For the Inclusive Leader and the Inclusive Practitioner

Power and Leadership

Many leadership models in the past have not considered the socioeconomic and cultural context – In many respects those in the Global North have dominated leadership writing.  Largely as a result of racial, cultural, and gender imperialism, these writers then assume they are the norm and the baseline for all leadership knowledge and thinking. However, we can consider writers like Michael Foucault who examined the notion of power through the definition of knowledge; and this has implications for how we see leadership.  He says that power is carried out through defining knowledge – he explains that knowledge (e.g., leadership knowledge) is an exercise of power because it represents reality, assumptions about life, and the lens we use to see or not see ourselves and others.  Also, leadership writers assume a norm and behave as if we have equal individual power and access to the modes and tools they offer.  Within this perspective, contextual and systemic power is not considered a feature of leadership and so the status quo is maintained. The experience of being ‘othered,’ disempowered, disenfranchised, excluded, and oppressed is made invisible. It is designed out of everyday thinking, language, consciousness, behaviour, and daily habits.  The power dynamics go entirely below the surface and continue unchecked.

The notion of being a leader then is based upon these unchecked modes of thinking, and so too is the idea of being a professional.  Most of the leader’s action is taken from this normative position that maintains these fundamental power imbalances by behaving as if they do not exist. Leadership action is taken as individual action without examining the underlying systems of knowledge that shape thinking, how we govern ourselves in the day-to-day based on this thinking and how this travels from organisation to organisation.  This invisible pattern of thought and practice shapes our lives and work lives and maintains inequity.

An Equitable Inclusive Leader (See Part 1 – Equitable Inclusive Leadership) needs to understand this context, this invisible system of inequity.  The Equitable, Inclusive Leader has to proactively address this power imbalance.

What is an Equitable Inclusive Leader?

As stated in Part 1 – An Equitable Inclusive Leader considers, on the one hand, the power imbalance threaded through the social context and its continual impact on the organisation, the organisations infrastructure, business processes, proficiencies, requirements, and practice; and on the other the interpersonal and personal. In short, manage the balance between the systemic and the relational. 

Essentially, being an Equitable, Inclusive Leader applies both systemic thinking to systemic inequality and relational dynamics. 

Fig. 1

The Equitable Inclusive Leader thus understands the link between the organisational system and power and the behaviour and interpersonal relations it drives and vice versa.  Individual and group behaviour are inseparable from the system that drives it. 

Historically we’ve not spoken about the specific leadership responsibilities to address inequity.  Most of the action in organisations around addressing inequity has been the responsibility of the Equality Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Practitioner and the pressure was to gain the leadership’s buy-in.  The vehicles for organisational action tend to be an array of Equality Standards and Assessment frameworks that aim to bring governance and quality assurance to the EDI activities of the organisation.  The shift then to defining the specific responsibilities for leadership is good in as much as there is now a focus on leadership to take responsibility. Still, the inbuilt error of making it essentially a well-being tool must be addressed.  It may be a sleight of hand – hiding the medicine in a teaspoon of honey by only introducing relational exclusion into the leadership psyche and side-stepping the ambivalence towards addressing the underlying system of inequity in the organisation.  It’s questionable whether we will naturally evolve into addressing inequity or whether this is another form of designing out considerations of injustice masquerading as doing the opposite of that.

Inclusive Leadership is not a Well-Being Tool

Introducing relation considerations into the psyche of leaders may yet be a good shift. Still, this development is less about addressing inequity and more a reflection of the changing social context, a general shift also coming from the millennial and Gen Z mindset, which seeks greater social connection, and meaning from their work and requires more personal acceptance than previous generations.  Previous models of governance and discipline are emerging as ineffective, and a greater degree of social and emotional intelligence is demanded from the leader.  This emotional intelligence also requires greater reflectivity. The result is a requirement, too, for facilitative and reflective practices.

However, there is no requirement for the leader to consider inequity and the exercise of power within the organisation. The emerging model of the Inclusive Leader is a well-being tool, not a tool for addressing injustice.  Furthermore, the move to purely facilitative and reflective practice again designs out considerations of the status quo and power imbalance. Any attempts to address this are felt antithetical to thoughtful and empathetic leadership.

Some quarters argue that the discussion of inequity, power, and privilege is itself divisive.  This is a fifty-year argument still being used by those against anti-oppressive practice.  The assumption was that there was no issue, and those raising the issue of inequity and oppression were creating conflict.  The fact that this is still the argument being used in the 21^st century and highly publicised examples of inequity such as, with the global uproar at the murder of George Floyd by a US police officer suggests perhaps a wilful ignorance that many organisations and leaders have not addressed. 

Equitable Inclusive Leadership is a professional requirement

To be an Equitable Inclusive Leader is to understand that equitable inclusion is a professional requirement for all staff, through all levels. That is, systemic inequity, its power imbalance, and social exclusion must be addressed in all aspects of organisational life. Again, it is a professional requirement for all staff to understand and exercise equitable inclusion. 

Instead, we have leaders who have not considered the issues of inequity and exclusion for themselves and who are now required to lead others in this area and who cannot accept that they, too, need further understanding of inequity and how to lead in this respect. The much-promoted well-being model of Inclusive Leadership is also a culprit in this. 

Carole Litchmore