Episode 4 Transcript - Inclusive Leadership Benefits

Hello and welcome back to episode 4 of Breakdown, the show that helps our listeners to break topics down through easy-to-understand conversations. I’m your host, Veronica Franco. In today’s episode, we will discuss the characteristics of inclusive leadership and the benefits of using inclusive leadership within an organization, including cultural intelligence, psychological safety, creativity, and pro-social rule-breaking.

What is Inclusive Leadership?

It is essential to know what inclusive leadership is within the work environment to understand the various benefits of inclusive leadership. Inclusive leadership is a leadership style where leaders interact with their staff through openness, availability, accessibility, and care about their workers' needs and opinions (Wang & Shi, 2021). First, openness refers to the opportunities given to employees to come up with innovative solutions, share their ideas, and make decisions (Wang & Shi, 2021). Next, availability refers to the time and energy a leader gives their staff through quick and helpful guidance (Wang & Shi, 2021). Finally, accessibility refers to the leader's ability to establish a close relationship with their team by recognizing their members' needs (Wang & Shi, 2021).

It is through these characteristics that inclusive leaders create a healthy work environment. An inclusive leader's openness, availability, and accessibility promote a sense of perceived belonging to the company while acknowledging each specific individual for their unique qualities (Paiuc, 2021). Inclusive leaders understand that a healthy work environment encourages all team members to feel "comfortable, confident, and appreciated" through an inclusive culture that adds value to their work and the company (Paiuc, 2021, p. 367).

Cultural Intelligence: A Vital Facilitator of Inclusive Leadership

Company leaders must understand and work with others from various cultures as the world becomes increasingly interconnected. Inclusive leaders foster their cultural intelligence to engage their diverse workers. Cultural intelligence is the understanding of a culture different than one's own, giving that individual the capability to build relationships and work with others (Pauic, 2021). Cultural intelligence has four interdependent components: cognition, motivation, behavior, and metacognition (Pauic, 2021). Inclusive leaders use these components when interacting with people of differing cultures. They begin to use their cognition or understanding of the new information presented as a motivational catapult to adapt to their new surroundings (Pauic, 2021). These leaders recognize the appropriate behavior needed to interact with people from various cultures and have gained the appropriate knowledge, also known as metacognition, to use in the future (Pauic, 2021). Utilizing cultural intelligence is essential to authentic leader-member exchanges that inspire members to become more engaged with their company and understand their colleagues from various nations.

According to a study by Dan Paiuc, cultural intelligence is a critical characteristic of inclusive leadership and facilitates inclusive work environments (2021). Companies with diverse, talented employees are not guaranteed to thrive or maintain a competitive edge without utilizing inclusionary leadership (Pauic, 2021). Inclusive leaders utilize their cultural intelligence to understand their workers' needs and how they respond to change to inspire their staff to reach their fullest potential (Pauic, 2021). Understanding and nurturing their needs and aspirations increase talented employees' retention and overall work performance. Culturally intelligent leaders also create a safe environment for their staff to express their ideas freely and seek out diverse views to make informed decisions (Pauic, 2021). Teams, in turn, become more autonomous and take on more responsibility due to their ability to be both parts of the company and individually unique (Pauic, 2021). Incorporating cultural intelligence as a facilitator of inclusionary leadership practices encourages diverse employees to utilize their uniqueness to innovate solutions and allow the company to remain competitive in a global market (Pauic, 2021).

Psychological Safety: A Catalyst for Risk-Taking.

Psychological safety is a state of being one's true self and engaging in behaviors without fear of ruining one's reputation or career (Ye et al., 2019). Inclusive leaders create psychological safety by leading in a highly relational and democratic leadership style. Inclusive leaders encourage input from their employees on decisions and give them the freedom of choice to prioritize and pursue their work objectives (Ye et al., 2019). Employees recognize that their inclusive leaders expect them to take on challenging goals with the potential of failure without the fear that they will be penalized for their efforts (Ye et al., 2019). Inclusive leaders have such strong relationships with their staff due to their modeled openness that most employees feel safe to take higher risks regardless of the outcome (Ye et al., 2019).

