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Are you inclusive if you don’t listen to people…

When we talk about inclusion, we often focus on individual backgrounds and characteristics —such as culture and race, gender, religion, sexual orientation etc. — and creating spaces where everyone feels a sense of belonging. These are critical components of inclusion, but they are just the beginning. A deeper, often overlooked layer of inclusion is how we engage with people whose ideas, values, or perspectives differ from our own.

Listening to the person rather than the content-Ad Hominem…

Did you know that what you listen to or reject depends on who is speaking much more than the actual content of what is shared?

For example, you might:

• Dismiss suggestions from a junior team member simply because they lack experience.
• Undermine external experts because you think they don’t understand the company’s history, culture or norms.
• Ignore internal experts because you believe they do not have broader expertise on the topic.
• Interpret ideas of someone you dislike as being bad ideas, even if the ideas have nothing to do with what you dislike about the person.
• Not listen to someone who does not appear ‘leader-like’ or confident, even if the content they are sharing is of high quality.
• Reject a competitor’s strategy outright because of animosity rather than critically assessing its potential merits.

There are multiplying costs to undervaluing Quietly Powerful leadership

There is a multiplying cost to organisations, when they undervalue Quietly Powerful leadership.

I continue to hear from people in organisations that there is a bias towards more outspoken, confident appearing styles as what’s needed to be promoted into leadership.

The obvious cost of this bias is that quieter professionals are overlooked for leadership positions, even if they have the potential for leadership. This is the gap between leadership emergence and leadership effectiveness (to read more, read this article).

Sadly, there is still a stigma for being quiet

I wish I didn’t have to share this lesson 8 years after starting Quietly Powerful.

It has also been 12 years since Susan Cain‘s book, “Quiet”, and her TED talk went public, and there have been many other authors and coaches sharing ideas on quietness – whether it’s to do with introversion, cultural conditioning, power dynamics including silencing.

Despite all of this work, there still seems to be a stigma for being quiet. It’s a reality that can’t be ignored.

We need to stop trying to ‘fix’ people who…

If we want to advance DEI and lift the quality of leadership, we need to focus on upgrading the system, along with unlocking individual potential.

Maintaining the status quo and trying to integrate those who are not in the majority, is an easy trap to fall into. It is easier for the majority as they don’t have to do anything. However, the collective then misses out on growth and evolution.