Why should we all be hyped about inclusive leadership

This keynote was presented at EuroPython 2024 in Prague, Czech Republic.

https://ep2024.europython.eu/session/why-should-we-all-be-hyped-about-inclusive-leadership

Abstract

We often associate the need for leadership skills with being in a management position. But...we start needing them a lot earlier in our career to succeed and have a positive impact. The diverse workspaces and communities are here to stay, though almost none of us have learned in school how to thrive in diversity. Nor how to be inclusive. We are all somewhere on a journey of inclusive leadership! In this talk we can find out how to asses where we are. And why we should approach inclusive leadership with a beginners mindset, try to do better, make mistakes, learn, repeat. And why we should all be hyped about it.

Transcript

1. WHY SHOULD WE ALL BE HYPED ABOUT INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP? TEREZA IOFCIU JULY 11 2024
2. Inclusive (Data) Leadership Coach Data - 19 years Leadership - 5 years Python Community - 6 years TEREZA IOFCIU SHE/HER
3. STUDY INTO THE STATE OF UK MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP 2023 WE HAVE A PROBLEM 82% of those who enter management positions have not had any proper training ‘Accidental managers’ with no formal leadership training are contributing to almost one in three workers quitting
5. * ALL CHARACTERS AND EVENTS IN THIS TALK—EVEN THOSE BASED ON REAL PEOPLE—ARE ENTIRELY FICTIONAL. JAMES & MARY* Behaviors
6. Somethings about James • Hierarchical • Authoritarian • Micro managing • Information control • Decides without the team • Punitive approach to mistakes
7. DOES NOT WORK ANYMORE COMMAND AND CONTROL People want to work in environments where they can be great People expect personalized leadership People have options
8. EVEN DINOSAURS CAN CHANGE
9. There’s something about Mary • In f luencing • Non - hierarchical • Respects others • Appreciates being contradicted • Empowering the team • Open for feedback • Shows vulnerability • Open about her mistakes
10. A NEW WAY OF LEADING INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP A leader who • Understands themselves and their team • Inspires the culture where diverse perspectives and backgrounds are valued • Recognizes the value of diversity to drive innovation and e ff ective performance in the organization
11. THE TECH WORLD SPACE IS CHANGING FAST
12. AND SCHOOL HASN’T PREPARED US FOR ALL THE CHANGES
13. You are white You are male You are straight You are cisgender You do not have disabilities You have a university degree You are similar age as your coworkers You’ve never been called a “diversity hire” You can code in a programming language You do not receive comments about your accent You are rarely interrupted or ignored in meetings Others don’t routinely assume you’re a lower seniority level than you are You recently received feedback about a technical skill you need to learn You have spare time to spend on open source projects or learning new technologies SOURCES OF PRIVILEGE
14. WHEN SHOULD WE START IMPROVING OUR LEADERSHIP SKILLS?
15. LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT IS A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
16. WHERE DO YOU NEED INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP? You work in a diverse team You manage a diverse team You want to build relationships You work in a cross functional team You need to mediate a team con f lict You need to manage up your manager You need to build products that you don’t really use You need to interact with a lot of di ff erent stakeholders You need to build products for people that are not like you
18. YOU ARE THE MANAGER SCENARIO: WHAT WOULD YOU DO? One of your employees got stranded from their child for over a year due to Covid restrictions. She is starting to be more and more withdrawn in meetings and at work. She tells her manager what is going on and asks if they can work for a longer time from outside the country once the restrictions lift.
19. VS JAMES You can only work for 2 weeks from another country, it’s company policy MARY Talks to HR and advocates for the employee to get an extended allowance to work longer from abroad. HOW DO THE REPLIES MAKE YOU FEEL?
20. FEMINIST STANDPOINT THEORY MARGINALIZED GROUPS ARE SOCIALLY SITUATED IN WAYS THAT MAKE IT MORE POSSIBLE FOR THEM TO BE AWARE OF THINGS AND ASK QUESTIONS THAN IT IS FOR THE NON-MARGINALIZED.
21. TREAT OTHERS HOW YOU WANT TO BE TREATED NOT LIKE YOU WANT TO BE TREATED BUT HOW THEY WANT TO BE TREATED
