Inclusive Leadership Quotes

Inclusion without power or leadership is tokenism.

inclusion + engagement = execution muscle

Leaders who prioritize justice create a more equitable and inclusive workplace, where everyone is treated with dignity and respect.

The next time you are in a meeting, ask the quietest person what they think. Invite everyone into the conversation. If you are on a conference call, ask the people on the phone to share their thoughts first.

Stop talking about inclusion and engagement and start including and engaging in every conversation, every meeting.

Urging an organization to be inclusive is not an attack. It's progress.

If you have knowledge, let others light their candles at it.

Leaders should create a safe and inclusive space where individuals feel respected, valued, and empowered to share their ideas and perspectives.

Avoid dull facts; create memorable images; translate every issue into people’s lives; use simple, everyday language; never use big words when small words will do. Simplify the concept that “we are trying to construct a more inclusive society” into “we are going to make a country in which no one is left out.

a workplace can look as diverse as the United Nations, but if the employees are not truly respected, not truly valued, not truly involved, and not truly treated with dignity, what you have is a great photo opportunity, not real inclusion.

Diversity is being invited to the party; inclusiveness is being asked to dance.

Regulation is a good thing, until it cripples innovation and limits participation and inclusivity

One day we need to discuss and find solutions to how these complex systems should operate and fight for inclusivity

Being in the dominant group, where the culture matches our culture, tends to lead to not only advantage, but also conscious laziness.

the marketplace is capable only of calculating exclusive costs; that is; excluding all possible costs that interfere with profit. Leadership of society requires the calculation of inclusive costs. To invoke the marketplace, as if calling upon the Holy Spirit, is to limit ourselves to the narrow and short-term interests of exclusion. (IV - From Managers and Speculators to Growth)

When I’m sitting by my gay friends in church, I hear everything through their ears. When I’m with my recently divorced friend, I hear it through hers. This is good practice. It helps uncenter us (which is, you know, the whole counsel of the New Testament) and sharpens our eye for our sisters and brothers. It trains us to think critically about community, language, felt needs, and inclusion, shaking off autopilot and setting a wider table. We must examine who is invited, who is asked to teach, who is asked to contribute, who is called into leadership. It is one thing to “feel nice feelings” toward the minority voice; it is something else entirely to challenge existing power structures to include the whole variety of God’s people. This is not hard or fancy work. It looks like diversifying small groups and leadership, not defaulting to homogeny as the standard operating procedure. Closer in, it looks like coffee dates, dinner invites, the warm hand of friendship extended to women or families outside your demographic. It means considering the stories around the table before launching into an assumed shared narrative. It includes the old biblical wisdom on being slow to speak and quick to listen, because as much as we love to talk, share, and talk-share some more, there is a special holiness reserved for the practice of listening and deferring.

When abled people get ASL and ramps and fragrance-free lotion but haven’t built relationships with any disabled people, it just comes off like the charity model once again—Look at what we’re doing for you people! Aren’t you grateful? No one likes to be included as a favor. Inclusion without power or leadership is tokenism.

This book is about the difference between a self-focused inward mindset and an others-inclusive outward mindset. It will help you become more outward in your work, your leadership, and your life. It will guide you in building more innovative and collaborative teams and organizations. And it will help you see why you like many of the people you do and what you can do to become more like them.

As women gain rights, families flourish, and so do societies. That connection is built on a simple truth: Whenever you include a group that’s been excluded, you benefit everyone. And when you’re working globally to include women and girls, who are half of every population, you’re working to benefit all members of every community. Gender equity lifts everyone. From high rates of education, employment, and economic growth to low rates of teen births, domestic violence, and crime—the inclusion and elevation of women correlate with the signs of a healthy society. Women’s rights and society’s health and wealth rise together. Countries that are dominated by men suffer not only because they don’t use the talent of their women but because they are run by men who have a need to exclude. Until they change their leadership or the views of their leaders, those countries will not flourish. Understanding this link between women’s empowerment and the wealth and health of societies is crucial for humanity. As much as any insight we’ve gained in our work over the past twenty years, this was our huge missed idea. My huge missed idea. If you want to lift up humanity, empower women. It is the most comprehensive, pervasive, high-leverage investment you can make in human beings.

