Inclusive Leadership:
Bringing Out the Best in Everyone
The workforce probably has more generations working in it than any time in history. Traditionalists still hold the reigns in many capacities as majority shareholders and owners. Baby Boomers wanted to leave, but the 2008 financial crisis placed a damper on that. GenXers have ascended the ranks to CEO in most cases, and play a significant role. And then there are the Millennials, the newest generation to enter the workforce who crave mentorship and inclusion. Is there a means for these groups to work together? Of course, it’s called Inclusive Leadership.
Per the National Urban Fellows, “Inclusive leadership is the practice of leadership that carefully includes the contributions of all stakeholders in the community or organization” (para 5). This definition is a little broad for me, since leadership is more than acknowledging contributions. Inclusive leadership to me is knowing when and how to harness the leadership strengths of team members, to best accomplish a mission. Inclusive leadership therefore includes the principles of Adaptive, Distributed, Shared, and Transformational Leadership. Because being inclusive can be difficult, aligning leadership principles versus assigning leadership traits may be more palatable.
Adaptive Leadership. With leadership as a complex proposition, DuRue (2011) developed Adaptive Leadership as the ability to alter the leader-follower relationship from central to distributed or shared leadership as the situation dictates. In a nutshell, no one person is the best or universal leader for every situation, but the central leader is secure enough to allow others to rise to the leadership occasion as appropriate.
Distributed Leadership. Distributed Leadership allocates leadership purposes amid group members by a division of leadership across time (DeRue, 2011). An example might be a construction site, where each building function – foundation, framing, interior, etc is led by a different leader at the appropriate time or phase of the project.
Shared Leadership. Shared Leadership imitates a relationship where various group members engage in both leadership and followership, concurrently (DeRue, 2011). C-Level leaders as a group would fit this scenario. Each leader leads within their area of expertise concurrently, but follows when they are not the expert on a project or task.
Transformational Leadership. Transformational Leadership is where leaders and followers engage each other in such a manner that allows both to ‘raise their game’ in every area of their life (Burns, 1978/1995). Do you engage or enflame coworkers?
Inclusive Leadership provides others the opportunity to excel despite the organizational structure. This allows executive leaders (CEOs, owners, C-Level) and multiple generations to come together to learn and grow through organizational relationships. Inclusive Leadership is about bringing out the best in everyone.
How inclusive is your leadership?
References
Burns, J. M. (1995). Transactional and transformational leadership. In J. Thomas Wren (Ed.), Leader’s Companion: Insights on leadership through the ages (pp. 100-101). New York: Free Press. (Reprinted from Leadership, (1978), 19-20.)
DeRue, D. S. (2011). Adaptive leadership theory: Leading and following as a complex adaptive process. Research in Organizational Behavior, 31. 125-150. doi 10.1016/j.riob.2011.09.007
National Urban Fellows (2016). National urban fellows inclusive leadership model: An individual and organizational perspective. Retrieved from http://www.nuf.org/inclusive-leadership-model
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Bringing Out the Best in Everyone
