Whilst diverse and inclusive teams are integral to the success of an organisation, it does not guarantee high performance. Inclusive leadership is critical to the success of a business and helps drive broader inclusiveness and positive culture.

Following a review by Harvard Business School, which included a survey comprising more than 4,100 employees it was identified that teams with inclusive leaders are:

  • 17% more likely to report that they are high performing;
  • 20% more likely to say they make high-quality decisions; and
  • 29% more likely to report behaving collaboratively.

It was also noted that a 10% perception of inclusion increases work attendance by almost one (1) day a year per employee, reducing the cost of absenteeism.

Harvard determined that six categories (or personality traits) were identified as being critical to successful leadership:

  • Visible Leadership regarding diversity
  • Humility
  • Awareness of bias
  • Curiosity about others
  • Cultural intelligence
  • Effective collaboration.

Importance of building a Culture of acceptance and inclusion

A key influencer on a company’s success in embracing true diversity and inclusion is their ability to recognise and address conscious and unconscious bias within their existing workforce, and especially the leadership team.

Conscious biases can be relatively easy to identify, though potentially harder to address.

“Unconscious biases” are learned stereotypes that are automatic, unintentional, deeply engrained within our beliefs, universal, and can affect our behaviour. These are inherently more difficult to identify and address without active focus on doing so.

Biases can become a significant barrier to improving diversity in the workplace. Research from the Kellogg School of Management in the United States shows people naturally seek out candidates who are not only competent but culturally similar to themselves, consciously or otherwise.

These biases can also hamper progress of inclusion in the workforce with company policies developed on bias unable to respond to the needs of all within the business.

Taken from Learning Hub https://learn.g2.com/unconscious-bias

Recognising your own biases

The first step to recognising biases within your company is to ask the question.

An online test developed by researchers from Harvard, Virginia and Washington universities is a useful starting point: Implicit Association Test (IAT).. The test measures the strength of links you make between concepts, for example, race or sexuality, and evaluation of stereotypes, such as whether those concepts are good or bad. The test can be completed by staff within the company with results used to direct new policies and initiatives to limit the impact of bias in the organisation.

You may also want to consider undertaking formal unconscious bias training across some or all levels of your organisation to understand potential areas of bias and identify ways to address these within your organisation.

Policies can be put in place to reduce bias in recruitment such as removing name/age/sex from applicant’s CVs.