7.3 Assignment: Journal – Equitable Issues in Leadership
Equitable Issues in Leadership Journal
- Inclusive Leadership
Inclusive leadership involves recognizing every follower’s unique attributes and contributions and making them feel welcomed and valued as part of their workgroups and among workmates (Northouse, 2021). Leaders who embrace inclusion create conditions for diverse viewpoints to be heard and new insights to develop. It is a critical and unique capability that helps organization adapt to diverse talents, ideas, markets, and clients. The leader’s visible awareness to bias and expression of empathy and humility are crucial traits for creating a sense of inclusiveness.
The Inclusive Leadership Scale indicates that my supervisor scored 4 and 3.7 on belongingness and uniqueness, respectively. The supervisor tends to facilitate making employees feel included in teams slightly more than she encourages us to maintain our sense of individuality. From my supervisor’s inclusiveness results I feel as if her levels of inclusiveness impact our workplace experiences a lot. I have seen employees get motivated once she makes us feel welcomed and valued. Employees who feel dismissed, devalued, or ignored for their unique qualities tend to experience a sense of exclusion (Northouse, 2021). Excluded workers or team members feel like outsiders due to their differences and job roles.
With our supervisor’s sense of inclusiveness, everyone in the workplace is always jovial and motivated to do their work with the freedom of creativity. We feel more team-oriented and innovative, something that makes our mental health clinic mitigate the costs of exclusion, such as compromised job satisfaction, reduced work effort, staff turnover, diminished worker voice, and lower sense of well-being. As such, I think the supervisor’s belongingness and inclusiveness have helped in creating a more equitable environment in our workplace (Choi et al., 2015). She communicates with those who differ with others’ opinions and encourages them to be more collaborative. The first thing I noticed about the supervisor is that she recognizes rather than overemphasize employees’ differences.
I feel that the supervisor has succeeded in creating an environment where we feel comfortable voicing our concerns, especially where we see things that do not seem inclusive. Further, I think our supervisor should continue to focus more on her inclusive behavior by asking us for feedback, expressing recognition for meaningful success from any of us, and listening to our opinions. She should make inclusion visible by rewarding behaviors and mindsets that foster such transformation, interrupting exclusionary behaviors, as well as, monitoring setbacks, challenges, and progress (Choi et al., 2015).
Having a supervisor who embraces inclusiveness has inspired me to personally exhibit behaviors that foster feelings of inclusion among my fellow workers who are different from me. I have seen the importance of inclusion and made it a habit to embrace everyone in the organization since they all bring unique contributions that help each one of us grow professionally and as individuals. I am committed to improving inclusion by holding myself accountable for my actions, treating every team member with respect and fairness, and understanding what makes each one of them unique (Choi et al., 2015). I work through obstacles and adapt to meet others’ needs while making them feel connected to my team. Further, I have mastered the courage to admit that I do not have all the answers on how to change some things.
Therefore, I seek feedback and acknowledge personal weaknesses. I challenge the status quo and call out any bias I see within our teams, and show humility and respect, as well as admitting my mistakes where possible (Ferdman, 2017). By observing my supervisor, I have trained myself to be aware of bias by learning self-regulation and taking corrective steps to ensure everyone is treated equally. I also tend to regulates biases, for example, confirmation bias, groupthink, and implicit stereotypes. I am always curious and open to diverse perspectives and ideas in a desire to continue learning and improving. I accept my own limitations and work towards improving my cultural intelligence to ensure that I work with others to attain team goals.
- Commitment to Action
To create a more inclusive work environment, I will get more committed to inclusion and deepening my cultural intelligence by convincing my workmates to attend workshops on inclusiveness, as well as encourage collaboration and respect for differences in the workplace. I think it will benefit my team members if I share articles and research about inclusiveness, talk about the topic openly, and ask for feedback from everyone (Ferdman, 2017). I will train myself to recognize that mindsets create barriers to change to refrain from making remarks that cause discomfort to any member of my team.
To solve the women in leadership issue, I will encourage other workers to embrace justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) to help female employees feel that they are an important group in the workplace (Northouse, 2021). Encourage them to apply for leadership positions and mentor them to become leaders both professionally and in their personal lives. I think it will help them a lot if I make them more visible by assigning duties to them and acknowledging and rewarding their efforts openly (Byron, & Post, 2016).
I will encourage each member of my teams to develop and practice shared understanding and language of inclusion to foster equity in my workplace. This may entail asking them share examples of experiences where they felt valued, included, and heard to help others know how they can deal with their peers with equity. I will strive to foster authentic dialogue and action while making sure that whatever I was is in tandem with what I do.
References
Byron, K., & Post, C. (2016). Women on boards of directors and corporate social performance: A meta-analysis. Corporate Governance, 24(4), 428–442.
Choi, S. B., Tran, T. B., & Park, B. I. (2015). Inclusive leadership and work engagement: Mediating roles of affective organizational commitment and creativity. Social Behavior and Personality, 43(6), 931–944.
Ferdman, B. M. (2017). Paradoxes of inclusion: Understanding and managing the tensions of diversity and multiculturalism. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 53(2), 235–263.
Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and practice, (9th Ed.). Sage Publications, Inc.
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