Grafting means taking two very different species and combining them to create a more sustainable plant. To be trained to successfully graft trees is something that takes years of hard work and experimentation. Leading your organization with the principle of grafting means using that same principle of compromise and experimentation in how inclusive practices are codified.

Grafting or graftage as a horticultural technique joins the tissues of diverse plants to make a more sustainable growth pattern.?Grafting provides the benefit of attaching different roots to tree species to enable those plants to grow in soils where they normally can't grow.?If you were to plant a tree where it shouldn't be planted naturally, it will have a shorter life. In most cases, grafted fruit trees are generally a better choice than seedlings because they are heartier and sustainable. The metaphor to leadership and inclusion should be clear.?Inclusive leaders “graft” solutions in an iterative process like compromise.

Authentic leaders do not create inclusive environments in a brilliant flash or spending spree on popular or trendy programs. They work with diverse individuals to find a?meeting of the minds. Talented and brilliant people are not the best people to lead your organization or community unless they can prove they can graft inclusive solutions. Grafting these solutions is a painstaking process of compromise and "bridge-building" with those that some might say were your adversaries or individuals whose life experiences are 180 degrees different than your own. A meeting of the minds is usually not a 50/50 compromise. A 80/20 compromise can be an inclusive and acceptable solution if the key stakeholders were truly listened to, consulted, and recognized for their contribution to the recommended solution.

If you want to identify new people who have the potential to be inclusive leaders, find those that enjoy bringing diverse people together.?Find those in your community that effectively articulate a commitment to grafting inclusive solutions. If your organization wants to not only be inclusive, but discover the best ideas and policies, I recommend challenging the status quo. The status quo can be identified by who gets the most attention or resources in your organization. Challenge past choices of what type of leader to hire or which leaders to spend resources and attention to develop further. Hold your current leaders accountable for grafting in the next generation of inclusive leaders.

?There is a thing that sometimes happens on “well-oiled” teams that is hard to achieve and hard to define. It’s what Sharon Eubank called “swing.” It happens only when all on the team are rowing in such perfect unison that not a single action is out of sync.?Rowers must rein in their fierce independence and at the same time hold true to their individual capabilities. Great companies spawn a series of great leaders by exceptional accountability and adhering to company principles, but they are not clones of each other. Good crews are the same thing. Not clones but a good blend —someone to lead the charge, someone to hold something in reserve, someone to fight the fight, someone to make peace. No rower is more valuable than another, all are assets to the boat,?but if they are to row well together, each must adjust to the needs and capabilities of the others —the shorter-armed person reaching a little farther, the longer-armed person pulling in just a bit.

Differences can be turned to advantage instead of disadvantage. Only then will it feel as if the boat is moving on its own. Only then does pain entirely give way to exultation. Good “swing” feels like poetry," Eubank explained.

Great inclusionary leadership puts into practice the idea of “swing” along with the grafting in diverse ideas and viewpoints. Inclusive leadership is so rare because very few leaders understand how to work with people who don’t think, walk, or act like they do. The status quo creates feelings of comfort and reassures senior leaders that the up-and-coming generation of leaders will be just like themselves. They will come from the same schools and look much like themselves. But for 2023, I challenge our new leaders to break non-inclusive patterns and start grafting in new and better processes for the betterment of all constituencies. Let's find our leadership swing together.