45. Are you an Inclusive Leader? with Prina Shah

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Hello and welcome to this episode of Ways to Change the Workplace with myself Prina Shah. I love what I do. I'm a global leadership coach, a consultant, a trainer, a keynote speaker, a podcaster. I help you to develop your leaders, your teams, and I help you to optimize your organizational cultures. I'm here to help you find ways to change your workplace. Why? Because we spend more time in our waking day at work than we do with our loved ones. It has to be a good place to be. So in this podcast, you can expect a mix of interviews with amazing thought leaders and then some solo episodes from myself as well. Strap yourselves in. The results of a non-inclusive culture are silos, a lack of collaboration, patch protection, no trust, and a general sense of look after yourself and no one else. It's a feeling of um it's a feeling of threat and a feeling of being alone in the workplace. And you're tuning in because you want to learn if you are an inclusive leader or you want to develop these skills. Either way, let's delve deeper. So I have six questions for you, and I'm gonna get straight into them. Are you an inclusive leader? Question one. Question one is Am I daring? Does my team feel safe to make mistakes? So with that, I'd like you to reflect back on. Am I daring? Reflect back to when someone in your team made a mistake. A one-off mistake, that is. How did you address it? Did you make them feel safe? Did you address it constructively? Consider that. You know all too well when people mess up at a workplace, there's that sense of dread that goes through us initially. Then there's that second sense of dread where you think, oh bugger, I've got to come clean now and I've got to talk to my manager about it. So with this question, the reason I'm asking you, am I daring? Does my team feel safe to make mistakes? Is for that purpose. Are you an inclusive leader? Question two. Question two is Am I empowering? Does my team feel free to present viewpoints which are contradictory to the majority? So I want you to consider whether you are empowering. Thinking again about your team meetings. Are your team a clone of each other or are there constructive, healthy disagreements where you weigh out the pros and cons and every single options out there and have a healthy debate and everyone feels free to disagree with yourselves and each other? I want you to hear remember that Steve Jobs quote and it goes along the lines of it doesn't make sense to hire smart people and tell them what to do. We hire smart people so they can tell us what to do. Are you hiring smart people so that they can tell you what to do? That's the big difference there. We are on to question number three of are you an inclusive leader? So question number three is Am I compassionate? Do I deeply care about the success of my team members? Again, am I compassionate? Do I deeply care about the success of my team members? So yes, you have a basic duty of care to your team. Do you know about their lives? I know you still need to maintain boundaries and there's a difference between being friends and friendly. So I'm asking you what your compassionate level is and how deeply you care about the success of your team members from obviously a professional perspective, but naturally a personal perspective as well. Does it go beyond work as humans? We're on to question number four of are you an inclusive leader? So, do you have healthy relationships within your team? Do you have favorites? Is it obvious? Or do you treat everyone in your C team in the same manner? Guaranteed, in your team, people are gonna have different capabilities, different levels of understanding, and different levels of knowledge. However, my question here is do you have a healthy relationship within your team? And do you have favorites? Is it obvious? And are you treating everyone fairly in accordance with their capability? You see, all too often it is really apparent when leaders have favorites within the team, and that really breaks the inclusivity within the team as well, because now you're creating a culture of haves and have nots, and people are going to be vying for your attention or hating you because of the fact that you have favorites. Are you an inclusive leader? Question five. Question five is do I have awareness? Do I know and recognize the unique qualities of each team member? Now, here by that I mean have you conducted something like you know psychometric tests such as disc work styles or behavioral profiles of your team? They really give you a deeper insight beyond the technical skills of an individual and it shows you the capability level in relation to how they relate with people, how they relate to tasks, how they relate to your stakeholders, and so much more. So if you haven't done this kind of work, there's so much gold in it. The information is endless, and you as a leader can really tap into the best of your team. So this question to reiterate was Do I have awareness? Do I know and recognize the unique qualities of each team member? It's a really good one to ponder on. And we're moving on to the final question of Are You an Inclusive Leader? Question number six. Question number six is Am I allowing myself and my team authenticity? Do members of my team bring their whole selves to work? So, do you firstly bring your whole self to work? Remember, monkey see, monkey do. Now I'm also very mindful of the fact that, yes, like I said earlier, you have to have boundaries. You do wear the positional power hat of being the manager or the leader of the team, and therefore there is a bit of a natural hierarchy that has been created as a result of your job, essentially. So are you allowing yourself and your team to be authentic in the respect of being in the workplace? Because remember, if you're not being truly authentic, your team are also going to see that. We know ourselves, whether it be at work or in social situations, if people are feigning an interest or faking it. So I'm asking you to consider whether you are being your true self in the respect of being the leader that you are in the workplace. Because monkey see, monkey do. And your team may well fall into the trap of being inauthentic if you too are being inauthentic. So, in essence, your team are a reflection of you. Remember that the tone you set will be adapted by your team. Check out the show notes because I've got all of these questions listed, and do ask yourself these questions again. It's a bit of a self-coaching activity, uh, which I really love. And do pass this episode on to anyone who would benefit because you know I'm all about finding great ways to change your workplace, and I'll see you in the next episode. If you want to meet great thinkers who stand against crappy workplace cultures, lousy leaders, and toxic teams, then you need to join the Ways to Change Your Workplace Facebook group, which is linked in today's show notes. I will see you in the next episode. Bye for now.