22. YOU ARE AT THE MANAGER .. AND YOU ARE EXCITED ABOUT THE TOPIC SCENARIO: HOW WOULD YOU BEHAVE? There is a new project at work: using LLMs to improve a work f low. It needs to be done rather quickly. There are some brainstorming meetings and some planning and the manager has to determine who will work in this.
23. VS JAMES Already has an idea how to build the project and spends the weekend prototyping. On Monday he tells the teem that they can take the prototype and make it work for production. MARY During the brainstorming meetings she makes sure that everybody states their opinion. She only contributes if still necessary: to make sure that the scope of the problem f its the deadline and the team availability. HOW DO THE REPLIES MAKE YOU FEEL?
24. DON’T GO TO A MEETING WITH YOUR MIND ALREADY MADE UP
25. YOU ARE AT THE MANAGER SCENARIO: HOW WOULD APOLOGIZE? One woman employee comes to their manager and asks for a promotion. The manager is a bit surprised so they don’t have a good answer.. the f irst thing that comes to mind is asking the employee about her family planning and how that would interfere with the extra responsibility… After a while the employee goes to the manager to give feedback that what they said was not ok.
26. VS JAMES Oh.. I’m sorry that you felt o ff ended, but I didn’t mean it as a discrimination. To be honest I have the same conversation also with my male employees when they ask for more responsibility… MARY While Mary wouldn’t say anything about family planning… You are right, I’ve overstepped. We need to report this to HR. If it is ok with you, I’d like to invite someone from HR to help me to do this right. HOW DO THE REPLIES MAKE YOU FEEL?
27. YOU WILL MAKE MISTAKES Inclusive leadership is a path of life long learning Be accountable and own your actions Learn and practice apologizing Don’t be afraid to try again
28. THE INTENTION DOESN’T MATTER, ONLY THE OUTCOME DOES
29. INTERDISCIPLINARY COOPERATION AND CULTURAL SENSITIVITY WE LEARN • Being self-aware vs projecting our values on others • Understand our perceptions and reactions to others • Understand how others work and what their needs are • To not confuse our worldview with the “true worldview” • Make space for others, not be the f irst to share your opinion or answer a question
30. INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT MODEL MEAGAN POLLOCK
31. NOT LINEAR THE JOURNEY TO INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP
32. At f irst we are .. unaware Something happens .. we wake up You start being aware … and realize all your past o ff enses and how little you know You start being active … you experiment, make mistakes, change the world around you INCLUSIVE LEADER - JENNIFER BROWN / WAITBUTWHY THE JOURNEY TO INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP THE DUNNING-KRUGER EFFECT
33. The journey is multidimentional THE JOURNEY TO INCLUSIVE LEADERSHIP THE DUNNING-KRUGER EFFECT
34. PROF. SHUBHASHEESH BHATTACHARYA INCLUSIVITY IN A COMPANY IS SUSTAINABLE IF ROOTED IN THE COUNTRY’S CULTURE, ETHICS AND VALUES WALK YOUR OWN PATH!
35. STUDY: DOES VALUING DIVERSITY RESULT IN WORSE PERFORMANCE RATINGS FOR MINORITY AND FEMALE LEADERS? YOU CAN ONLY GAIN WHY CARE? researchers found that when marginalized people work to increase diversity, supervisors give them worse performance evaluations When more privileged people work to increase diversity, it does not harm their performance evaluations (and may improve them)
36. ALSO.. THE LEADERSHIP REVOLUTION IS INEVITABLE Mary Cassatt, In the Loge (1878), MFA Boston. TEREZA IOFCIU HTTPS://WWW.LINKEDIN.COM/IN/TEREZA-IOFCIU/
37. THANK YOU Special thanks to Jessica Greene, Galina Mitricheva and Mary Bajorek for helping with this talk 🫶 @VIS.SOCIAL@TEREZAIF /IN/TEREZA-IOFCIU HELLO@TEREZAIOFCIU.COM WWW.TEREZAIOFCIU.COM LINKEDIN.COM/IN/TEREZA-IOFCIU/
38. TEREZA IOFCIU - 13 JULY 2024 REFERENCES • https://betterallies.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/50-potential-privileges.pdf • https://www.managers.org.uk/knowledge-and-insights/research/better-management-report-take-responsibility-take- action/ • https://digitalfrontiersinstitute.org/privilege-and-power-in-the-workplace/ • https://engineerinclusion.com/inclusive-leadership-development-model/ • https://www.theoptimumdrive.com/f1-blog-entries/2020/6/8/explaining-the-dunning-kruger-e ff ect • https://iep.utm.edu/fem-stan/ • https://www.cbs.dk/ f iles/cbs.dk/hekman_et_al._2017_0.pdf • Chicken t-rex sticker https://www.spreadshirt.com.au/shop/design/ funny+dinosaur+and+chicken+t+rex+chicken+quote+sticker-D645a10a3cb80c130de99a2f2