Скачать или смотреть What is Inclusive Leadership?

Traditional leadership usually centers around one charismatic individual, often a visionary leader who makes decisions, works relentlessly, and has high expectations for their team.

Traditional leadership centers on status, authority, and control. It values technical expertise over people management with deep consequences on the team's well-being. It can manifest with micromanagement and a culture of fear and can lead to toxic and abusive work environments.

Traditional leaders often have a limited work-life balance and expect the same from their team.
Hierarchy matters, and your rank often determines your value.

Team members are encouraged to compete rather than collaborate, and the tolerance for mistakes is limited. Feedback is scarce, limited to performance reviews, and is a one-way conversation.

Traditional leaders concentrate most of the team visibility and often lack self-awareness and emotional intelligence.

They rarely address team members' tensions and tend to favor those who agree with them. Any criticism is perceived as a personal attack, and those who challenge them are often ostracized.

While this model has been in place for many years, at Shiftbalance, we believe in another kind of leader.

What is an inclusive leader?

It is a leader who works in collaboration with others. A leader who shares the workload and the credit, seeking diversity of thought and opportunities to empower people across the organization. A leader who actively encourages staff to share their ideas and prioritize their wellbeing, who is courageous enough to share their weaknesses and journey to get better.

Often neglected as too soft or kind in traditional organizations, the inclusive leader can actually create high-performing environments where people stay, learn, thrive, and innovate.

What are the main characteristics of inclusive leadership?

1. A culture of feedback. Feedback is frequent, goes both ways, and is embedded in the team’s rituals. Respectful feedback helps address poor performance fairly and in a timely manner.
2. Transparency in decision-making. Decisions are made openly, with clear criteria. The rationale of the decision is explained to the team members. Communication flows freely.
3. Humility. It’s not all about them. Visibility and credit are shared, meeting facilitation rotates, and leaders listen more than they speak.
4. Work-life balance. Inclusive leaders practice self-care and care for others. Working hours are balanced, and they set an example by taking leave themselves. They avoid sending emails late at night or on weekends, and they plan workloads to be manageable.
5. Awareness of biases and imbalances. They can identify where improvement is needed in their team to ensure fair representation. They intentionally diversify their recruitment pipeline and make sure everyone’s voice is heard.
6. Zero tolerance for inappropriate behavior. For real. Tensions are addressed quickly and empathetically. Microaggressions are identified and stopped right away. Courageous conversations are held if necessary. Tensions are adressed with mediation if need be.
7. Mentoring and learning. Inclusive leaders share their mistakes and encourage the team to constantly learn from them. They teach, train, and pass on knowledge. They conduct lessons learnt to see what can be improved without blame.
8. Collaboration. They collaborate with peers, share power, and value junior voices. They dare to innovate and try new ways of working.


Shifting from traditional to inclusive leadership is a gradual transformation that takes time and intentionality.

You don’t need to be in a formal leadership position to embody inclusive leadership. The journey begins with a simple question: How can I approach my work and work relationships with a mindset of “power with” rather than “power over,” and what changes do I need to make in my practice to enable that?

Good luck to you on this journey!