How These 3 Engineering Leaders Practice Inclusive Leadership

There’s no shortage of benefits in a diverse and inclusive workplace. Just a few in that ever-growing list include: 

• Employees are 80 percent more likely to rank their employer as high-performing when employees perceive their organization as committed to diversity and inclusion. 

• Gender and ethnically diverse companies are more likely to yield higher revenue than their less diverse counterparts. 

• Two-thirds of job seekers consider diversity an important element of their job search, according to Glassdoor. 

This is all to say that, as attention to the idea of inclusive workplaces has grown, statistical and anecdotal evidence is there to back up its benefits, signaling to companies that inclusivity will never just be a nice to have — it’s a must. 

Though still a responsibility of teams and individuals alike, diversity efforts largely rest on human resources and people teams. On the other hand, inclusivity efforts — that is, ensuring that those diversity efforts are recognized and celebrated — can be something that every employee, regardless of tenure or title, can cultivate. 

Even still, it can be hard for individual contributors to feel like they can make a difference. Ultimately, it’s up to leaders in management roles to set the tone.

So how can management do so effectively? In conversations with three engineering leaders in the state, Built In Colorado found that the keys to being an inclusive leader include, but are not limited to, having a team mentality, promoting a flat team structure, and creating an environment that has humility. 

 

What they do: CyberGRX provides enterprise companies and their third-party vendors with a cost-effective and scalable approach to cyber risk management. Through its proprietary platform, the company arms organizations with data and advanced analytics to manage, monitor and mitigate risk in their partner ecosystems.

 

From your experience, what is the key to being an inclusive leader, and why?

First and foremost, being an inclusive leader means recognizing that every team member, whether they are an intern or a senior engineer, has equal importance to the success or failure of the team. The same goes for me as a manager. I don’t view management as somehow being a more important job; I’m just another team member who has a different role. I’m a big fan of “flat” teams of this sort because it’s much easier for everyone to have a voice and feel confident that they are heard, and it’s from this inclusivity that supportive and lasting cultures are built.
 

First and foremost, being an inclusive leader means recognizing that every team member has equal importance to the success or failure of the team.”

What’s a real-life example of your inclusive leadership style in action?

My schedule is generally packed with meetings. To a lot of people, this would be a nightmare, but I actually consider it to be one of the most important parts of my week because most of my meetings consist of me doing one-on-ones with the individuals on my team. In order to build world-class teams, it’s important to really know the individuals who make up the team. 

I spend a lot of time getting to know people, their strengths, ambitions, challenges, etc. while also giving them a chance to get to know me as well. In team meetings, it’s not unusual for people to be overlooked, either because they are naturally quiet or maybe they don’t feel confident in their contributions. Lots of one-on-one time with my team members not only gives people the ability to voice their thoughts in a safe environment but also helps me understand how to help them engage and become more confident in their team contributions.

 

It’s hard to be an inclusive leader unless you’re aware of your blind spots and biases. What steps have you taken to identify and address your own? And what impact has that had on the way you lead?

I feel strongly that evaluating yourself as a leader is a never-ending and constantly evolving process. I consistently seek feedback on what I’m doing well, and more importantly what I can improve upon. My personality drives me to constantly seek to be better, and applying that to my decision-making, as well as how I interact with people, has really helped me identify a lot of my blinds spots and biases.

This translates to leadership for me in that I don’t allow myself to believe that my solution or way of doing things is the right and only way. Being receptive to what isn’t working and being willing to change has demonstrated to me that more often than not, the best solutions are ones you would’ve never seen without openly considering them from multiple viewpoints.

 

What they do: Kin + Carta is a digital transformation firm organized around three services: a tech-centric management consultancy, a next-gen software engineering studio and a digital marketing agency.

 

From your experience, what is the key to being an inclusive leader, and why?

I think of leadership as a service position — I need to be educated and take the time to understand the way things work for the jobs of all the people I am supporting so that I can best serve them. Because, at the end of the day, these individuals are the ones doing the jobs. They have all of the expertise, the practical knowledge, and they know the things you can only know if you’ve been doing it. I, then, have the honor of working with them and facilitating everything they communicate to me into actions that benefit the organization.

For me, the key to being an inclusive leader is knowing that I am only one person. If I tried to have all the answers and always assume I’m the smartest person in the room, I would doom myself to failure.
 

I think of leadership as a service position — I need to be educated and take the time to understand the way things work for the jobs of all the people I am supporting.”

What’s a real-life example of your inclusive leadership style in action?

