Unpopular opinion: if you can’t manage a diverse team, you are a poor manager overall.
The skills and traits necessary for successful workplace EDI aren’t a bolt-on or a nice-to-have; they are the inherent qualities required for high-quality team management.
Are you able to interact effectively with individuals with different communication styles, ensuring that your messages land with everyone, and that you truly understand the contributions of team members who don’t think like you?
That’s inclusion: of neurotypes, of cultures, of backgrounds.
That’s also essential to good management.
Can you handle power dynamics healthily in your meetings? Can you distinguish the participants who are silent by nature from those who are silenced by the culture?
That’s inclusion: for any marginalised individual always, for women often.
That’s also the only way to get the most out of your team.
How good are you at balancing the constraints your team members face outside of work with the demands of the job?
That’s inclusion: for parents and carers, for disabled or chronically ill staff, for employees who need to work more than one job to make ends meet, for those who study at the same time.
That’s also key to providing work-life balance for every member of staff.
Do you offer equitable access to training and opportunities to all members of staff, even when you don’t like them, or you don’t agree with their life choices or opinions?
That’s inclusion: of religion, of gender identity, of political views, of sexual orientation, and more.
That’s also plain old respectful leadership.
I could go on.
If you can only manage a team of people who are your clones, you are an inadequate manager.
If you presume that everybody thinks like you / lives like you / works like you, you are not managing your team at all, you are off rowing your own boat vaguely hoping your team made it on board.
Yes, it is inconvenient that the world is not made in your image.
Yes, it takes effort to truly connect with, embrace and understand the ‘other’.
Yes, your ego can get bruised when your way is not ‘the’ way.
It’s human to feel that way. But if you really want to be a good manager, mastering ‘inclusion’ skills is non-negotiable.