Having studied workplace leadership styles since the 1970s, Kets de Vries confirmed that language is a critical clue when determining if a company has become too cultish for comfort. Red flags should rise when there are too many pep talks, slogans, singsongs, code words, and too much meaningless corporate jargon, he said. Most of us have encountered some dialect of hollow workplace gibberish. Corporate BS generators are easy to find on the web (and fun to play with), churning out phrases like “rapidiously orchestrating market-driven deliverables” and “progressively cloudifying world-class human capital.” At my old fashion magazine job, employees were always throwing around woo-woo metaphors like “synergy” (the state of being on the same page), “move the needle” (make noticeable progress), and “mindshare” (something having to do with a brand’s popularity? I’m still not sure). My old boss especially loved when everyone needlessly transformed nouns into transitive verbs and vice versa—“whiteboard” to “whiteboarding,” “sunset” to “sunsetting,” the verb “ask” to the noun “ask.” People did it even when it was obvious they didn’t know quite what they were saying or why. Naturally, I was always creeped out by this conformism and enjoyed parodying it in my free time. In her memoir Uncanny Valley, tech reporter Anna Wiener christened all forms of corporate vernacular “garbage language.” Garbage language has been around since long before Silicon Valley, though its themes have changed with the times. In the 1980s, it reeked of the stock exchange: “buy-in,” “leverage,” “volatility.” The ’90s brought computer imagery: “bandwidth,” “ping me,” “let’s take this offline.” In the twenty-first century, with start-up culture and the dissolution of work-life separation (the Google ball pits and in-office massage therapists) in combination with movements toward “transparency” and “inclusion,” we got mystical, politically correct, self-empowerment language: “holistic,” “actualize,” “alignment.

Hartsfield-Jackson, which serves 104 million passengers a year, is the world’s busiest airport, a distinction it has held since 1998. A sudden power outage caused by a fire in an underground electrical facility serving it, brought the airport to a standstill. All outgoing flights were halted, and arriving planes were held on the ground at their point of departure. With, International flights diverted elsewhere. Such is the impact of the lack of proper Business Continuity Planning-BCP. Something still considered alien, as time progresses. One wonders, what will it take the International Aviation leadership to begin propagating for its inclusion into industrial best practices?

When leadership at the highest levels feel more comfortable with behavior that excludes than with inclusive behavior toward peers, “Houston we have a problem.

Emerging technology is making facts increasingly vulnerable, and all of us will soon have trouble discerning what is actually true. Simply put, we’re about to enter an age where facts will no longer be reliable. The information we think is 100 percent accurate may be flawed, and even our best attempt to find the truth may fall short.

People are innately prepared to act as members of tribes, but culture tells us how to recognize who belongs to our tribes, what schedules of aid, praise, and punishment are due to tribal fellows, and how the tribe is to deal with other tribes — allies, enemies, and clients. […] Contemporary human societies differ drastically from the societies in which our social instincts evolved. Pleistocene hunter-gatherer societies were likely comparatively small, egalitarian, and lacking in powerful institutionalized leadership. […] To evolve largescale, complex social systems, cultural evolutionary processes, driven by cultural group selection, takes advantage of whatever support these instincts offer. […] cultural evolution must cope with a psychology evolved for life in quite different sorts of societies. Appropriate larger scale institutions must regulate the constant pressure from smaller-groups (coalitions, cabals, cliques), to subvert the large-group favoring rules. To do this cultural evolution often makes use of “work arounds” — mobilizing tribal instincts for new purposes. For example, large national and international (e.g. great religions) institutions develop ideologies of symbolically marked inclusion that often fairly successfully engage the tribal instincts on a much larger scale. Military and religious organizations (e.g., Catholic Church), for example, dress recruits in identical clothing (and haircuts) loaded with symbolic markings, and then subdivide them into small groups with whom they eat and engage in long-term repeated interaction. Such work-arounds are often awkward compromises […] Complex societies are, in effect, grand natural social-psychological experiments that stringently test the limits of our innate dispositions to cooperate.

Those techniques used in formulating the agenda and making decisions—transparency, inclusiveness, decisiveness, micro-knowledge (but not micromanagement), and accountability—all will continue to be essential in implementation.

The men who built Africa’ are stories to be told in the future. A future that may never come, yet we hope for it. For what is a man without hope? A dead man. A selfless youth-inclusive forward-thinking leadership is all it will take. Just a reminder, we are our enemy, and greed is what drives most so-called leaders today; the truth hurts. The shackles of modern-day slavery are not out of sight after all.

The most accurate way to gauge DE&I progress is to understand the reactions of the stakeholders who matter the most: employees.

Effective inclusion leadership needs to start at the top of the organization.

Our survey measure rated three behavioral attributes of leadership inclusiveness: one, leaders were approachable and accessible; two, leaders acknowledged their fallibility; and three, leaders proactively invited input from other staff, physicians, and nurses. The concept of leadership inclusiveness thus captures situational humility coupled with proactive inquiry (discussed in the next section).

