How to Create an Inclusive Environment: 7 Skills Leaders Need

Summary

Creating an inclusive environment requires more than good intentions. Yet DDI's Global Leadership Forecast 2027 shows that leaders rank empathy, trust, communication, and conflict resolution near the bottom of their future development priorities. By strengthening seven essential skills, including inclusive communication, equitable delegation, coaching, and fair conflict resolution, leaders can overcome common barriers to inclusion and create a workplace where everyone feels valued, heard, and supported.

“Are you sure your leaders really know how to create an inclusive environment?”

I often ask clients this question, usually after they've shared that their organizations are struggling to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, supported, and able to succeed. But identifying what's holding them back isn't always easy.

Part of the challenge is that companies want to make change quickly. Whether their efforts are part of broader diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) goals or initiatives to strengthen workplace culture, setting goals is only the beginning. Meaningful progress depends on how leaders put those commitments into practice every day.

Organizations can focus on attracting talent from different backgrounds and experiences, but without leaders who create an environment where people feel respected, heard, and able to grow, they risk losing the very talent they've worked to attract.

That's why learning how to create an inclusive environment is an essential leadership responsibility.

Creating an Inclusive Workplace: Leaders Are Key

DDI's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Report 2023 shows how strongly the workplace environment influences whether people see a future with their organization. Women and leaders from minority racial or ethnic backgrounds (a note on terminology) were more likely than their counterparts to believe they needed to change companies to advance their careers.

Satisfaction rates for advancement, development opportunities, performance expectations, and work-life balance differed little between these groups. In some cases, respondents from minority groups even reported more favorable experiences. Rather, the underlying factors behind their intention to stay or leave were primarily related to the environment created by their company’s leaders.

Here are the top drivers of why leaders from diverse backgrounds stay to advance their careers:

• Senior leaders have built strong trust.
• Managers provide opportunities for team members’ growth and development.
• Organizational leaders have strong interpersonal skills.
• Managers listen and respond with empathy. 

Newer research reinforces why trust deserves particular attention. DDI's Global Leadership Forecast 2027 found that among individual contributors, only 25% trust their immediate manager and just 21% trust senior leaders. While these findings measure workplace trust rather than inclusion directly, they highlight a critical challenge for organizations trying to create environments where employees feel supported and valued.

Creating that kind of workplace depends on the trust, relationships, and development opportunities leaders build with their teams. And those experiences are shaped by the leadership behaviors employees encounter every day.

Great Leadership Is Inclusive Leadership

One of the biggest mistakes companies make is treating inclusive leadership development as separate from their broader leadership goals. Even well-designed inclusive leadership training can fall short if leaders don't have opportunities to practice what they've learned and apply it in their everyday interactions.

Inclusion isn't separate from leadership. It shows up in how leaders communicate, run meetings, assign work, provide feedback, and make decisions every day. When these behaviors are part of broader leadership development, inclusion becomes a consistent expectation rather than a standalone initiative.

Our research shows that when leaders consistently demonstrate effective behaviors that drive inclusion, employees are 7X more likely to report that inclusion is a strong part of their culture.

That's what makes inclusion a fundamental part of great leadership. In fact, I'd argue that to be a great leader, one must be an inclusive leader.

7 Inclusive Leadership Skills Every Leader Needs

When I share my perspective on inclusive leadership while facilitating courses or coaching executives, I often see a lot of nodding heads. Most leaders want to do the right thing; the challenge is putting those intentions into practice.

That challenge is becoming more important. DDI's research found that leaders rank empathy, trust, communication, and conflict resolution near the bottom of their future development priorities, even though these interpersonal skills are essential to leading people effectively.

Organizations can't assume leaders already have these capabilities or will develop them on their own. They need to build them intentionally into leadership development.

