The Missing Piece of Inclusive Leadership

Arguably the words "inclusion," "diversity," "equity" and "accessibility" (or "IDEA") have become part of the zeitgeist. The past 10+ years have seen several key pivotal moments that have embedded IDEA as a priority in Canadian workplaces and society overall: Prime Minister Trudeau's mic drop comment, "Because it's 2015," when asked about why he insisted on having 50 percent women in his cabinet; or the brutal murders of George Floyd and countless other Black and Brown people, killings where the perpetrator committed the act with assumed impunity, thinking they were doing society a favour. Whatever event we point to, it is undeniable that employers can no longer ignore IDEA.

Having worked in the IDEA space for nearly 20 years, I admit that I am saddened by our progress toward change. According to research from the Canadian Women's Foundation, women make, on average, 89 cents on the dollar compared to a man doing the same or similar job. People of colour (also referred to as racialized people) continue to be absent in leadership, making up about 10 percent of executive positions, according to Statistics Canada. Leadership numbers are significantly worse for women of colour and Indigenous People are barely present in the data. Then there are the statistics related to people with diverse abilities (aka "disabilities"), sexual and gender minorities, immigrants, religious minorities, and people from other traditionally marginalized groups. While straight, white, able-bodied, men (or "SWAMs" as I call them) make up around than 30 percent of the available workforce, they continue to hold on tight to the leadership echelon. That isn't to say SWAMs don't deserve their positions or are bad people. It is to say that the proverbial glass ceiling barely has a scratch in it. The entire objective of IDEA isn't to take power away from SWAMs, but to create a more equitable playing field where the opportunity for power is available for all.

In 2016, Deloitte Australia released a research paper called The Six Signature Traits of Inclusive Leadership which aimed to articulate the secret sauce of what makes an inclusive leader. The reality is, as employers, you do not have the power to create inclusive workplaces. No, you didn't read that incorrectly. Employers play a part for certain, by ensuring you have the building blocks in place (like inclusive policies) to create an inclusive, equitable, and accessible workplace, but that isn't enough. Every person in an organization holds a great deal of power as it relates to inclusion, regardless of what role they play in the organization. If someone disagrees with their employer's IDEA policies, they can subtly undermine them and their actions can create exclusionary environments, regardless of the employer’s goals. A workplace can only be as inclusive as the individuals that participate in it.

Among Deloitte's six traits, the authors identified two very concrete aspects of inclusive leadership (in my humble opinion): awareness of one's own unconscious bias, and well-developed cultural competence. The two traits are undoubtedly integral to inclusive leadership. And while the report does speak about the importance of allyship, they neglect to mention one of the most important components of being an ally: awareness of, and willingness to leverage one's own privilege to the advantage of others.

In lay terms, privilege is a benefit that you receive because of an aspect of your identity, and you have no control over receiving that benefit. I'm certain that most people reading this immediately thought of "white privilege" and "male privilege." We hear about those two things frequently in the privilege conversation. But there are a multitude of different types of privilege.

Take education as an example. Do you have a post-secondary degree or diploma? That is educational privilege. When was the last time you saw a job posting that didn't require a minimum of a degree or diploma, or at least read "degree or diploma strongly preferred"? What does that degree or diploma tell you about a person's ability to do a job? The answer is "nothing." Having a post-secondary degree or diploma doesn't tell you what type of student a person was. It doesn't tell you if they truly grasped the concepts they were taught. It doesn't tell you that they will be able to do the job. All it tells you is that they managed to absorb some information long enough so they could pass a test. But having that degree or diploma becomes a privilege that disproportionally benefits some people in their job search.

It's also important to note that privilege is not one-dimensional. It's critical to take intersectionality into consideration to understand the complexity of the topic. Did you pay for your post-secondary education by working while in school, or did someone else (like a parent or guardian) cover the cost? If the latter, that is financial privilege. Do your parents have post-secondary education? If they do, that's also a privilege because they would have the ability and desire to support you in pursuing your degree. And so on. Privilege is complex and interwoven in every aspect of our identity.

You might be thinking, "but I worked hard for what I have" and that may be accurate. No one is saying that people with privilege don't work hard. The question is, do they have to work as hard as another person who doesn't experience that same privilege. To quote Black Lives Matter Toronto co-founder Janaya Kahn, "Privilege isn't about what you've gone through; it's about what you haven't had to go through."

You can think of privilege like wind, and specifically a headwind or a tailwind. Just because you can't see wind, doesn't mean it doesn't impact you. If you experience a particular privilege, you likely have a tailwind behind you, propelling you forward. If you lack a particular privilege, you're more likely to have a headwind in front of you, which means you have to expend more energy to stay where you are, let alone get ahead.

Continuing with the education privilege example, consider "Person A" didn't have to work a job while they were in school, and were able to enjoy all the social benefits that college or university provides. Of course, they studied hard, but they also had the time to build relationships with other students, and participate in extra-curricular activities. Perhaps they were able to take an unpaid internship which got them exposure to their dream employer. Or maybe they took advantage of an exchange program and spent a year studying in Geneva.

Now consider "Person B" had to work a part-time, or worse, full-time job to pay for school, which meant they may not have been able to benefit from all the available opportunities. They couldn’t participate in extracurricular activities. They didn't build a lot of friendships. An unpaid internship or studying in Switzerland for a year wasn't even a remote possibility.

The end result is that "Person A" may be graduating at a more advantageous position that "Person B," and that may impact their career going forward.

This isn't about bad or good. Having privilege doesn't make you a bad person. But pretending privilege doesn't exist does more damage than good. This ties into the "E" in IDEA: Equity. Equity is about recognizing that we don't all start from the same place. We don't all have the same experiences. And we don't all have the same needs.

Being an inclusive leader is about being an ally. And to be an ally, you must have all the pieces of the puzzle - awareness of one's own unconscious bias, and well-developed cultural competence, and a willingness to leverage your privilege to the advantage of others. Did you get invited to an important work function, but another colleague (who may be an immigrant, or an Indigenous person, or a member of another traditionally marginalized group) didn't? Leveraging your privilege would be advocating for them to attend. Did a colleague say something important in a meeting, but no one listened? Leveraging your privilege is pointing out what they said and making sure people pay attention.

We all have the ability to be inclusive and we all have the ability to be leaders, regardless of the position we hold in our organization. When it comes to being an inclusive leader, it's not enough to have one particular trait. It's definitely not enough to simply say you're an inclusive leader. It takes work, and it requires a focus on all three traits. Think of the three traits - unconscious bias, cultural competence, and privilege - as a three-legged stool. If you take one leg out, the stool falls over. The objective of inclusive leadership is to turn that stool into a tool, to help ensure we're able to get the most out of our teams.