Diversity, inclusion, and employee engagement–what do all three of these initiatives have in common? People. More specifically, the extent to which the inherent differences people bring to the workplace are embraced in such a way that employees experience inclusion and full engagement in their work. Studies by the Gallup Management Journal indicate that only 29% of employees are actively engaged in their jobs.

Diversity is a an inclusive environment wherein differences—human, cultural, and systems—are leveraged as a competitive business advantage in order to:
• provide exceptional customer service
• ensure the physical, mental, and spiritual well-being of employees
• achieve exceptional workplace and business performance
• deliver the highest quality products and services

Inclusion is an environment where there is “equity of opportunity” for personal and organizational success, as well as pride in the organization.

Employee Engagement is a level of “employee commitment” to the organization that ultimately results in greater discretionary effort in his or her work—beyond the expected or compensated level of performance.

The Roles of Leadership/Management and Employees

All three of the initiatives cited above have two dimensions: The Role of Leadership/ Management and The Role of Employees.

1) The Role of Leadership/Management
• Create an environment of integrity and trust.
• Provide employees with career and growth opportunities.
• Establish an environment where employees take pride in the organization
and communicate that pride to others.
• Provide opportunities for personal and professional development.
• Establish quality interpersonal relationships, communication, and
problem resolution.
• Create an environment for work-life quality, balance, and integration.
2) The Role of Employees
• Request, ensure, and design engaging work that is personally
satisfying.
• Ensure that your work is aligned with the organization’s or business
unit’s goals and objectives.
• Assume a natural leadership role among peers as greater delegation
occurs (Leadership is the ability to influence others).
• Design a career development plan inclusive of the experiences and
learning you will require.
• Establish quality interpersonal relationships, communication, and
collaboration among your peers.
• Define and create a plan for work-life quality and balance.

The role of leadership/management is to proactively provide an inclusive environment and management practices that support the development, learning, and well-being of employees. An inclusive environment is an organizational context where all employees experience being wanted, appreciated, and valued.

1. Wanted for their diverse membership as part of the organization.

2. Appreciated for the unique contribution they make in creating the culture of the organization.

3. Valued for the unique perspective they bring in terms of creativity, innovation, and high-performance.
It’s also an environment where an employee feels commitment and passion for their work, beyond the expected or compensated level of performance.

In this time of economic uncertainty, having transformational leaders is crucial to the success of our organizations.

Leadership is the ability to influence the thinking, commitment, and behaviors of others.
Transformational leaders are able to:

• Facilitate the proactive adaptation to change on the part of others;
• Understand and manage the relationship between the human dimensions of work and exceptional performance;
• Understand and manage a spectrum of people, competencies, and styles;
• Understand that the external results one produces is a direct consequence of one’s inner motivation;
• Have an in-depth understanding of one’s self.

Leadership/Management Support—A Personal Assessment

Instructions: Take five minutes to evaluate yourself in terms of your overall workplace performance in a leadership and/or managerial support role. Use a scale of 0 (lowest) to 10 (highest) for each statement with respect to employees under your supervision or those you work with.

1. I am skillful at facilitating both the professional development and personal growth of employees I lead/supervise.
2. I am comfortable working with people who have beliefs and values divergently different from my own.
3. I ensure an environment where high performance is expected and achieved.
4. I ensure, by measurement, a “worker-friendly” environment where employees experience work-life quality and balance.
5. I proactively engage in personal and professional growth.

For the item where you feel as if you rank the lowest, find a colleague or friend outside of work that you trust to give you honest feedback on  two to three Small Acts of Inclusion® might be able to incorporate immediately that would have an impact.

Innovations recommends our course Leading During Turbulent Times—The FuturePerfect Leadership Model as the first step in implementing positive change in the workplace. For more information on transforming your organization please contact us.

If you liked this self-assessment, you might also like our free High Performance Leadership Self Test at www.innovint.com

Ever heard the phrase, “good help is so hard to find these days”? Any HR manager or executive is familiar with the daunting task of trying to find the perfect fit for their company. Today’s workforce is more demanding than ever and every employee must contribute to the overall success of any organization. In response to this, Dr. Guillory released a white paper this week entitled The Age of Human Potential—Talent Management. This paper is the first part in a two part series on the subject. Dr. Guillory describes talent management as, “an initiative designed to source, attract, recruit, develop, advance, and retain highly competent employees.” In his white paper he proves the cost per benefit ratio of each stage of employee recruitment and retention.
The stages are:

• Sourcing – establishing a system and criteria for identifying highly motivated, multicultural individuals for potential employment.

• Attracting – presenting a compelling case to potential recruits that are interested in your organization.

• Recruiting – the collective effort of an organization to show a potential employee that his or her future is best realized by their employment.

• Developing – providing the opportunity and support necessary to an employee for their continual expanding potential.

• Advancing – providing the opportunity for employees to attain higher positions of responsibility, as a result of mentoring, coaching, and visible opportunities, in proportion to performance.

• Retaining – the result of the proactive, professional development of an employee.

Business objectives have continued to evolve over the centuries as technology presents us with more efficient work tools and more challenging tasks. Dr. Guillory shows this progression over time and suggests that every organization develop a talent management support system that continuously monitors the efforts of employee well being.