Beyond Your Team: The Role of Inclusive Leaders in Promoting Diversity Across the Organisation

True champions of inclusion recognize they have a shadow that extends well beyond their own team and the people they interact with regularly. They can influence or directly impact both people and systems to promote diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging at scale. They recognise that the organisation and the humans working within it do not exist in a vacuum, but are all active members of an ever-changing society, who impact, and are impacted by, events from without.

At the Organization level, our model has two competencies: Boundary Spanning and Equitiy Advocate.

Boundary Spanning

Boundary spanning is a competency that seems completely absent from many other inclusion models we have reviewed. Functional and geographic diversity can be as important to outcomes as other types, but are often impeded by information barriers, fault-lines or full-blow silos.

Inclusive leaders are enthusiastic about dismantling barriers to collaboration at the enterprise level. They actively seek the diverse opinions and input from other teams, functions and areas across the organisation and enable others to do the same.

 
 

Equity Advocate

Inclusive leaders influence key people around them and visibly advocate for fairness. They are allies of underrepresented groups and challenge the systems, decisions and behaviours that hinder a diverse and inclusive culture. They and mindful of inequity – they notice and respond to exclusion around them and activate discussions about social issues that could be impacting their people. They take considered decisions in their own work to bring about a more diverse and inclusive culture.
 

Improving your Organizational Inclusion

First and foremost you will have to adopt an enterprise DEI mindset – you will need to make yourself aware of issues outside of your immediate team and business, and when taking decisions and solving problems, you will need to deliberately consider DEI across the whole organisation.

One leader made a point of spending one day each month shadowing and observing “a day in the life” of their employees, regardless of grade, level, or functional domain. This practice helped equip the leader to understand the grassroots level opportunities, identify ways to improve access to systems or tools, and find ways to improve the daily work experience of diverse people around them. Another leader requested data every year with a diversity breakdown of performance ratings and promotions given amongst his extended team, as way of keeping himself and those around him accountable to role modelling equity and diversity.
 

 

Here are some habits you can try to build your capability:

 

Get Informed

Unless you are on the DEI Council, you probably are not aware of many of the issues impacting diverse groups in the company. Read the DEI strategy, join an ERG, or attend any voluntary training to get an understanding of the subtle things that make a big difference. Keep an eye on DEI data in your division.

 
 
 

Sponsor and Mentor

 
 

Take this even further by building relationships with individuals different to you, either in a mentoring or active sponsorship arrangement. Think of this as an opportunity to learn from them, not just support them.

 

Be an Ally

 
 

There are many ways to do this, so take the approach that works for you and has meaningful impact. It will probably require you to step out of your comfort zone.

 

Build connections

Ensure you span boundaries by connecting with other teams and inviting them to join some of your meetings. When you come across new information, think about who else could benefit across the enterprise, and actively share it. Support your team to spend their time doing the same things.