The "Action" Strategy: Why Inclusive Leadership Drives Results

When it comes to getting the best out of your team, being an inclusive leader isn’t some warm and fuzzy aspiration, but a business-necessity for increasing innovation, productivity, retention, and a positive workplace culture.  

Inclusive leadership isn't about being "nice"; it’s about a specific set of measurable behaviors that optimize talent and drive organizational health. By moving from the self-reflection of the "Reflect" phase into the behavioral integration of the "Include" phase of our R.I.S.E. leadership development framework, leaders bridge the gap between good intentions and high-impact results, ensuring every team member is positioned to contribute at their highest level.

Spending the last near decade helping organizations build healthier, more results-driven workplace cultures, I’ve seen too many times that many leaders treat inclusion as a finish line—a state of being they’ve already achieved because they are "good people" with “good intentions.” 

But inclusion isn't a personality trait. It is a verb.  

Inclusion isn’t who you are. It’s what you do.

Inclusive leaders move from simple lip service and saying they value inclusion, to incorporating behaviors that make everyone on their team feel valued, respected, seen, and heard.  

When you presume you’re being inclusive, it’s easy to forget to actively use inclusive behaviors. Even worse, if you aren't leading your team with inclusive behaviors, you are also more likely to be unintentionally excluding some or many of your team, wreaking havoc on communication, collaboration, trust, turnover rates, productivity, culture, and overall team effectiveness. Failing at inclusion is a great way to fail as a leader.

Part 2 of a 4-part series: The R.I.S.E. to Action Framework 

This blog is the second installment of a series dedicated to our R.I.S.E. to Action program, a cohort-based experience that equips leaders to inspire high-performing teams through Reflection, Inclusion, Sharing, and Evolving their leadership approach with data-based leadership development. 

In Part 2, we explore the Inclusion phase, where we provide the tools to build psychologically safe workplaces where all team members feel valued, respected, seen, and heard. This phase builds upon the Reflect phase, which uses self-reflection and data to uncover mindsets and behaviors that may be hindering leadership effectiveness. 

Read Part 1 here: The "Mirror" Strategy: Why the Best Leaders Begin with Radical Reflection 

Are your "good intentions" getting in the the way of results? 

In Part 1 of this series, we talked about the "Awareness Gap"—the fact that most leaders believe they are more self-aware than they actually are. This gap is even wider when it comes to inclusion. Leaders often assume that because they haven't personally heard a complaint or instance of workplace discrimination, that their team’s culture is "fine.” 

But "fine" is the enemy of leadership excellence. 

When inclusive leadership is missing, you leave money on the table. In Inclusalytics, we highlight that inclusive teams are more engaged and engagement leads directly to productivity, which has a serious impact on the bottom line [1]. Conversely, when employees feel like they don’t belong or are valued for their contributors, engagement tanks, performance drops, and turnover costs skyrocket. 

Inclusive leadership is the mechanism that transforms diversity from "window dressing" into a measurable competitive advantage.

Small Actions, Big Impact: Do your leaders know the power of Microaffirmations? 

Most organizational friction isn't caused by a single, catastrophic event; it’s caused by the "death by a thousand cuts" of microaggressions. To counter this, inclusive leaders master the art microaffirmations–small, often innocuous actions that signal to an employee that they belong. 

Microaffirmations aren't grand gestures. They are the "everyday inclusion" behaviors that build the foundation of psychological safety. Examples include: 

• Active Listening: Turning your body toward someone when they enter a room or speak in a meeting. 

• Correct Pronunciation: Taking the time to learn and correctly use an unfamiliar name—a small act that acknowledges a person’s identity and personhood. 

• Amplification: Giving credit where credit is due by repeating a point made by a team member and ensuring their voice is heard.

Behavior Type	The "Autopilot" Leader	The Inclusive Leader
Communication	Assumes silence equals agreement.	Actively solicits dissenting opinions to avoid groupthink.
Feedback	Only addresses "what" went wrong.	Focuses on the "why" and fuels growth through psychological safety.
Relationship	Mentors those who remind them of themselves.	Sponsors those across differences to bridge the power gap.

How do you transition from "Manager" to "Inclusive Leader"? 

Inclusive leadership requires a shift in focus from managing tasks to fostering a better human experience in the workplace. Research identifies six core behaviors of inclusive leaders [2]: 

1. Visible Commitment: Publicly prioritizing DEI objectives and holding yourself (and others) accountable for them. 

2. Humility: Admitting mistakes and being open to the fact that you don't have all the answers. 

3. Awareness of Bias: Actively looking for personal blind spots and flaws in organizational systems. 

4. Curiosity about Others: Maintaining an open mindset and sincerely inquiring about unique perspectives. 

5. Effective Collaboration: Empowering others and fostering team cohesion. 

6. Cultural Intelligence: Recognizing and adapting to different cultures and identities. 

Are your leaders operating with a clear view of their impact? Book a Strategy Alignment Call with me today to talk through how Plan to Action can help your team move from awareness to action.

Inclusive Feedback that Fuels Growth 

We’ve all seen the manager who gives "brutally honest" feedback that actually shuts down performance. Inclusive leaders, however, deliver feedback that fuels growth rather than triggers defense mechanisms. 

Inclusive feedback is grounded in psychological safety–creating an environment where employees feel safe sharing their perspectives and making mistakes. It requires the leader to understand that their impact on the recipient matters more than their intent. When a leader models vulnerability and learning, they create a space where employees feel safe to take risks, admit mistakes, and ultimately innovate faster. 

Allyship in Action 

Finally, inclusive leaders serve as allies to those who don’t share the same power and privileges due to differing statuses (e.g., manager and direct report) and/or identity (gender, race, sexual orientation, etc.).  

Many leaders want to be allies, but they stop at calling themselves “allies” without actually doing any of the work. At Plan to Action, we teach leaders that they we should never call ourselves an ally; rather, when we do the work of an ally, those who benefit from that work then give allies their designation–that’s how you know you’re getting it right. 

Allyship is an ongoing partnership between an ally and a partner (one who is served by an ally) to collectively solve problems related to fairness and equity. Allyship looks like: 

• Using Privilege for Good: Leveraging your status and resources to support someone who doesn't share your identity. 

• Working “with,” not “for:” Great allyship requires co-conspirating—asking your partner what they actually need before jumping in to "save the day". 

• Exposure: Intentionally interacting with people different from you to chip away at your own unconscious biases. 

Good Intentions are Cheap. Inclusion Means Action. 

Self-awareness to explore and identify what would make us a better leader is a powerful starting point, but it isn't the finish line. Good intentions alone won't bridge the gap between a leader's perceived impact and the actual, daily experience of their team.  

To drive real culture change and organizational results, leaders must transition from the "strategic pause" of reflection to the deliberate practice of inclusive behaviors—the measurable actions that ensure every contributor feels valued, respected, seen, and heard. If your leadership team is still operating on autopilot, you are leaving innovation and talent on the table while risking the burnout of your best people. 

The window to evolve your leadership culture is now. Waiting to address these behavioral deficiencies only deepens systemic friction and accelerates talent loss. It is time to move beyond the intentions of inclusion and the mere label of "ally" and into a results-driven strategy that transforms how your leaders show up every day. 

Schedule your R.I.S.E. Strategy Alignment Call with us today. 

This is Part 2 of our R.I.S.E. series.

References 

[1] Mattingly, V., Grice (Shipley), S., & Goldstein, A. (2022). Inclusalytics: How Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Leaders Use Data to Drive Their Work. Mattingly Solutions. 

[2] Deloitte (2016). The six signature traits of inclusive leadership: Thriving in a diverse new world.