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May 2024 Chapter Program, Leading with Inclusion

 

Our special guest for this insightful webinar was Thomas Bennett, Senior Vice

President, FleishmanHillard and National Board Member, PRSA. Based in Dallas,

Bennett helps to lead and build the profile of the agency’s global health equity

offering. Additionally, he acts as a senior, strategic counselor for clients in all areas

of health equity and Diversity & Inclusion (D&I). He also serves on the board

of the PRSA Foundation and on multiple committees within the

PRSA Dallas Chapter.

 

Events in recent years have led companies, brands, nonprofits and other types of organizations to pledge to increase diversity and inclusion. But what does it mean to be an inclusive leader? Many leaders have good intentions, but there is often a gap between intent and outcomes, and psychological safety may be diminished as a result.

 

Inclusive leaders are aware of their own biases, and actively seek out and consider different perspectives. They help ensure that all team members commit to treating each other equitably, feel a sense of belonging and value, and have the resources and support needed to achieve their full potential.

 

Inclusive leadership starts with compassion, and that means understanding what team members are experiencing, and taking meaningful action.

 

He encourages colleagues to engage in these “seven acts of inclusive leadership:”

 

1. Deepening your own self-awareness: Reflect on your own power and privilege; ask for feedback; understand your own strengths and weaknesses, and your own conscious or unconscious biases (there are many types of biases); advocate for your own needs.

2. Fostering social awareness, which is part of emotional intelligence and connected to leadership effectiveness. Get to really know new hires, and examine your dialogues and interactions with others.

3. Revealing your weak spots: Expose yourself to new information and new ways of thinking, especially those that are different from your own. Developing a sense of curiosity is key; express that you want to understand.

4. Listening with the intent to understand: Improving listening skills can help save time and lead to better solutions, such as resolving or decreasing conflicts, among many other benefits.

5. Creating meaningful social connections: Diverse social networks are important to inviting different perspectives, so look to expand your own social networks, especially if those within your own existing ones tend to look the same.

6. Leading with courageous vulnerability: Do you show up as an ally, and work to promote a culture of inclusion? Allies uplift colleagues, clients and communities with empathy and understanding, and mentoring and support.

7. Investing resources in inclusion: Building diverse, collaborative teams can require such investments as people, finances and programming.

 

Bennett illuminated his talk by sharing some of his own personal stories about recognizing and overcoming his own biases, and experiencing non-inclusive and even offensive comments in his own career journey. He also shared that the PRSA Board is committed for the organization to become more inclusive, diverse and equitable overall.