Business psychologist urges leaders to make diversity and inclusion central to culture

With National Inclusion Week underway – the theme being ‘impact matters’ – business psychologist and leadership development expert Penny Strutton has urged leaders to make diversity and inclusion central to their culture.

Strutton said: “This is a fantastic theme, because employees need to feel valued for who they are as individuals and trust that their ideas and contributions will be listened to and responded to equally.

“Every employee should feel empowered to drive the organisation forward through a diverse and inclusive environment, but they cannot achieve it alone.

“An effective leadership team that champion diversity and inclusion provide authentic role models from which to embed new beliefs and behaviours.”

While diversity is on the agenda for the majority of effective businesses, Strutton warned against seeing it as a “box-ticking” exercise, and urged business leaders to integrate and champion inclusion far more proactively.

She added: “Some organisations just focus on diversity and for sure, having a healthy mix of gender, ethnicity, disability, age and sexual preference amongst the workforce is a step in the right direction.

“However, if people don’t feel accepted for their individuality and difference, then organisations are merely ticking a box.

“Inclusion is the utopia all organisations should aim for and that only truly occurs when individuals feel safe to be themselves, regardless of age, sexual preference, gender, ethnicity or disability.

“They need to feel valued for who they are as individuals and trust that their ideas and contributions will be listened to and responded to equally.”

Inclusion on an everyday basis is about individuals being asked and encouraged to get involved and have a say, colleagues demonstrating interest in different views and taking time to understand different perspectives, according to Strutton.

Strutton said: “Every employee should feel empowered to drive the organisation forward through a diverse and inclusive environment but they cannot achieve it alone.

“An effective leadership team that champions diversity and inclusion provides authentic role models from which to embed new beliefs and behaviours.

“With National Inclusion Week underway, now is a great time to make a start or to refine your current strategy and culture.”