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Webinar Replay: Inclusive Leadership

Posted On April 7, 2020

Dr. Gerilyn Davis will teach you how to create and sustain an inclusive workplace within your organization through the challenges presented by COVID-19.

Camber Outdoors is committed to guiding you in creating and sustaining an inclusive workplace through and beyond the COVID-19 challenge. On Monday, March 31, 2020, we presented a webinar called “Inclusive Leadership” in which Dr. Gerilyn Davis, an HR consultant and Chief Inclusion Officer of Inclusion on the Slopes, presented a framework for fostering a culture of inclusion within your organization.

“The shift in our lives and our workplaces are rather challenging and changing rapidly,” says Dr. Davis. “But at the same time, we are being provided a grand opportunity to alter our view of humanity and leverage the power of inclusion.”

It is vital that we place compassion and empathy at the forefront of everything we do as we attempt to make the right decisions for our employees and for ourselves.

In the hour-long webinar (click here to skip to the video), Dr. Davis answers four primary questions:

1. Why be an inclusive leader?

2. What does it mean to be an inclusive leader?

3. How do you create inclusion in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic?

4. What does it mean to lead an inclusive life?

The Importance of Inclusive Leadership

Linked below is a PDF summary of Dr. Davis’ presentation and the fundamentals of her SWORD © inclusion system. Toward the end of the webinar, she asks a series of questions for participants to answer, which you’ll find on page six of the PDF. The questions are designed to help you reflect on personal progress and areas for improvement on an ongoing basis.

Your Inclusive Leadership Resource

Questions and Answers from the Webinar:

In your presentation, you mention how vital it is to “stretch” social norms to create an inclusive workplace. What tips can you offer a team leader or manager to create an environment where employees feel safe to push the boundaries?

“There’s a multitude of answers to that. The first component is to get a perspective of your inclusive environment: do your employees feel safe now to stretch those norms or push the envelope? The only way you can know that is if you ask them, “Do you feel safe expressing yourself at work?” I guarantee your employees have ideas that will push or level or stretch what’s going on currently, they may just not feel safe to voice those ideas currently.

Two, are you as a leader stretching those norms? As a leader, you lead by example, so stretch what’s normally done in your organization and see the outcome. So it’s on you to create a cultural environment where it’s okay to stretch the envelope. For example, the outdoors industry is working towards being more inclusive, but how is that being embedded in your culture? How is that being embedded in job descriptions? How is that being discussed on a consistent basis? Part of that is letting people know they’re safe to express themselves.”

How can you pose to leadership that inclusivity consulting is something they should consider?

“I think one of the ways to propose to leadership that they should consider inclusive consulting is to tap into their pain point. Part of why I’m successful as a consultant is that I understand this is painful. For leadership, when they are struggling or trying to navigate something, they want a release from that pain point. Part of consulting is helping them understand there’s someone who’s well versed in that who can guide you in that area; you don’t have to go through this and struggle alone.

As leaders, we think that we’re the only company or organization or person that’s experiencing discomfort, and we’re not. Even if they are comfortable, you present valuable data to them. You can pose it as you’ve been doing research and have started to see a shift in the workplace environment and that you’d love to present that information. Coming in with data and information is highly important for leadership. Aligning consulting work with the company vision would be helpful as well.”