Page 6 - BPW-UK - E-news - Edition 103 - June 2022_Neat

EU Conference Workshop report Inclusive Leadership:

The Skill to Manage Diverse Teams, Talents and Ideas

This workshop was hosted by Conny Montague, Specialist for International Com-
munication, BPW Germany and Anu Viks, BPW Europe Regional Coordinator.
We were invited to list the five people outside our family whom we trust and then
we explored the diversity and inclusion of our relationship with these people using
the ‘Four Layers of Diversity’ wheel. The aim was to
find people from all layers to illustrate diversity. We
then applied the model to the workplace as a tool to
develop a diverse team which would bring benefits
such as economic success through more innovative
productive and adaptable teams, talent, motivation
and retention, transparency and social structure re-
flected through public image and reputation and sus-
tainability of investors.
An inclusive leader was defined as one who is self-
aware and we can achieve this by spotting our own
biases, starting to do things differently and point out
biases we see daily to challenge the status quo. To
test this we were shown a number of pictures of people and asked to decide if they
were a homicidal maniac, a Nobel prize winner or a teacher. Needless to say the re-
sponses were interesting. To test your unconscious bias take the Harvard University
Implicit Association Test at Project Implicit
(harvard.edu). Tips on how to be more inclusive
are to spend time with people who are different
from you and notice your similarities or invite the
junior or non-dominant member of your group for
their opinion before asking other stronger person-
alities.
The workshop ended with a look at tools for inclu-
sive leaders such as interpersonal communication,
listening and feedback, micro-affirmations and
leading inclusive meetings.

All in all I found this a very useful workshop with
techniques that can be applied not just to the
workplace but also within BPW at club, regional
and national levels.
I hadn’t heard of micro-affirmations before so be-
fore I left the room I thanked Conny for a really
useful and informative workshop.

My take home message was to be more inclusive
of others when making decisions at work.

Ruth Galwey About - BPW Leadership and Lifelong Learning (weebly.com)
Conny Montague