The 4 Unseen Powers of Inclusivity in Leadership
How it's shaping the future of successful teams
👋 Hello, I’m Carlos, and welcome to my newsletter, “The Holistic Leader” Raw notes from an Agile Coach. Share your questions with me here, and in exchange, I'll provide practical, grounded, and clear advice.
“Inclusivity isn’t just a policy”
Making everyone feel included, especially when working with people from all over the world, is crucial for leaders.
Imagine you're on a team where everyone is different, and you have to work together to build something really cool, like a new video game or app.
In the beginning, it might seem tough because everyone has their own way of doing things. Some people might do their work early in the morning, while others work late at night. And everyone has different ideas about how to make the project awesome.
I am going to share a personal story about how making sure everyone feels included isn't just a nice thing to do; it makes our work and our projects much better.
We'll see how, by sharing and listening to all the different ideas, a team can do really amazing things together.
Before that, If you haven’t read the latest article where I talked about the 5 core principles and 5 fundamental values of what Holistic Leadership entails; check it out here: https://carloskarimgarcia.com/p/the-real-impact-of-holistic-leadership
If you missed where I talked about the first value “Empathy“, check it out here:
Let’s dive into the second value of “Holistic Leadership”
Inclusivity
Personal Story:
When I started leading IT teams from all over the world, it was like jumping into a big adventure. My job wasn't just about making sure we finished our projects. It was also about bringing everyone's different ideas and ways of doing things together to make our work better and smarter.
At first, it was hard because everyone did things differently. But then, I saw that these differences were actually really helpful. I changed my way of leading to make sure everyone felt like they could share their thoughts and ideas.
For example, one of our team members from India showed us a new way to organize our data that made our work much faster. And by talking and listening more flexibly, like my friends in Europe suggested, we all got along better and could do our jobs better too.
Making sure everyone felt important and included wasn't just about being nice; it was about making our team stronger. We all started to see how having different kinds of people on our team made our projects cooler and more interesting.
This adventure taught me that being a good leader in IT means making a space where everyone's different views are not just okay, but they're actually important for coming up with new ideas. I learned to always look for and support everyone's special skills and knowledge.
Because we worked this way, we didn't just finish our projects. We did them in ways that were new and set an example for others. Our team became like a big group of friends who really respected and liked learning from each other.
This whole experience showed me that being open and inclusive as a leader isn't just a nice thing to do.
It's super important for doing well in the always changing world of IT. It's about using the awesome mix of everyone's skills to face new challenges and think up new things.
This idea of bringing everyone together and listening to all kinds of ideas is something I try to do in every project now.
My 4 takeaways:
Different Ideas Make Us Smarter: Working with people from different places brings new and smart ideas because everyone sees things differently. For example, a team member from Nigeria found a faster way to organize information, helping everyone work quicker.
Teams Get Stronger When Everyone Is Included: When people feel they are part of the team and matter, the team works better together, like friends helping each other out.
Good Leaders Listen: A leader who listens to everyone's ideas makes the team feel important. This encourages everyone to share their best ideas and work harder.
Being Different Makes Us Better: Having a team with different kinds of people makes the team stronger and able to achieve more. It's because all these different perspectives come together to do amazing things.
In summary:
Inclusivity isn't just the right thing to do; it's our secret weapon for smarter, stronger teams. When we open our minds to different ideas, we come up with new solutions.
Leaders who really listen make teams even stronger, getting everyone to work hard. When we appreciate what makes each of us different, we do great things together.
Let's bring inclusivity into our teams and see what awesome things we can do.
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See you next week!
- Carlos ✌️