Inclusive Leadership: Must needed layer in typical leadership hierarchy Inclusive leadership[1], a buzzword in typical leadership models which are taught in B-schools in the country. Let me define this buzzword using small story. Katherine, an employee of multinational consulting firm was recently in Gurgaon office for some assignment. She was the only person in the group who wasn’t Indian—and one of very few women. On the first day, during the lunch time she was waiting to meet all of her peers. As caterers brought in boxed lunches, Katherine began to circulate among the managers. Rishikesh, head of the Gurgaon office, invited the group to begin eating but paused to recognize Katherine and announce that a special lunch had been provided for her. In the special lunch she was provided with “Pasta”. Katherine was shocked after looking at lunch as she was feeling “excluded” from the group as she is the …show more content…
This story shows “how much inclusive leadership is necessary to build strong and diverse team?” Inclusive leadership can be defined as a leadership which uses balanced strategy of meeting employees’ needs for uniqueness and belongingness that can be more impactful in increasing employee innovation and engagement than a strategy focusing on only one or the other of these needs. Inclusive leadership involves the people from different background and help to build team citizenship which will lead to more innovation and productivity. It is found that team citizenship is the directly affecting the innovation process in the organization. Team citizenship can be defined as a belongingness of an employee in the team. While working as a startup leader this is “the must” requirement to be an inclusive leader. Leader should be able to understand the need for an inclusion and according to the need he should be facilitator to build and develop team citizenship amongst