Our vision should be for each child to have a strong sense of belonging and inclusivity in the very communities that they will be expected to build, lead, and hold together one day...

Success in today's competitive marketplace favors leaders who are transparent and forward thinking, those who promote and celebrate diversity, and individuals who maintain a commitment to inclusion.

Exclusivity detracts collaboration. Inclusivity attracts participation.

Talking about diversity and inclusion in the workplace is one of the most important conversations you will ever have with your employees.

Sometimes you’ll find work that’s worthy of attention but which an organization is incapable of paying attention to, usually because its leadership doesn’t value that work. In some companies, this is developer tooling work. In others, it’s inclusion work. In most companies, it’s glue work. There is almost always a great deal of room to do this sort of work that no one is paying attention to, so you’ll be able to make rapid initial progress on it, which feels like a good opportunity to invest. At some point, though, you’ll find that the work needs support, and it’s quite challenging to get support for work that a company is built to ignore or devalue. Your early wins will slowly get eroded by indifference and misalignment, and your initial impact will be reclaimed by the sands of time.

The Next Generation of Women Leaders: What You Need to Lead but Won’t Learn in Business School and Pushback: How Smart Women Ask—and Stand Up—for What They Want. As the same time, Rezvani created Women’s Roadmap, which engages in women’s leadership development and helps companies to create inclusive workplaces.

Dive Deeper: Henri Lipmanowicz and Keith McCandless have come up with a menu of 33 well defined yet simple structures that are designed to allow the inclusion of everyone across all levels of the organization and stakeholder community. They refer to these simple structures as Liberating Structures in their book of the same title.

Leadership has an electrifying edge when it comes to shaping culture. Trailblazing leaders carve out the vision, values, and behaviors that guide a group. With unwavering integrity, they ignite trust and foster collaboration, forging a culture that pushes boundaries. These audacious leaders infuse purpose, propelling individuals and cultivating a culture of relentless innovation and unquenchable curiosity.

At the heart of every successful organization lies a culture of inclusion—one that not only accepts but also celebrates individual differences, viewing diversity as a wellspring of strength rather than a mere obligation to be fulfilled.

As the driving force behind schools, administrators exhibit strong leadership skills and a commitment to fostering positive and inclusive learning environments.

These should not be seen as predetermined or inevitable. Most often groups start by dealing with their own boundaries, membership and group rules and expectations. Schutz (1973) calls this ‘inclusion’; Tuckman (1965) ‘the stages of forming and norming’. This is often addressed in the ‘contracting’ stage in team development, where issues of confidentiality, commitment

Perhaps more concerning, though, is the fact that inclusion of people of color in power structures, particularly at the top, can paralyze reform efforts. People of color are often reluctant to challenge institutions led by people who look like them, as they feel a personal stake in the individual’s success. After centuries of being denied access to leadership positions in key social institutions, people of color quite understandably are hesitant to create circumstances that could trigger the downfall of “one of their own.” An

The evangelical position, represented by the personal stories in this book, including my own, understands that a fully authoritative Bible supports the freedom of women under Christ without male supervision to follow their God-given callings and special gifts of the Spirit, including full leadership ministries. This view can be called the “inclusive” view of ministry

India is a country where universality and inclusiveness are widely practised. We have one of the best advantages very few countries have, including China. Just the sheer diversity of religion, language, practices and ethnicity ... and if we can learn to live in peace, if we can accommodate each other, then we can build a model for the world on how to cope with diversity.

after challenging France by arming and bankrolling the Algerian revolutionaries, he had the courage to send thousands of his troops to Yemen, on the Saudi borders, to support the revolutionaries in their coup against the country's antiquated royal regime. Nasser's project appeared to be a true revolutionary avalanche. Syria begged to unite with Egypt under his leadership. The Syrian leadership accepted union terms with Egypt that in effect dissolved the Syrian state. Several Iraqi leaders invited him to Baghdad to announce Iraq's inclusion in the ‘United Arab Republic’. Lebanon's Muslims and Druze hailed him as their leader.

All Inclusive The single principle can be found everywhere, all the time. Everything works according to it. Every life unfolds according to it. The single principle does not say yes to this and no to that. Even though Tao is the source of all growth and development, nothing profits Tao. Tao benefits all without return and without prejudice. Neither is the single principle private property. You cannot own it. It does not own you. Its greatness lies in its universality. It is all-inclusive. The wise leader follows this principle and does not act selfishly. The leader does not accept one person and refuse to work with another. The leader does not own people or control their lives. Leadership is not a matter of winning. The work is done in order to shed the light of awareness on whatever is happening: also, selfless service, without prejudice, available to all.

