Organizational leaders are increasingly leveraging inclusion to attract talent, retain employees, and motivate high creativity and excellence. Indeed, inclusive organizations are 73% more likely to reap innovation revenue, 70% more likely to capture new markets, up to 50% more likely to make better decisions, and up to 36% more likely to have above-average profitability.
What Makes an Inclusive Leader?
Leaders play a critical role in fostering inclusivity within their organizations. They account for a difference of up to 70 percentage points in employees’ experience of belongingness and psychological safety, and inclusive leaders see a 17% increase in team performance, a 20% increase in decision-making quality, and a 29% increase in team collaboration. Inclusive leaders also cut down employee attrition risk. If inclusive leaders are so influential, then inclusive traits like humility, curiosity, and empathy should be treated as critical leadership capabilities rather than simply desirable. The authors conducted structured interviews with 40 DEI award–winning or peer-nominated exemplary inclusive leaders from a wide variety of job functions, organizations, and industries. They identified five key behaviors that help leaders make their organizations more inclusive.