An inclusive leader understands that a sense of belonging is essential to the success of any business. In this episode of the Transform Your Workplace podcast, Brandon Laws talks with Perrine Farque, author of Inclusion: The Ultimate Secret for an Organization’s Success, who offers practical tips and inspiring anecdotes for effective, inclusive leadership.
GUEST AT A GLANCE
Perrine Farque is a best-selling author, speaker, and expert on inclusion in the workplace. With over a decade of corporate leadership experience, she is passionate about helping business leaders create an authentic sense of belonging among their employees.
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🔊 Podcast: Transform Your Workplace, Sponsored by Xenium HR
🎙️ Host: Brandon Laws
📋 In his own words: “The Transform Your Workplace podcast is your go-to source for the latest workplace trends, big ideas, and time-tested methods straight from the mouths of industry experts and respected thought-leaders.”
DEFINING TERMS
There’s a difference between belonging and inclusion.
“When I speak to HR professionals or business leaders,” Perrine began, “people get a little bit confused about what inclusion means. So I started talking about defining inclusion within the context of the workplace.” Inclusion is feeling that your ideas are heard, feeling “seen,” and feeling valued as a part of a team, and “belonging is the ultimate inclusion” because your team has become your family.
So is it possible to feel included but not actually belong? According to Perrine, the answer is yes. Inclusion practices may be embedded in company culture, but that doesn’t mean that all employees will feel connected. The sense of belonging is crucial to an authentic inclusive culture, but leaders must be intentional about it.
PODCAST EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
The Inspiration
“For 13 years, I worked in the software industry, and often I was the only woman in the room, especially at the leadership level. And then when I became a mother and I had two young children, it became very obvious that I was the only one who had to worry about going home by 5:00 PM to pick up the kids from school and the nursery. Meanwhile, my male coworkers were getting promoted, and I just realized that there must be a better way to create more inclusive workplaces where everybody feels like they’re set up for success.”
It Starts With Education
“If you’re a business leader or head of HR, start to think of yourself as a diversity and inclusion advocate and champion. You don’t have to wait for everybody to be perfectly ready. You can start with yourself — educating yourself on the topic, learning every day, challenging yourself to be an upstander, an advocate. Start with asking why diversity and inclusion are important to your organization? Is it because it’s going to help you drive more innovation, more creative thinking, more engagement for your employees, more retention? Really try to tie in diversity and inclusion to your business.”
Exclusion is Contagious
“I think we’ve all been to workplaces where we’ve had maybe a toxic leader — one who bullies or is shame-focused — and those things are very contagious. They have a bit of a cascading effect, and everybody’s going to start mirroring that behavior. So it’s important to stand up to bullies and not tolerate that kind of foolish behavior.”
The Key to Inclusive Leadership
“How do you get innovation? How do you get creative? The answer is vulnerability. People are not going to be sharing their brilliant ideas with you if they don’t feel safe enough to speak up because they feel they might be made fun of, bullied, or ridiculed. So as a leader, your role is to create that basic layer of trust, or psychological safety so that people keep each other accountable and feel safe to speak. You do that by leading by example.”
The Inclusive Culture
“Be crystal clear on how diversity and inclusion tie into your mission statement, and communicate, communicate, communicate that to all of your employees all the time.
Also, have leaders that are really accountable and committed to it and who talk about it often. Leaders should also be encouraged to do daily check-ins or weekly check-ins — asking what you can do to help shut down bullies and standing up to misconduct and discrimination. Get to know your team — really get to know them.”
LEARN MORE
For more insight into inclusion in the workplace, follow Perinne Farque on Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, or Facebook. And don’t forget to pick up a copy of her book, Inclusion: The Ultimate Secret for an Organization’s Success.