Inclusive Leadership – A journey that starts with being mindfully inclusive

Last week I attended a powerful virtual workshop on ‘Inclusive Leadership’ – spearheaded by our Inclusion & Diversity team. The workshop was an extension of our larger I&D efforts to build an inclusive mindset within our company. It ensured that our leaders and their teams got a deeper understanding of authentic inclusion, and served as a reminder that we need to be mindfully inclusive.  

I’ve been part of our I&D journey for some years now, but each time I participate in conversations, the more I learn. The workshop had a live virtual theatre play conducted by Steps Drama . It was fascinating to see them act out scenes from office life in a fictional company. Each character though completely fictional, seemed relatable to someone one perhaps knew/has seen in organizations. Seeing them in action helped us identify the biases that we see in our everyday life, but perhaps call out less often.

This #GotmeThinking on the topic of inclusive leadership. Inclusion is a continuous journey we need to mindfully make. Role modelling is perhaps the most important part of it and the change we seek starts with us. And as people, we need to constantly learn, be aware and address our own biases. Now more than ever it is a time for action. There is so much happening in our world today, where #blacklivesmatter is rightfully becoming a movement, and #PRIDE rallies are being organized virtually. In our own country, there is more awareness around religious and ethnic inclusion. As leaders in global organizations, we need to further educate ourselves of the challenges our colleagues in different parts of the world are facing. It’s on us to respond and also shape the experience of our people within the organization.

I firmly believe that as leaders, we must be active allies to under-represented groups. We must speak up, and create space for everybody to express their POV. We must also be bold about confessing our own unconscious biases that we have learnt of and addressed. That’s the only way we’ll be able to create an environment that’s safe for people to bring their whole authentic selves to work. It is time for getting past talking and acting.