Great Leaders Connect, Inspire, And Support

Do you invite your team to challenge the way things have always been done at your organization?

Great leaders don’t get locked into the “that’s the way things are done around here” syndrome.

Great leaders know that flexibility and adaptability are an essential part of keeping up with changing markets, competition, job demands, and the next inevitable sea change.

Inclusive leaders presume that great ideas and solutions can, and will, come from anywhere in the organization, regardless of role or experience. They foster a workplace culture that encourages curiosity, rewards openness to differing perspectives and new alternatives, and celebrates success as well as "noble" failures. 

They openly invite participation in decision making, challenging the status quo, and taking initiative to speak up and draw attention to where it's needed.

It sounds nice, doesn’t it?

You could be this great leader. Unless you’re content with achieving suboptimal results at any cost.

If you want to know more about how you can become a more fulfilled, inclusive leader, whose team respects you, and admires your vision, it starts with creating a culture of psychological safety within your team or organization. Read on for the full download.

Transforming Your Company’s Culture? 

Transforming your company’s culture begins with how we interact with each other, which begins with how we are with ourselves. 

When you use the leadership challenges that arise to actually complete your own process of self-discovery and growth, you signal it’s safe for everyone on your team to do the same and foster a humane work environment where human beings can thrive and become their best selves. 

Research shows that teams with psychologically safe workplace cultures have employees who are less likely to leave, more likely to harness the power of diversity, and ultimately, who are more productive and successful. In short, having a culture at work where people feel safe to show up as their whole selves contributes to your bottom-line, in a meaningful way.

How To Be A More Inclusive Leader

Inclusive leaders learn to listen better, lean in with compassion, and empower rather than fix, while also engaging more in these respectful, inclusive ways:

Employee

• Slow down to explore what’s really going on, and remain open to what an individual or group needs in the moment.

• Recognize that fears, worries, and concerns are best discussed collectively, and without judgement, needing to be rational, or to ‘be fixed.’

• Listen, get curious, and respond empathetically. Demonstrate genuine care for how your employees are doing.

Company

• Create a sense of belonging and invite all voices at the table into the conversation, valuing diverse people and perspectives.

• Create the conditions where employees feel safe to speak up.

• Hire intentionally around what’s needed, and provide clarity around roles, responsibilities, and expectations.

Leader

• Use the leadership challenges that arise to complete your own process of self-discovery and growth, signaling it’s safe for everyone on your team to do the same.

• Cultivate a healthy relationship with uncertainty, the unknown and risks.

• Take responsibility for the impact of your leadership and decisions, as well as individual and organizational learning and growth.

Ask yourself, how many of these feel familiar to you? How does your organization feel in comparison? What do you see that’s working? What would you like to see more of?

The Results: Greater Connection, Safety, And Belonging, More Engaged Employees

When great leaders have the courage to be themselves and tune into their inner core, they create an environment where they’re allowed to be themselves--authentic, transparent, clear, consistent, trusting and trustworthy--and inadvertently, create the conditions for others within the organization to be themselves too. Unveiling their true selves not only leads to more confident leadership, but also results in better, happier, more resilient employees. And that can fuel a pivotal shift in any company or career. 

While falling into your default command and control setting by providing solutions to employees’ problems can be tempting, given your pressing deadlines and long list of important tasks, consider the value-building approach of asking the right questions, and listening to understand.  

As you exercise the muscle of slowing down, creating space to hear somebody, without jumping in to fix--attacking the problem and moving on--you may be pleasantly surprised to discover this more respectful, inclusive approach of seeing people, not as problems, is more efficient organizationally, because what grows is trust. When trust and rapport increase, people feel safer to make decisions and to be on the front lines without having to check in with you on every little thing, which also helps to clear your mental load, and calendar, allowing you to do bigger, more impactful work as well.

Work flows better from each of us, and from all of us operating together, when we feel a sense of connection, safety, and belonging with our team. 

If you find yourself frustrated with your employees, and the constant battle to inspire and motivate them so that they can do their best work, shoot me an email and we can talk.

WHO IS REMM CURTIS?

REMM CURTIS is an executive coach working with NYC and beyond's best and brightest leaders stay at the top of their game. If you would like to talk about what the best version of you could look like, get in touch.