Equality, diversity, and inclusion are not political opinions. Those are non-negotiable human rights – hard fought and secured in America (Andy Dunn). Moreover, these principles aim to the accomplishment of personal and professional competencies such as relationship management, cultural integration and openness. Although these skills do not match with the idea of establishing strategic planning and vision, those contribute with forming leaders with social focus by strengthening their abilities to achieve multiple goals under equitable approach and inclusive leadership.
Along with the formation in organization skills, leaders can improve their capabilities by complementing them with equitable approaches to manage relationships in their organizations.

 

One of the ways to improves this approach is by understanding differences between equality, equity, and social identity differences. First, although commonly confused, equality and equity conform two different viewpoints diverted by the idea that giving all the same opportunities, doesn’t mean to provide the “right” opportunities. In other words, although equality represents a primary concept of justice among individuals, it does not mean that its application is normally “right”. For example, assigning two desks and chairs on the second floor of the company’s facilities to two different employees is equal since both are part of your company, however, if one of them has a disease that prevent him/her from working on the same chair than the other (considering that there is an elevator that facilitates his/her access), then the concept of equity is unsuccessfully not accomplished. Yet, if the leader provides a chair according to the features of the employee, by understanding its abilities, then both workers will have the same conditions to perform their work successfully. Only by applying this approach the concepts of equality and equity are accomplished properly.

 

Second, a leader must understand concepts related to social identities as an underlying part of forming relationships within his/her organization. Why is this important? Because the best way to interact with your team members is by understanding who they are. Under this perspective, strengthening ties by understanding and admiring other individual’s identity gender, sex, etc., and social constructed identities such as religion, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc., will facilitate the interaction between the leader and his/her cohort, and eventually will result in enhanced environment where all individuals will feel pertinence and recognition. By applying concepts of equality, equity and recognizing social identities of individuals a leader will complement his/her former skills, and eventually, will contribute to enhance the relationships within his/her organization.
Another way to expand the capabilities in leaders is through the development and application of inclusive leadership. This leadership model is intimately related with the characteristics of servant leader models. This concept reinforces the formation of global, innovative, change-facilitating, and growth perspectives in former leaders. In other terms, a former leader must be able to: a) develop a global perspective that entails a comprehensive understanding of cultures and their contribution to enhance talent regardless global boundaries; b) open his/her ideas to diverse points of view, c) lead his/her organization by inspiring and motivating other members to adapt to the dynamic of change and accept it as part of a positive growth; and d) take his/her organization to a higher level regarding its baseline, which indicates that his/her actions must be oriented to grow with the organization. All these features facilitate the formation of inclusive leaders, and positively, impact their performance to achieve the goal of their organization in more effective way.

 

Therefore, inclusion should not be consider only as a way how leaders understand and accept other members, but a way how they build their relationships by integrating their organization members by taking into considerations their differences, and converting them into strengths to achieve their mission in a way where all participants are equally and effectively included.