People who feel excluded get angry and act out their anger in the team. No man is an island, no person can function isolated from the group. When you create a team, any kind of team, inclusion is fundamental. Without every member feeling deeply that he or she belongs to that group there is no team.

If the parents felt they had a healthy line of communication with the children's ministry team and the church was following up in a timely manner, they tended to reflect on the setbacks less negatively. Parents were more likely to continue their involvement with the church if they perceived the children's ministry leadership was working proactively to appropriately accommodate their child.

Heaven is Under the Feet of Governments" is a groundbreaking exploration of how integrating spiritual values with secular governance can transform societies. Through the innovative Maqasid model, this book offers a holistic approach that addresses both material needs and spiritual fulfillment. Authored by Abdellatif Raji, it combines clear, accessible language with real-world applications and case studies, making complex concepts understandable for all readers. In an era demanding ethical leadership and social justice, this book provides practical solutions to modern governance challenges, promoting equity, sustainability, and inclusivity. It's a must-read for anyone passionate about creating a just and compassionate world.

Our Filters are what we need to pay attention to, yet they are what many of us are oblivious to.

The vital question we each need to ask ourselves is not if but when and where I am contributing to disparities in my profession, in my system, in my community?

We think we are in conscious control and are making our own decisions when, in actuality, we aren’t.

We mistakenly believe our cultural behaviors are the good, right, and respectful behaviors. What convinces us of that misperception? Our Filters.

Our challenge is how to identify and talk about our differences, well, differently.

Unless we’re interacting with a mirror all day, we are interacting across differences.

It can feel as if we’re giving up our own values or giving in to the other person’s preferences. The reality is, it’s not giving up but adding on.

The systems within our organizations continue to churn out disparities and inequities, and all too often, those charged with fixing the problem look to the wrong source.

Organization after organization has created a culture of, for, and by only round holes, yet they say they want square and triangle and star pegs.

Equality applies the same rules and advantages to all in an attempt to treat everyone fairly. While used with the best of intentions, the results are rarely equal.

As the driving force behind schools, administrators exhibit strong leadership skills and a commitment to fostering positive and inclusive learning environments.

In my experience successfully managing diverse teams in a globalized environment demands not only the cultivation of cultural awareness and an inclusive atmosphere where every member feels esteemed but also the capacity to be an astute observer, a meticulous planner, and a strategic thinker. Clear and inclusive communication, supported by technology, bridges geographic divides, while tailored leadership approaches ensure alignment and motivation. A strategic mindset coupled with effective implementation of plans drives the team toward shared objectives. Lastly, proactive conflict resolution and a commitment to continuous learning are critical for maintaining harmony and fostering adaptability within the team.

Socio-economic development begins with creating equal opportunities for all, ensuring no one is left behind." "Empowering communities through education and economic opportunity is the foundation of sustainable development." "Sustainable development thrives when we blend tradition with innovation to create inclusive growth." "True socio-economic progress lies in investing in human capital and nurturing young minds to become future leaders." "Development is not just about economic growth; it's about building a society where every individual has the chance to thrive." "For any nation to prosper, we must prioritize policies that address both economic and social inequalities." "Inclusive development requires collective effort, innovative solutions, and unwavering commitment to justice." "The path to a sustainable future is paved with equitable policies, youth engagement, and sustainable economic practices." "Economic growth must be people-centered, prioritizing social welfare, environmental sustainability, and community resilience." "Transforming any socio-economic landscape requires bold leadership, transparent governance, and a vision for inclusive progress.

Diversity is inevitable, Inclusion is intentional.

Inclusion is the story of sunlight falling equally on the garden of flowers (Diversity) and the gardeners (Inclusive Leaders) tending to the plants to grow and flower. Some plants need extra support, some need extra care and nutrition. The sun merely shining (Equality) cannot impact all equally unless they are made receptive (Equity). Only then, can these flowers bloom and bear fruits. Responsibility also rests with those who want to be included, by constantly upgrading themselves to be receptive to the efforts of inclusion. This is what sunflowers do. Diversity can be imposed; Inclusion is a choice. A choice which comes from love.

There are no labels in UDL. There are only fabulous, amazing students with different levels of variability.

An organization that fails to enable, and hear, a diversity of voices is like preparing a multi-course meal using two ingredients. Sure, you might be able to fill a plate but without utilizing a full range of ingredients that provide richness, texture, and spice the resulting taste experience hardly pleases the palate.