Recently, I was working with a team of developers who were struggling to get organized in an effective way. They had great support in terms of a scrum master, technical leadership and product ownership, but in a team of big personalities, there was a lot of expression of what should be done with limited action behind it. I asked that a meeting be set up, and I guided the meeting, stated a few ideas, and garnered thoughts and feedback from the entire team. This led to many of my ideas being acted upon, with several more being altered, and even a few dismissed altogether after another team member proposed a better solution.

In this experience, the key for me was not going into the meeting knowing what needed to be done or believing that I had all the answers. I left my ego at the door and set up the space to collaborate as a team. Through this, many and probably the most effective answers came from the team themselves. The goal wasn’t for me to be the one to implement a change but to be the leader that shows them the same respect and trust that they show me every day. This was an intentionally created environment where the team knew that they were safe in saying what they were thinking, which led to a better solution at the end of the day.

 

It’s hard to be an inclusive leader unless you’re aware of your blind spots and biases. What steps have you taken to identify and address your own? And what impact has that had on the way you lead?

Life has a way of showing us our mistakes — the key is being able to recognize them and to name them as opportunities to grow upon. For me, I have done a lot of thinking about what kind of culture I want to create for the diverse teams I support and to bring life to a place I would want to thrive in. Here are the cornerstones of our culture: 
 

• No egos. 

• No blame.

• Always safe to say what is on your mind.

• Always listen to everyone with respect.

• Always assume the best in each other.

• Always give your best.

• Honesty, transparency, forthrightness.

• Practice love for one another.

• Always give your best, expect others to do the same.

• Be human, allow others to be human.

• Be diligent, expect others to do the same.
   

I’ve never been perfect, and I’ve failed many times. This has taught me to try and continuously see the opportunities for growth and to think about what I would want to hear in those moments. We all make mistakes, and it’s up to us to learn from them, to grow, to change, to adapt and to heal. I believe that our adversity strengthens us. To me, this is the core of inclusive leadership. We are all included. I am a part of this great machine, surrounded every day by people with such great and diverse talents. This keeps me thinking about what I can give and how I can contribute. And then, I take the action to give everything I can — heart and soul, thoughts, knowledge, experience. It may not be perfect, but it is mine and it is genuine.

 

What they do: Workiva is a reporting compliance platform that enables the use of connected data and automation of reporting across finance, accounting, risk and compliance.

 

From your experience, what is the key to being an inclusive leader, and why?

There are many keys to being an inclusive leader. I believe a foundational one is understanding that you can’t do it on your own. One person’s skills and experience will never be diverse enough to mold an inclusive environment without help. As a leader, you must create an environment where people feel psychologically safe to offer positive and negative feedback without repercussions; they must feel heard. Providing feedback should always be a welcome experience and met with encouragement.

Previously in my career, I have worked with leaders who believe they must have all the answers and that it is not OK to be vulnerable or say, “I don’t know.” I learned from those experiences that my responsibility as a leader who strives to be inclusive isn’t to be right all the time or have all the answers, but to create a clear vision for my team and amplify their voices and opportunities.
 

The harder I work to provide an inclusive and healthy environment for my teams, the happier, healthier, and more successful my teams and I are.”

What’s a real-life example of your inclusive leadership style in action?

I reached out to my protégée for help answering this question. She encouraged me to take many steps toward inclusion, and understand that there is not a single answer to improve our inclusion story at Workiva. As we continued discussing this topic, the top issue that came to mind was the hiring that we have been doing this year. Workiva has committed to continuous improvement in our diversity; however, there is a lot of intentional work that must go into making that happen. When we opened our requisitions, I sat down with the leaders on my team and discussed exactly the skills and aptitude that we needed to build healthy teams while trying to create more awareness of our unconscious bias. 

 

It’s hard to be an inclusive leader unless you’re aware of your blind spots and biases. What steps have you taken to identify and address your own? And what impact has that had on the way you lead?

To start, I don’t believe this problem ever goes away. We continue to create new blind spots and biases regularly in our daily life. This is why continuous learning is crucial; I consume books, podcasts, videos and seek feedback from those I interact with daily. I stay close to my teams and create opportunities for them to express their perception of our work environment, culture, and their psychological safety — all while continuing to develop my own emotional intelligence. The last piece is being vulnerable; if I mess up, I call it out and talk to my team about it. I want to make it OK to fail and learn from it.

Overall, I believe it has had a positive impact on me and the way that I lead. I am an empathic leader; the harder I work to provide an inclusive and healthy environment for my teams, the happier, healthier, and more successful my teams and I are.