How can you use questioning to develop an inclusive and diverse leadership vision?

To build a leadership vision that’s truly inclusive, we've got to start by asking ourselves some tough questions. Like, are we making any assumptions without realizing it? And, are we really hearing from everyone, or just the usual suspects? It’s about getting real on how our own stories color our decisions, spotting the roadblocks that keep diversity out of the boardroom, and keeping tabs on how well we’re actually doing at bringing everyone into the fold. It’s a chat we need to keep having.

Ancient Greek philosophers, notably Socrates, proclaimed in Plato's Apology, "An unexamined life is not worth living." This timeless wisdom underscores the transformative power of questioning. The beauty of questioning the assumed lies in its power to reveal the very perspectives we need to break away from insanity. Effective questioning empowers leaders to cultivate inclusive and diverse visions through: 1. Challenging assumptions: identifying biases, stereotypes, and cultural blind spots. 2. Seeking diverse perspectives: fostering empathy and understanding through stakeholder input. 3. Exploring unconscious biases: recognizing and addressing hidden biases in decision-making.

Here's an exercise any team can do. Ask your team members the following: "Take a minute to look around the room at the team we've assembled here. One, by one, consider each of your peers, and consider their individual strengths. What strengths do you have in common with each of them? What experience and strengths might each of them have that can make up where you might be lacking? Where do feel you might bring unique talents to the team? On a broader scale, when reviewing our collective talents and experience, what are we missing? Whether it be through new hires, or training and development for existing team members, how can we improve upon our collaboration? Let's have a safe and brave conversation to learn more about each other.

When coaching and training leaders toward better organizational communication, I'm often asked about "dealing with difficult people". My response typically challenges, "What if they aren't difficult people? What if they are different people?" Now begins a different conversation than the client might have been expecting - a more rich and impactful one. The next question might be, "What do you think the value might be in having a culturally diverse, multi-generational workforce? Can you see how expanding the breadth of experiences and perspectives might aid in collaboration and critical thinking? When it comes to making big decisions for the direction of your company, how do you prevent 'group think'?"

Leaders can promote intelligent debate, uncover diverse viewpoints, and create an inclusive vision through open-ended questions. However, they must be honest about analysing information without bias, balancing emotional thinking and rationality, for fairness.

Our first question should be, what does diversity mean to this organization? Start with "Who" are we talking about? When you hear the word diversity, is ethnicity the first thought you have? What's your second thought - your third, etc. Are you considering generational diversity? What about personality types? How about Eastern vs. Western cultural influences? What about gender(s)? How about socio-economic backgrounds? What about work/life balance for employees with young families, compared to those without? How does work history and experience balance with formal education, within your workforce? What about disability inclusion? Critically speaking, in seeking diversity, how big is your net?