Inclusive leadership skills: needed for collective healing and liberation
Something we’ve seen with our organizational clients is that traditional, top-down, hierarchical models of leadership continue to have a strong grip on many leaders.
This makes sense, given that traditional and dominant culture in the US, including corporate culture, has its roots in plantation culture.
Aside from a few at the top, those who are successful are often successful precisely because they have been conditioned to and are good at playing their part in the hierarchy - first and foremost they are good followers, good at following the leadership and direction of someone else.
They in turn are expected to give orders, to cultivate and reward their good followers, and to punish anyone who steps out of line, including anyone who might disrupt the status quo by proposing to do things differently.
Strategic, creative, inclusive leadership just hasn’t been a thing.
Until now - at least it is now for organizations on the leading edge of dismantling oppression and co-creating a more just, equitable and inclusive future of collective healing and liberation where everyone has what they need to thrive and do their best, most fulfilling and most impactful work, in alignment with their organization’s mission.
Hey what now?
Yes, it can be disorienting, confusing, perplexing and disconcerting for leaders who had figured out how to be successful under the old rules.
It can in fact feel like the rug has been pulled out beneath their feet.
We hear things like “I thought I was good at my job but now I’m being told I’m terrible at it” or “I never had a bad performance review before” or “I don’t know what I’m supposed to do to be successful anymore.”
And what we hear from CEOs and other leaders brought in to create culture transformation towards equity and inclusion, often inheriting more traditional, hierarchical and siloed teams brought together under previous leadership, is… “Why can’t the leaders who report to me think strategically? Why can’t they collaborate? Why am I always getting pulled into discussions they should be able to have themselves? Why are they still so stuck in old ways of doing things?”
The truth is that inclusive leadership skills are often easier and more intuitive for BIPOC and leaders of other traditionally marginalized identities to develop.
One of the reasons is that we are used to disrupting the status quo - in fact, our very existence at leadership levels is already a challenge to traditional hierarchical structures that still remain very white male dominated at the “top.”
We’ve also often HAD to disrupt the status quo rather than uphold it in order to be successful, although usually it’s a difficult dance to balance the two.
And some of the inclusive leadership skills that are required, such as the ability to self-regulate, reflect, and be self-aware, are skills we’ve HAD to develop just to survive, let alone be successful.
We’ve also often benefitted the least and been harmed the most by traditional power structures. We know all too well the downsides of oppressive leadership. Inclusive leadership skills make more sense as a result. We’re already bought in.
Inclusive leadership skills benefit everyone.
None of us are free until we are all free, after all.
However, it can take longer for people who’s identities align with dominant culture, most often white male leaders especially, and also white women, as well as BIPOC leaders who have aligned themselves with dominant culture, to buy in and to get past the resistance and defensiveness that is a result of how they’ve learned to be successful.
That’s not to say that there aren’t white leaders who take to or are already practicing inclusive leadership, we’ve just found them to be farther and fewer between.
At CCI, we’ve had to learn to meet leaders where they are and provide them with skills they may not have needed before.
We’ve also had to support leaders who are already further along in their DEI and inclusive leadership journey in adjusting their expectations, which are often not unreasonable, but ARE unrealistic.
Here are the inclusive leadership skills they often find are lacking in their executive and leadership teams:
Ability to accept and act on feedback
Ability to think strategically
Ability to be authentic and transparent
Ability to foster brave safe space and psychological safety
Ability to address conflict and repair or avoid causing harm
Willingness to do things differently, risk failure, and learn from mistakes
And here are the essential foundational skills that we often find we need to start with in order to scaffold up to those skills:
Self-regulation
Capacity for self-awareness & self-reflection
Willingness to consider alternative ways of being
Capacity to manage the fear of the unknown during change
Ability to engage
By focusing on these foundational skills, we can better prepare leaders to embrace inclusive leadership and drive meaningful change within their organizations towards equity, inclusion and liberation.
We’ve talked about many of these skills in the past (see one of our most popular blog posts on creating a trauma-informed personal safety plan to help with self-regulation) and will continue to do so. We’ll also dive into some of the skills that are needed to bridge between these foundational skills and the aspirational skills above. Stay tuned.
Note: we currently have rare openings in 2025 for new or returning organizational clients interested in exploring the possibility of multi-year, transformational change towards an equitable and inclusive culture where everyone has what they need to thrive and do their best work.
Our introductory CEO/Leadership Relief Packages and/or Stakeholder Buy-in Packages start at $10,000. Request a complimentary DEI consult if you are interested in finding out more.
Self-coaching for DEI Advocates and Leaders
Join us for a free weekly email series and check-in on co-creating real and lasting shifts towards diversity, equity, inclusion and antiracism at your company or organization. Sign up here.