4 Commitments All Truly Inclusive Leaders Must Follow

2022 was the first year of DEI Accountability for inclusive leaders. Our future will be filled with increasing expectations from employees, customers and business partners, looking for us to step up and courageously respond to societal needs and problems across human differences.

learn more about Chuck H. Shelton

By Chuck H. Shelton

Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

2022 was the first year of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion accountability for inclusive leaders. Our future will be filled with increasing expectations from employees, customers and business partners, looking for us to step up and courageously respond to societal needs and problems across human differences. It won't be easy, but it will be good.

Let's bring some substance into our learning of how to lead more inclusively. Here's a deeper dive into four crucial concepts and skills for inclusive leaders in the coming year.

1. Choose kindness over making others wrong

I'm unsure when or why we permitted kindness to become a sign of fragility or ineffectiveness. We have a nauseating array of "leaders" who demonize people who disagree politically with them, call names, refuse to care and instead foment the pain of trans people. The examples of meanness and cruelty are simply too long to list. Kindness is often seen as a weakness in the workplace. There's an epidemic of giving into the self-obsessed impulse to make ourselves right and make others wrong, almost for the insidious sport of it. That is a way to shred relationships. And we see massive malice on social media.

Kindness is respecting another person's dignity in ways that help them be happy, comforted, heard or whole.

Inclusion can be defined in the same way. As an inclusive leader, how do you ensure that your colleagues know that you care about their psychological safety, day-to-day struggles and ambitions? Choose kindness and equip others to be alright, not wrong. Prioritize relationships.

Related: Why Kindness Is A Crucial Quality For Leaders

2. Commit to evidence-based decision making

Inclusive leaders think critically, use credible data and make decisions on that basis. They include their teams and peers in decision-making. This is not an argument for cold-hearted objectivity — inclusive leaders take the complexity of human identities into account and seek to factor in the emotions of all involved. Evidence, facts, truth: whatever words you use, the idea is central for effective and inclusive leaders.

Inclusive leaders must reject conspiracy-based opinions without evidence, excessively emotional pleas that are more about advocacy than the business you're there to conduct or unending deliberations or analyses that claim to be 'inclusive' at the expense of actually making a good and timely decision.

Diversity, equity and inclusion should be a source of rigor in your leadership work. Build a healthy definition of 'evidence' (and emotions are one kind of evidence), and stay in the game by making inclusive decisions.

3. Center the future on realities from the past

This is not a complicated point: we cannot prepare ourselves and our children for the future if we are afraid of our collective past. No committed inclusive leader will accept a law, a policy or a practice to censor history because it makes someone uncomfortable. We need to say this plainly: it's pure fear and unproductive denial to pass laws that "protect white people from discomfort" when solving the ongoing impacts of racism or antisemitism, or homophobia.

Such a stance stifles learning, refuses to prepare all our children for the multiracial and otherwise diverse reality of the world we already live in, and directly supports the forms of systemic bias that real patriots fight every day. Suppose your school district or government has passed such laws or policies as an inclusive leader. In that case, you should consider how to change such decisions with powerful education and insistent kindness.

Related: Don't Let Fear Conquer Your Greatness

4. Champion demography as destiny

The multicultural future has already arrived. Maybe even our families have evolved: babies of color have been the majority of children born for six years, and interracial marriages are now commonplace. Study the 2020 Census, and you will realize our population has been diversifying for generations. The identity mix of your customers and employees is completely profound right now. The way to learn about diversity is widening: neurodivergence, working across generations, navigating languages and cultures to grow globally, understanding the impact of spirituality and religious differences, etc.

Demographics cause us to consider how our future is already here and coming close. And the elements of DEI will only expand 'in the future.' All this change is pushing on your business model: where you source product and talent, how you manage differences with customers and reach new ones, how you work with suppliers and regulators, how DEI equips you to measure what matters in your unit, why you invest in a market or a merger. Inclusive leaders engage demography, so we have the chance to thrive.

These are some profound challenges for inclusive leaders in the coming years. I encourage you to pursue these Four C's: choose kindness, commit to evidence-based decision-making, center a future on the realities of the past and champion demographics.

And a final thought: leading with these challenges in view will help you mend and tend to family relationships during the holiday season and beyond. We can listen to build trust and practice inclusive leadership wherever we go.

Chuck H. Shelton

Entrepreneur Leadership Network Contributor

CEO and Founder of Greatheart Consulting

Chuck H. Shelton is a vocal advocate and executive with 40 years of experience in inclusive leadership. He and his team come alongside all leaders, challenging them to take personal responsibility for shifting cultures and systems towards greater equity and inclusion.

Related Topics

Editor's Pick

Everyone Wants to Get Close to Their Favorite Artist. Here's the Technology Making It a Reality — But Better.
The Highest-Paid, Highest-Profile People in Every Field Know This Communication Strategy
After Early Rejection From Publishers, This Author Self-Published Her Book and Sold More Than 500,000 Copies. Here's How She Did It.
Having Trouble Speaking Up in Meetings? Try This Strategy.
He Names Brands for Amazon, Meta and Forever 21, and Says This Is the Big Blank Space in the Naming Game
Business News

These Are the Most and Least Affordable Places to Retire in The U.S.

The Northeast and West Coast are the least affordable, while areas in the Mountain State region tend to be ideal for retirees on a budget.

Business News

A Mississippi News Anchor Is Under Fire for Quoting Snoop Dogg

WLBT's Barbara Bassett used the rapper's "fo shizzle" phrase during a live broadcast, causing the station to let her go.

Thought Leaders

Facing a Tough Problem? Try These Hacks to Find the Solution You Need

Not every problem has easy answers, and that's okay. Here are four ways you can free yourself from gridlock when you're stuck.

Buying / Investing in Business

The 19 Covenants of a Standard Franchise Agreement

A quick look at the promises, rights or duties that the franchisee or franchisor owes to the other.

Thought Leaders

The Collapse of Credit Suisse: A Cautionary Tale of Resistance to Hybrid Work

This cautionary tale serves as a reminder for business leaders to adapt to the changing world of work and prioritize their workforce's needs and preferences.

Career

Thinking of a Career Change? Here Are 4 Steps You Can Take To Get There.

Author Joanne Lipman on what experience and science tell us about successful job pivots.