Welcome to KnowledgeBrief's Expert Viewpoint; an innovative look at latest ideas and advice for leaders at all levels.
In recognition of the continual need to refresh and revise key leadership competencies, Professor Kiran Trehan (KT), Director, Centre for Women’s Enterprise, Leadership & Diversity [WE LEAD] at the University of York, gave us an interview to discuss her latest insights on the future of leadership.
KB: What’s the key business challenge that organisations need to address, that your research tackles?
KT: The key business challenges that organisations need to address is leadership inclusivity.
Companies in the top quartile for gender and ethnic diversity are more likely to have higher financial returns than the industry average. Yet, in the UK only one in five small and medium-sized business are being run by women, creating a significant pool of untapped entrepreneurial potential. A major report that I led on leadership, identified a number of recommendations to address the leadership diversity gap within businesses. The research explored the question: how do we address the leadership diversity gap within business and develop entrepreneurial capability to make diverse and responsible everyone’s business everyone’s business?
KB: What advice would you give to executives, based on your findings?
KT: Leadership Diversity in businesses is at the heart of any business, the desire for more inclusive workplaces has never been in such high demand. Covid-19, Brexit, the financial crisis, the shifting political landscape, and disclosure in business and public services are highlighting the consequences and impact of a lack of diverse leadership to business success. Diversity and inclusive leadership as a motto for various policies seems to be ever present in the sphere of many businesses. The key messages advocated by the research is that leadership diversity can enhance performance and make the workplace more socially inclusive. How is this done? In many varied ways, but business research suggests that the key success factors in developing inclusive leadership are:
- Leadership development
- Innovation
- Reverse mentoring
KB: How does your latest research approach this? What do the results indicate?
KT: My research highlights creating a diverse workforce continues to be a challenge for many businesses. Our research highlights that inclusion is much more than simply increasing, gender, ethnicity, or LGTB representation, [and] recruiting and retaining more people from traditionally under-represented identity groups. Leadership diversity requires a move from the current rhetoric to ‘changing systems’ through isolated or episodic initiatives to collective institutional action. When it comes to competitive advantage our research makes it increasingly clear that organisations with diverse workforces perform better because they tend to attract diverse talent, have greater employee satisfaction and are better at problem solving, decision making innovation and have higher financial returns. Inclusive leadership is not just about diversity quotas or numbers on boards, it’s about ensuring staff, regardless of background, are included in decision-making, strategy and operations.
“Diverse organisations make better decisions that lead to better outcomes for customers which makes better profits.” Roger Dix, Chief Risk Officer, Wesleyan
KB: What did you learn or take away from meeting with the executives at the KnowledgeBrief Innovation Day?
KT: My two key takeaways were:
- How in the future leaders will need to address some of the significant challenges, such as globalisation, disruptive technology, political uncertainty and environmental challenges ahead of us.
- How we develop a more inclusive workplaces which are not just about short-term profiteering (economically), but about leveraging leadership to tackle the big issues relating to, economic growth, responsible leadership and sustainable business.
With thanks to Professor Kiran Trehan, Director, Centre for Women’s Enterprise, Leadership & Diversity [WE LEAD] at the University of York.