We’ve identified seven key skills that help leaders create an inclusive work environment. Together, they offer practical ways to make inclusion part of everyday leadership interactions:

The seven skills offer a practical starting point, but knowing what inclusive leadership looks like isn't the same as putting it into practice. Leaders need to recognize how their everyday decisions and interactions affect others, then intentionally build habits that help employees feel valued, heard, and supported.

Here's how they can apply each skill to create a more inclusive workplace:

1. Build Empathy

What we hear: Leaders need to understand how others experience the workplace, especially when those experiences differ from their own.

What to do: Inclusion must start with empathy. But organizational practices can sometimes make it harder for leaders to demonstrate it. Rigid work arrangements, excessive monitoring, or performance systems that emphasize competition may leave employees feeling that their individual circumstances aren't understood.

Recognizing feelings of exclusion can be especially challenging for leaders who haven't experienced them personally. Hearing different perspectives and reflecting on their own assumptions can help them recognize when employees feel excluded and respond with greater empathy.

Leaders can strengthen this skill through guided discussions, reflection exercises, and realistic scenarios that challenge their assumptions and help them practice responding to different experiences and perspectives.

Our advice: Don’t save empathy for a crisis. Start building empathy now so that leaders have a stronger connection before a crisis happens.

2. Communicate Inclusively

What we hear: Leaders lack insight about the potential effects of their communication style.

What to do: Daily communication is central to creating an inclusive workplace culture. Conversations with others can make or break inclusion. Subtle words and unintended moments of exclusion by a leader or team member can make people feel unwelcome, not valued, and disengaged.

Inclusion happens in the micro-moments of a leader’s interactions. Leaders must be aware of the words they use and how others receive them. That means recognizing that every conversation is an opportunity to help someone feel valued, heard, and supported.

DDI’s Key Principles give leaders a framework for meeting people’s personal and practical needs through inclusive communication:

• Maintain or enhance self-esteem so people feel valued and respected.
• Listen and respond with empathy so people feel heard and understood.
• Ask for help and encourage involvement so people feel involved.
• Share thoughts, feelings, and rationale to build trust.
• Provide support without removing responsibility.

Our advice: The leader's role in creating an inclusive environment starts with modeling effective communication skills and advocating for inclusive behaviors. When leaders listen, invite participation, and respond with respect, they help employees feel valued for their perspectives, contributions, and experiences.

3. Facilitate Inclusive Meetings

What we hear: The same people tend to dominate meetings, while others are excluded, dismissed, or talked over.

What to do: Inclusion is making sure the right people are involved in generating ideas and making decisions. We worked with Dr. Steven Rogelberg, a renowned expert on meetings and the science behind them, to reflect on intentional meeting design. One key takeaway is that meetings without clear objectives or participation guidelines can make it harder for some employees to contribute, particularly when a few voices dominate the discussion.

To make meetings more inclusive, leaders can take a few intentional steps:

• Define the purpose: Set clear meeting objectives and identify whose perspectives are needed.
• Help everyone prepare: Share materials in advance so participants have time to review information and gather their thoughts.
• Offer different ways to contribute: Use partner discussions, written input, chat, and polling to encourage participation from people with different communication preferences.

Leaders should also pay attention to who speaks, whose ideas are acknowledged, and whether anyone is being interrupted or dismissed.

Our advice: Establish ground rules that encourage respectful participation and make room for different perspectives. These practices help build psychological safety, giving employees greater confidence to speak up, share ideas, and contribute authentically.

4. Delegate for Opportunity

What we hear: Leaders tend to give the important projects to the same superstars over and over again.

What to do: Leaders must be more thoughtful about who receives opportunities. This starts with thinking about the capabilities, development needs, motivators, and availability of all team members.

Delegation isn't just about distributing work. It's also an opportunity to help employees build skills, gain visibility, and prepare for future roles.

Prior to delegating tasks or assignments, leaders should answer the following questions:

• What assumptions am I making?
• Where am I unsure of what someone can do or wants to do?
• Who might benefit from this opportunity but hasn't been considered?
• What support would help someone succeed in a stretch assignment?

