Inclusive Leadership

Abstract

Inclusive leadership creates and fosters conditions that allow everyone in diverse groups, workplaces, and communities—across and with their differences and without having to subsume or hide valued identities—to be at and to do their best, to see the value in doing so, and to belong and participate in ways that are safe, engaging, appreciated, and fair. Inclusive leaders facilitate participation, voice, and belonging—without requiring assimilation and while fostering equity and fairness across multiple identities. Inclusive leadership is the fulcrum of inclusion because it plays a pivotal role in magnifying inclusion within and transmuting inclusion across levels of analysis: it brings societal and organizational goals, values, and policies related to inclusion to life in everyday behavior and interactions, and detects and highlights relevant micro-level experiences and behavior, giving them meaning and addressing them at the organizational and societal levels. This (1) defines inclusive leadership through the lens of diversity, inclusion, and equity in a multilevel systems perspective; (2) discusses its pivotal role as a fulcrum or force multiplier, fostering and magnifying inclusion at micro and macro levels and connecting micro and macro aspects of inclusion; and (3) outlines key elements of inclusive leadership, including focal inclusive leadership behaviors.