Submitted by Claudia Lowry, Executive Director, North & South Peninsula
Leadership means different things to different people. It does have a lot to do with what age you are and how you were raised. But today leadership has evolved into a magnificent animal, which can be the main driving force behind a successful team. It can also be the downfall. While some say you have to choose the type of leader you want to be according to your personality and strengths, we say a leader should always have certain traits, no matter the type of person holding the role.
According to business studies, there are 6 main types of leaders:
Coercive
Authoritive
Affiliative
Democratic
Coaching
Pacesetting
We will not go into those types specifically, but rather pull the best parts of them to mould the perfect leader.
Let us add one other to the mix … the Inclusive Leader.
Inclusive leaders are on the up and up and they encompass all the positive strengths from all the types of leaders out there.
What can we learn from an Inclusive Leader?
As the name says, Inclusive Leaders believe that their team needs to be anchored with inclusion and diversity. They take their personal values into account and they merge them with the team’s strategy as a whole.
Inclusive leaders are very much aware of their biases and strive to see passed them, should they not be for the greater good of the team.
The company culture is very important to an inclusive leader and therefore he needs to believe in it 100%. He will take the time to help his team understand the culture, why the company does what it does and why they too should do what they do.
Seemingly small matters will be handled by an inclusive leader as if they were big. From how they treat staff to how they treat clients, the inclusive leader is very much aware that even the smallest gripes, concerns and issues can blow up into something bigger. They nip these in the bud quickly and deal with them like a true professional. Everyone and everything is treated equally well.
Inclusive leaders know their strengths and weakness, and work at improving all the time. Where they are not good at something, they delegate. Where they are brilliant, they coach others to follow suit. With all this, their aim is to benefit the team, always.
This leader knows that everyone is different and in knowing this, they see those differences as where the brilliance lies. He or she will exploit people, but only for the good of the team and the company.
Are you an Inclusive Leader?
