170 THE INCLUSION DIVIDEND quickly to its competition because the status quo rules within the company walls while it withers in the industry. In most important areas of leadership, the individual leader needs to learn, integrate, and, ultimately, own the concept or goal. To quote Gandhi, leaders have to "be the change they want to see." In no area is this clearer than inclusion. A leader can say all of the right things, but her behavior will dictate the level of inclusion. Most leaders have great intentions when it comes to inclusion. Why wouldn't a leader want to be inclusive? Inclusion creates greater involvement, engagement, creativity, and productivity. These are all things leaders seek. When inclusion is done well, the results enable growth. As you know, the business case for inclusion is strong. Thus, we meet very few leaders who want to be exclusive. Pulling through the positive intent to create the desired impact is not easy, however. It requires self-awareness and self-management (emotional intel- ligence), the courage to challenge oneself, and a capacity to hold multiple realities. And those are just the intrapersonal skills. Managing inclusion well also requires a set of interpersonal skills, such as the ability to empathize, the capacity to make connections across difference, cross-cultural competence, and an ability to "hang in" during potentially challenging or uncomfortable interactions. Strategic and transformational skills are also important. An inclu- sive leader goes well beyond shaping his own behavior. It is important to recognize that, while most people want to do the right thing, the organization's culture and processes don't always make it easy. Thus a leader needs to understand the key levers for behavior and create incentives for inclusive behavior and practice. Effective inclusive leadership is both a top-down and an inside-out process. An inclusive leader needs to understand and leverage organi- zational power (top-down), but in order to do this well it is necessary to do the internal, intrapersonal work (inside-out) that will inform theCritical Leadership Competencies 171 use of organizational power. Don't forget the fundamental insider- outsider dynamics that create an inherent leadership challenge. Those with the most power to create sustainable inclusion typically have the most insider group identities and the least experience and knowledge of the issues those in the outsider group must deal with. An inclusive leader needs to develop his knowledge and competency sufficiently to overcome this challenge.186 THE INCLUSION DIVIDEND Takeaways Inclusion is a core and central leadership competency. Inclusive, or lack thereof, behaviors impacts all other leadership competencies. Clear connection to the business case will increase inclusive com- petency adoption. Meritocracy is a continual pursuit with no end point. Like any leadership skill set, inclusion requires practice and con- stant development. Discussion Points As you read at the beginning of this chapter, WeSure is a company with prior success, but is now faced with marketplace challenges due to changing demographics. Examine your company's marketplace situation and discuss the following: Have the demographics of the buyers in your marketplace changed since you first started the company? Do you expect them to change in the near future? If so, have your leaders publically recognized this change and instituted internal change to manage the new marketplace? Do leaders in your organization fully understand the connection between inclusive behavior and company success? Is inclusive leadership development a separate program or inte- grated into the overall leadership development program? Why? On a scale of I (being lowest) and Io (being highest), how would you rate your overall management team on creating a culture of inclusion? Explain why your rate is not higher or lower.Earlier in the book we discussed examples of companies that achieved breakthroughs by engaging diverse constituencies more fully and effectively such as Frito Lay and MTV Networks. This did not happen by accident. Inclusion is now at the core of strategic think- ing for many organizations. We recently talked to a company, let's call them WeSure, that was intent on growing its business; it had been focused on one primary market in a region of the United States that was rather homogeneous. WeSure had purchased other businesses in different and much more diverse parts of the country, yet it was reti- cent to develop a robust diversity and inclusion strategy, feeling that what had worked so far would be good enough. The leadership team was very homogenous by age, background, race, gender, religion, and culture. They certainly gave lip service to inclusion, but they didn't seem up to the challenge of embracing inclusion as strategy. They saw inclusion as a nice thing to have, not a core competency. This business-as-usual approach does not work in today's market. WeSure is still struggling today and losing ground