If you want to be an effective and memorable leader, get comfortable fostering a culture of inclusion, collaboration and creativity.

they tend to follow a common pattern: The incident: Someone writes or says something that’s acceptable to most of society but blasphemy within SJF. The backlash: A major protest occurs both within the institution and on social media, often equating the offender’s words with harm and demanding punishment in the name of safety. The moment of truth: Leadership within the institution—in each case, an institution specifically built to play by liberal rules—is forced to either stand up for its liberal ideals or cede to mob demands. Leadership cedes to SJF: In many cases, leadership initially stands up for liberal values. But when the backlash persists, to avoid being guilty by association, leadership fires the target or retracts their words. Leadership affirms allegiance to SJF: Public statements say something like, “The incident is antithetical to our values. We vow that it will not happen again. We reaffirm our commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

When life throws you a curveball, embrace the chaos, and turn it into your competitive advantage by shifting your mindset and transforming adversity into opportunity.

Inclusion to me means participation. You can "include" people but bringing them along to participate is when individuals experience true inclusion. Our job as leaders is to find ways for each individual to participate

Inclusion to me means participation. You can "include" people but bringing them along to participate is when individuals experience true inclusion.

Our job as leaders is to find ways for individuals to participate to their full potential

Belonging is important for a person’s health, just as it is important to your business’s health.

Foster a culture of exploration and experimentation where diverse perspective and ideas can converge.

A leader’s strength lies not in the might of their authority, but in the depth of their empathy, the breadth of their inclusiveness, and their capacity to inspire.

True leadership is the opposite of individualism, the opposite of one person standing above the rest. It's an encompassing, inclusive thing. I never liked the top-down way of leading. Even if I've been here for years, I shouldn't walk around like I'm a better human than a newbie or treat them badly.

To lead inclusively, you will embrace discomfort and recognize your own and others’ imperfections as part of what it means to be human.

You show up as an inclusive leader every day, not just when it’s convenient.

We can’t underestimate the need for people to be heard, seen, and respected, which is what inclusion is all about.

Being a human leader means inviting other perspectives and letting go of the need to be right.

We have no idea what anyone else is dealing with until we get to know them, listen to them, and try to understand what they are experiencing.

When we don’t have the hard conversations, the issues we are avoiding talking about go underground, fester, and become more destructive.

Meetings embody and reveal your team culture. They expose who has the power, who gets listened to, and who feels comfortable speaking up.

Inclusive leadership requires us to hear information and viewpoints that often will make us uncomfortable.

As a boldly inclusive leader, you will need to counteract the natural human tendency to hear only the voices you most easily connect with.

Being a human leader means showing up as an imperfect person, with all your strengths and all your flaws.

Every meeting is an opportunity for people to feel seen, heard, and respected.

It is only when you retreat from discomfort that the learning stops.

It takes so little effort to make people feel seen and cared about.

A great leader realizes this dichotomy of utilizing his platform while placing others on this platform as well. They know mutual respect and how to listen to words and body language.

You belong and this space is for you

Inclusive leadership creates enough room for community involvement.

Leaders cannot afford to ignore or betray this diversity inherent in humanity. in fact, the fear of diversity, and the wish for uniformity, threaten the well-being of the world.

Leaders need to deliberately build inclusive cultures where those ideas and talents can flourish.

As a leader, you need to ensure that no single voice is more heavily weighted than another.

Exclusion

2. “When you make simple things complicated, you will struggle over issues others with very little effort are excelling at, and you will naturally find all the rational opinions and suggestions why you should stick to your ineffective approach. Don't because you want things perfectly done refuse to take the reasonable simple steps you can take now; if you are a leader of a people, try not to define Integrity in terms of your own sense of piety, try an inclusive baseline approach or, you may just end up driving your people insane

In the absence of verifiable truth, competing narratives will vie for allegiance. When we are forced to compete in a battle of narratives, inclusion is still our best weapon: only by leveraging a diversity of voices can we create a winning narrative.

The mindset assessment asks questions that measure characteristics such as awareness, helpfulness, accountability, alignment, collaboration, self-correction, coordination, inclusivity, generosity, transparency, results focus, openness, appreciation, recognition, empowerment, initiative, engagement, and safety. Looking at these various elements and averaging results across industries, we have found that people rate their colleagues in their organizations at an average of 4.8 on the continuum and themselves at 6.8, which is to say that individuals rate themselves as 40 percent better than the rest of the people in their organizations across these characteristics.

Maybe you didn’t intend to build or support an unfair reality, but you can change it, now that you are learning how. This is every leader’s most sacred responsibility, particularly if their road to leadership has been smoother because of their identity.

The strategic responsibility of leaders is not only to act as a “Role Model” to promote collaborative teamwork and innovative ideas but also to manage the undiscovered vistas of diversity, cohesion and inclusiveness to harbour extravagant gifts.