Our advice: Don't treat delegation as an all-or-nothing decision. Leaders can distribute idea generation, project tasks, and decision-making authority separately, creating opportunities for more employees to contribute and grow. This helps prevent assignments from being based solely on habit or familiarity.

5. Give Honest Feedback 

What we hear: Our managers are uncomfortable giving feedback for improvement, especially to people who are different from them.

What to do: Many people avoid giving feedback for improvement because they are uncomfortable with conflict. And when there are perceived differences between people, leaders may struggle even more to predict how someone will react. As a result, they avoid giving feedback, which keeps team members from getting the feedback they need to grow.

Other leaders may deliver feedback without fully considering an employee's perspective, letting assumptions shape their performance evaluations.

Leaders should adjust their feedback style for the needs of the person they’re giving feedback to. At the same time, expectations and standards should remain consistent. Employees need clear guidance about what success looks like and how performance and advancement decisions are made.

Our advice: Feedback should be clear, specific, and timely. Leaders can use the STAR method for positive and developmental feedback. The STAR method focuses on behaviors rather than the person. By focusing on observable actions and results rather than personal judgments, leaders can make feedback more objective and constructive.

Leaders should also make feedback an ongoing part of development, not something reserved for formal reviews. Gathering input from multiple perspectives can provide a more complete picture of performance and help challenge individual assumptions.

6. Coach for Growth

What we hear: Leaders tend to feel most comfortable coaching people like themselves.

What to do: When leaders avoid coaching people who are different from them—whether because of gender, background, age, or another factor—they limit others' chances for advancement.

Authentic listening is a critical trait of an effective coach. That means listening not just to what employees say, but also to the intent and emotions behind their words. When leaders listen this way, they can better recognize when to show empathy and how to respond. Coaches should also share their own perspectives to encourage open, productive conversations.

DDI's research reinforces the importance of supporting leaders' development. Only 9% of leaders are fully engaged, and those who are fully engaged are 8.8X more likely to consistently bring out the best in their teams. The findings also highlight the role of manager coaching in strengthening leader engagement.

Although this research measures engagement rather than inclusion, it reinforces why coaching deserves attention as an everyday leadership responsibility.

Our advice: Leaders who are vulnerable by genuinely acknowledging their own failures can make powerful connections with employees. Acknowledging mistakes and sharing lessons learned can help build trust and encourage employees to discuss their own challenges. Make coaching opportunities available across the team, not just to employees leaders naturally connect with.

7. Resolve Conflict Fairly

What we hear: Managers try to avoid conflict and often resolve it by trying to maintain the status quo.

What to do: Conflict is natural and necessary for better decision-making. After all, everyone has different experiences, points of view, preconceptions, styles, abilities, and motivations. What’s important is that leaders hear and evaluate multiple viewpoints.

Leaders can create a stronger foundation for constructive conflict by helping teams recognize the value of different backgrounds, experiences, and ways of thinking. When disagreements arise, they should listen to everyone involved, ask questions to understand different perspectives, and separate observable facts from assumptions.

Our advice: Don't treat every disagreement as a problem to eliminate. Help employees navigate differences respectfully so conflict becomes an opportunity for better understanding, stronger relationships, and more informed decisions.

Creating an Inclusive Environment Takes Practice

The most critical part of creating inclusive workplaces is practicing inclusion every single day. These micro-moments add up to create a culture of equity, inclusion, and simply great leadership. At the same time, we need to recognize that we are in this for the long haul.

And some days, we will make mistakes. Which is all the more reason why I recommend one more essential leadership behavior: the ability to give yourself grace. When leaders acknowledge mistakes, listen to feedback, and make adjustments, they show their teams that inclusion is an ongoing commitment.

Creating an inclusive environment doesn't require getting every interaction right. It requires consistently learning and practicing the behaviors that help people feel valued, respected, and supported.