Gratitude - An Essential Element for Greater Inclusion

Contributor: Linda Roszak Burton, ACC, BBC, BS
To learn more about Linda, click here.

 

"You can mandate diversity, but you can’t mandate inclusion. Inclusion is about behavior, relationships. You have to change hearts and minds.”
~ Esi Minta-Jacobs
Vice President of Human Resources of a money management firm

Inclusion is a BIG word these days. The spotlight on healthcare disparities and the tragic murder of George Floyd witnessed during the pandemic have only increased attention to its meaning and the urgency to achieve greater inclusion in society and the workplace. It’s estimated that companies spend $8 billion a year on diversity and inclusion training with little to show for it, according to experts at McKinsey & Co.

What is inclusion?

From multiple sources, inclusion collectively means a state of being respected and valued “through meaningful investment” in every individual, regardless of group, organization, or society. An organizational culture of inclusion recognizes and appreciates each individual for her/his talents and skills and strives to create a psychologically safe environment for employees to feel confident in their uniqueness and helps to contribute to a sense of belonging.

Human nature drives a fundamental need to know our existence matters. However, there’s a lot of work to be done. Consider:

  • A 2020 report by McKinsey & Co., Diversity wins: How inclusion matters, posits that promoting diversity does not ensure a culture of inclusion. While overall sentiment on diversity was 52 percent positive and 31 percent negative, sentiment on inclusion was markedly worse at only 29 percent positive and 61 percent negative—which encapsulates the challenge that even the more diverse companies still face in tackling inclusion. Hiring diverse talent isn’t enough—it’s the experience they have in the workplace that shapes whether they remain and thrive. 
  • Research by Accenture found 98% of leaders think their employees feel the company is inclusive. However, only 80% of employees actually report feeling included in their workplace, accounting for what is now called the “Perception Gap.” If U.S. companies closed this gap and had greater inclusion, estimates are the result would yield a whopping $1.5 trillion more in profits due to increased productivity.

This data and related outcomes only raise awareness and do far too little to influence necessary change in individual behaviors. So, it’s still a challenge to create a more inclusive work environment because “you have to change hearts and minds” to create greater inclusion.

Creating an environment where employees feel they belong and are appreciated for their individuality is about how people behave, driven by how they think, and being open and willing to invest in building relationships.

Would you be willing to help someone in your organization if you had nothing to gain or if it cost you time and energy? Have you heard the repeated refrain “that’s not my job”?

How a Culture of Gratitude Supports Inclusion

Let’s define an organization’s culture by how employees speak and interact with each other. This gives you a fairly accurate gauge of the level of inclusivity in your team, department, and organization.

Gratitude has been labeled the social glue and the antidote to toxic emotions in all relationships.

From the field of positive psychology (the scientific study of how strengths allow individuals, communities, and institutions to flourish), employing the strength of gratitude is essential in building positive relationships and interactions in organizations. Research has shown that creating a culture of gratitude results in more prosocial behaviors, both individual and organizational, more civil interactions, and minimizes less tolerable behaviors — those behaviors that plague many leaders daily and at a huge cost to productivity, retention of talent, and employee engagement.

“…. gratitude prompts socially affiliative behaviors and the willingness to show preferential, socially protective behavior towards one’s benefactor (someone who offers support), even when these actions will be costly.”  A two-part study in Cognition and Emotions provided evidence that grateful individuals engage in socially inclusive behaviors. Additionally, participants were willing to forego money to protect someone from feeling excluded.

Creating a culture of gratitude to embody the beliefs of inclusion starts with a leadership development approach. Embedding foundational principles of grateful leadership will support building or strengthening the workplace environment for a greater sense of belonging and increase positive organizational behaviors (defined as helping, sharing, and cooperating). Grateful leaders are more trustworthy and bring added well-being benefits to employees and the organization. Grateful employees are more likely to help others, even when they will receive nothing in return.

Another supporting study published in Frontiers in Psychology pointed out “in organizations, gratitude is now thought to be crucial to employees’ efficiency, success, and performance while also improving organizational citizenship behaviors, prosocial organizational behavior, and promoting psychological safety.”

Below are recommendations for grateful leadership development in support of creating a more inclusive culture.

  • Integrate current research in gratitude, positive psychology, and neuroscience as essential to all leadership development programs. Include the identification of how this approach will support employees’ physiological, emotional, and mental well-being. Look for best practices in offering related leadership development programs. Our curriculum takes an experiential learning approach using research-related findings in gratitude, positive psychology, and neuroscience. As leaders begin to experience their overall impact, they begin to broaden and build these experiences with their teams.
  • Develop a grateful leadership brand statement to support a sustainable culture of gratitude and inclusion for yourself and your team to foster a more psychologically safe work environment. A Grateful Leadership Brand is similar to a personal leadership brand and aligns with your best self, i.e., being grounded in your values and strengths and aligned with the organization. A Grateful Leadership Brand describes why and how your team respects and trusts you and remains engaged and committed to the organization.
  • Begin having open discussions with your team about a culture of inclusivity and how gratitude can promote a greater sense of belonging and appreciation of the value and contribution of all employees. For instance, consider expressing gratitude when someone on your team speaks up about a potential, or real, error or mistake to help minimize “threat” and demonstrate psychological safety.
  • Identify how to measure and monitor your leadership’s impact and progress on a culture of inclusivity and how it supports care delivery. Start with an overall assessment of how well you and your team understand the impact of creating greater inclusion.
    1. Identify if there are current organizational goals in place to create greater inclusion.
    2. Identify what outcome(s) you hope to achieve by creating greater inclusion.
    3. Identify how will you measure progress in achieving this outcome(s).
    4. Develop accountability milestones to assess how well you’re working towards these outcomes.

Greater awareness of leading with gratitude and inclusion offers a choice between action and dialogue or succumbing to how it’s always been done. It takes courage and vulnerability to start the discussion and express gratitude to someone who is often overlooked for the value and contributions s/he can and does make to the team and organization.

Want to learn more?


Contact Linda at:
[email protected] or 410.707.3118