Many people are claiming that the COVID-19 crisis is a pivotal moment towards a more sustainable and human society. Personally, I doubt that such a fundamental shift can happen so rapidly, especially as one of the first priorities for many businesses is to sail through the crisis with the least possible damage.
Nevertheless, if each of us could decide to make small steps in that direction, it could be a great start. For example, by practicing a more inclusive leadership style or attitude at work.
- How can you deliberately ask the opinion from those who think or function differently than you – even if they sometimes work on your nerves?
- What steps can you take to ask every single person in the team to express their opinion, including the more silent ones? Especially for important decisions.
- How do you feel when someone proposes another way of delivering than the way you are used to or prefer? Are you ready to let go your strong convictions about “the only way” to get things done?
- How do you take people’s circumstances or external constraints into account when organising events or meetings? Particularly in today’s intensive working-from-home circumstances ?
- What can you do to truly listen to other people’s arguments instead of trying to convince them of yours? And how to build on these arguments?
- How can you increase your awareness of your personal mood before entering a meeting? Are you aware of other’s mood and how this can influence the meeting ? How can you improve your perception of both ?
- Do you have the wisdom as a leader to accept that there are many things you don’t know and that you benefit when opening up to the input of others ? How can you achieve that ?
- What can you do for people to feel safe to express diverging views? Do you for example encourage and praise people who do so?
In a complex contemporary world, collective intelligence – i.e. building on diverse opinions, expertise, experience and background – will be the norm.
One condition for that to function is to have diversity, i.e. teams composed of people with diverse backgrounds, personalities, expertise and talents. To benefit from the richness of diversity though, you need a corporate culture that practices inclusivity actively.
The great thing about inclusivity is that it is based on truly valuing each other’s uniqueness. This gives a more human face to business, and that is exactly what many people – also leaders – are aiming for. Willing to try?