In my first two articles about inclusive leadership, I framed the challenge of building an inclusive climate and offered a broad strategy to pursue it. Inclusive climates are elusive because leaders have a subconscious tendency to engage more with followers who are more like them. Leaders who wish to avoid this pitfall must consciously choose to lead everyone. This article describes a second inclusive leadership strategy: in order to inspire everyone, inclusive leaders adjust their leadership approach to every individual.
A leader striving to lead everyone will quickly discover it is very difficult. It is difficult because everyone is different. Goals that inspire some people will discourage others. Messages that resonate with some will be ignored by others. A workplace climate that keeps one person engaged could have another counting the minutes until it’s time to go home. Even the most successful leader can identify people they struggle to inspire. Traditional leaders tend to give up these people, leaving them behind and losing out on their contribution to the group’s overall performance.
The only way to inclusively lead everyone when everyone is different is to give everyone different leadership. Leaders should strive to provide every follower the leadership approach they most respond to. Inclusive leaders can’t rely on a single leadership style. They must be dexterous with a range of leadership styles and behaviors to be able to engage a range of different followers.
Followers are hungry. What are you going to serve up?
The best way to think about being capable with a range of leadership styles or behaviors is to think about lunch. A leader with only a single leadership style offers followers a lunch menu with only one item. One potentially great leader may serve a delicious imported ham and brie with hand-ground mustard on a ciabatta roll, but if a follower would prefer a burger and fries, that person is not going to enjoying eating at that leader’s table.
If every leader in the organization is serving up the same sandwich, that follower may find they have no table to eat at. Making matters worse, in a traditional leader-centric climate, the table-less follower is probably questioned about why they do not like the ham and brie, may be pushed to eat the ham and brie like everyone else, and are generally sent the message that only ham and brie lovers are going to thrive. For want of a burger and fries, the follower will not find inspiration and will not perform at their best. They are being excluded.
To make sure everyone is welcome at their table, inclusive leaders know they need to not only to make a great ham sandwich, but a great spicy chicken wrap and probably a nice Cobb salad as well. The inclusive leader practices a range of different recipes, so that they are more likely to be able to serve up exactly what each follower is looking for.
What are an inclusive leader’s ingredients?
There are countless leadership, personality, and communication models that give us a way to observe and describe people. To choose one as an example, consider the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI). The MBTI model helps us understand that some people are introverted while others are extroverted, some prefer details while others think conceptually, some allow facts to guide them while others trust their feelings, and some people prefer more structure while others prefer less.
Inclusive leaders strive to be able to reach all of them. They know what their own preferences are but are skillful enough to reach out and engage people with different preferences. An introverted leader that wants to be inclusive needs to develop a level of skill and comfort in a vibrant conversation if they want to be able to lead extroverts. Extroverted leaders need to able to sit quietly while introverts think.
Are there limits to how much a leader changes to reach a follower?
Adjusting leadership styles to inspire others doesn’t mean that the leader will change what they are aiming to accomplish. Leaders still have goals to achieve and visions to strive for. The idea of adjusting to the followers doesn’t mean allowing a resistant follower to go left when the leader has determined going right is the way ahead. Instead, the leader adjusts how they communicate, the language they use to explain why going right is important, and the way they monitor progress towards the goal.
Imagine a mid-level leader who has achieved her place in the organization through a combination of field work, higher education, and time in the front office. One morning, that leader finds herself visiting the foreman on the factory floor to discuss problems with the last batch of widgets. The foreman hasn’t had as much education, is a strong extrovert, and loves fishing. The leader, adjusting to the foreman, engages him by first asking about the biggest fish he’s caught lately. The leader doesn’t try to convince the foreman she understands what he’s talking about when he describes the specific bait and tackle used to land the fish, but she does show an interest in the story and learning a little about the angler’s technique. She continues the conversation as she checks in on the widgets. Leveraging her own experience on the factory floor, she is able to use language familiar to the foreman to ask the right questions and learn what she can about the widget problem. The foreman appreciates this interaction because he feels the leader is reaching him in his comfort zone, has the knowledge to understand his message, and is genuinely curious about his input.
Now consider the leader as she visits the company’s buyer, who locates the raw materials needed to make the widgets. She knows he is introverted, has multiple advanced degrees, and is more likely to be found at the art gallery than the boat ramp. Applying her skill at reaching introverts, she sends him an email to read and digest. She presents the issue the foreman told her about using business school language she knows the buyer will respond to. Later that day, the buyer replies to her email with a recommendation for a new supplier to address the problem. He also gives her a heads up about a new exhibit at the museum, as she’s asked him about art enough for him to want to share his enthusiasm for paintings with her.
The leader has engaged two different people to solve a workplace problem. She has approached each in a different way, engaging with each in the way that he would most likely respond to. She hasn’t changed who she is in either case; she’s merely presented a different leadership facet of herself to each.
The remarkable thing to think about is what would happen if we could interview the foreman and the buyer about their interactions with the leader. They’d both likely say that they love working with her and that they felt appreciated and valued. However, their responses would diverge if we asked what she did to make them feel that way. The foreman would reply that the leader always came down to talk to him face to face, she knew all about the greasy parts of making widgets, and never threw smarty-pants business jargon around with him. The buyer, flabbergasted, would wonder in disbelief if the foreman was talking about the same person he knew. A leader who always stopped by to talk about nuts, bolts and fishing would infuriate him. The buyer would share that he loved working for the leader because she didn’t always stop by to talk face to face, she was his academic equal, and she was the only other person at work who would talk to him about art. The two would seem to be describing two completely different leaders, but in fact were merely describing how the leader was giving each of them the leadership they were looking for. The leader has succeeded in including two followers of widely different backgrounds and the company is better off for it.
Inclusive leaders accept their responsibility to adjust their approach to every individual follower. They make deliberate effort every day to reach their followers in the way each of them prefers. The third inclusive leadership strategy, the subject of the next article in this series, helps leaders learn more about the people they lead.