Boldly Inclusive Leadership: Humanizing The Workplace to Build Psychologically Safe Teams

Evidence continues to build that building diverse teams with high grades of psychological safety greatly increases the chance of organizational success. Many leaders understand the organizational, social, and ethical need to build such inclusive teams, but feel as if they lack the resources or knowledge to do so. Minette Norman, award-winning author and this week’s guest, describes how leaders can overcome the traditional expectations of emotionless, hard-nosed leadership, and build thriving, joyful, creative teams.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts took a massive hit in 2023. Many companies’ diversity initiatives showed up on budget cut sheets, and it became clear that progress toward more inclusive organizations had been minimal and unsatisfactory. Many leaders, however, still understand the critical nature of implementing such changes. While there may be barriers to positive change that seem insurmountable, there’s always work that can be done at the level of individual leaders to prioritize diverse and psychologically safe teams.

Minette Norman, award-winning author and consultant, joins us this week to discuss what it means to be a boldly inclusive leader. Her expertise draws from a 30-year career working with leaders at every step in the organizational hierarchy, from many different industries. Her principles emphasize an awareness of the parts of us we often shirk in the workplace: emotion, communication habits, and kinship.

Join us as we discuss:

The importance of understanding our own emotions as leaders, as well as the emotions of our team members
Steps leaders should take to promote inclusivity if they’re unsure about what’s productive and what’s harmful
Tactics for listening actively and effectively as leaders building diverse teams
How to identify reactive communication habits and maintain peaceful, productive dialogue
Humanizing each other and striving for empathy in the workplace with thought experiments such as “just like me”
How to hold meetings and structure collaborations that prioritize psychological safety
Bringing joy into the workplace

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Episode Resources

Minette Norman LinkedIn

Minette Norman Website
getAbstract website

getAbstract on LinkedIn

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