When inclusive leaders encourage autonomous, independent behavior from their staff in a psychologically safe work environment, employees take on challenging workloads fearlessly and learn from their mistakes (Ye et al., 2019). Inclusive leaders welcome each mistake as a learning experience and encourage workers to use these experiences to gain professional knowledge. Open communication in leader-member exchanges makes employees feel safe to innovate. Employees know that their inclusive leaders care about their ideas and appreciate their efforts which leads to feelings of support, high self-worth, respect, and value within their company (Ye et al., 2019). In contrast, workers in a non-psychologically safe environment may evade risky behavior for fear of losing out on bonuses, promotions, and other rewards if they feel that their mistakes and failures impede their career development opportunities within the company (Ye et al., 2019). By reducing the costs of making mistakes, inclusive leaders foster a safe environment for workers to become essential contributors to the organization's competitive success (Ye et al., 2019).

Creativity: A Gateway to Innovation.

Creativity results in innovation, encouraging organizations to keep striving to reduce costs while improving the quality of their services (Fu et al., 2022). Inclusive leaders understand that individual employee creativity increases the company's performance and drives them to the top of the global competitive market (Fu et al., 2022). Since individual employees understand the nuances of their positions better than their leaders do, inclusive leaders tend to give their employees more job autonomy, support, and psychologically safe work environments to encourage innovative thinking (Fu et al., 2022). An open, collaborative work environment encourages employees to take creative risks leading to more innovative ideas and propelling an organization above the competition. Organizations not only benefit from innovation through reducing costs while improving services and increasing their overall performance and value (Fu et al., 2022). These inclusive organizations also benefit from increased employee satisfaction as their workers feel safe creatively collaborating to develop new solutions to their daily objectives.

Although psychologically safe work environments contribute to an employee's engagement in creative projects, so does polychronicity, or a person's ability to multi-task (Fu et al., 2022). According to a recent study by Fu et al., polychronicity has a mediating relationship between inclusive leadership and increased employee creativity (2022). By leaders utilizing inclusive behaviors, employees are more engaged with their workplace environment and feel more connected to their transparent leaders (Fu et al., 2022). Employees will feel inspired to take on extra responsibilities due to the care and support they receive from their leaders as a social exchange leading to inventive multi-tasking that expands their visionary capabilities (Fu et al., 2022). Inclusive leaders understand that fostering polychronicity within a psychologically safe work environment is crucial for an organization to increase creativity and remain globally competitive (Fu et al., 2022).

Pro-Social Rule-Breaking in an Inclusive Work Environment.

Pro-Social Rule Breaking occurs when employees break the rules for the organization's benefit. Employees engage in pro-social rule-breaking when they work in a psychologically safe environment. These risk-taking employees know there are no severe punishments for breaking the rules, even when it promotes innovative development within the organization (Wang & Shi, 2021). Inclusive leaders encourage their members to question policies in place and give them the freedom to test their ideas without fearing punishment for their failures (Wang & Shi, 2021). Since inclusive leaders encourage all employees to express their ideas for the betterment of the organization, these employees consequently are emboldened to challenge current policies to improve the organization's overall efficiency (Wang & Shi, 2021). Inclusive leaders also have strong relationships with their employees, resulting in increased employee trust, loyalty, and motivation to improve their inclusive workplace culture (Wang & Shi, 2021). Through inclusive leadership, leaders can establish a psychologically safe work environment where every employee can feel they belong.

Final Thoughts

In conclusion, inclusive leadership is essential in creating an inclusive, psychologically safe workplace and has many benefits. Inclusive leaders must use their cultural intelligence to understand the needs of their employees and collaborate with them using their collective intelligence to drive innovation. Inventive thinking increases the profitability of the company and the value of the employees as unique individuals and talented members of the company. Without a psychologically safe and inclusive environment, employees would not feel comfortable expressing their opinions, taking on extra tasks, challenging outdated systems, or testing new efficient procedures within their work environment. For a company to remain globally competitive, inclusive leaders must facilitate an environment where its employees feel safe, engaged, valued, and appreciated to encourage efficient practices while striving for high-quality services.

References

• Fu, Q., Cherian, J., Ahmad, N., Scholz, M., Samad, S., & Comite, U. (2022). An Inclusive Leadership Framework to Foster Employee Creativity in the Healthcare Sector: The Role of Psychological Safety and Polychronicity. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(8).

• Paiuc, D. (2021). Cultural Intelligence as a Core Competence of Inclusive Leadership. Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy, 9(3), 363-378.

• Wang, F., & Shi, W. (2021). Inclusive Leadership and Pro-Social Rule Breaking: The Role of Psychological Safety, Leadership Identification and Leader-Member Exchange. Psychological Reports, 124(5), 2155-2179.

• Ye, Q., Wang, D., & Li, X. (2019). Inclusive leadership and employees’ learning from errors: A moderated mediation model. Australian Journal of Management (Sage Publications Ltd.), 44(3), 462-481.