The Boldly Inclusive Leader

July 14, 2023

Inclusive leadership consultant Norman (coauthor, The Psychological Safety Playbook) focuses on the need for businesses to make employees feel that they are safe and belong. Her book frames the current challenges with diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging in terms of the employees' sense of well-being. Using stories from her decades as a leader, the author provides insight into how corporate culture has created an unhealthy environment of stress and isolation for many employees. This title emphasizes that it is up to leaders to create a psychologically safe workplace that is accepting of mistakes instead of just setting policies; there's no gain without implementation and practice. The book covers similar territory as Bren� Brown's Dare To Lead, but Norman concentrates on a leadership toolset that's based on empathy and compassionate communication skills. The book includes daily and weekly activities that leaders can use to practice their inclusivity skills. VERDICT A good introduction for leaders who are trying to understand how to create inclusive spaces in their workplace. This will also appeal to professionals who are looking for guides on how to lead with empathy and compassion.--John Rodzvilla

Copyright 2023 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2024
Leadership consultant and speaker Norman offers a book of practical tips and stories about inclusivity and how to employ it as a business leader. Over a 30-year career in the software industry, the author has learned a lot about leadership, and this book's 10 chapters each tackle a subject with advice on how to take inclusive leadership from theory to practice by setting the proper tone, getting comfortable with discomfort ("Your first step could be to try to understand what is making you so uncomfortable. One obvious reason is realizing that you are not an expert in diversity, equity, and inclusion"), learning to listen, building trust, employing empathy and compassion, welcoming all voices, embracing differences, running inclusive meetings, mentoring ("To what degree am I willing to learn from others, rather than being the expert leader?"), and being bold. All are important topics for leaders seeking to embrace diversity, equity, and inclusion, and the author presents each in an engaging format, using stories from her career, research she's done along the way, accounts of real-life applications, and, at the end of each chapter, daily and weekly exercises on the topic at hand, as well as self-reflective questions. The book combines the practices and questions into a single list at the end of the book, too--a small but thoughtful addition that makes the material easily accessible. Indeed, the book's overall structure is inviting and easy to follow, and chapters can valuably be read in order or separately, although the chapters do effectively build upon one another when read in sequence. Norman's prose style is easygoing, with reader-friendly elements including pull quotes on many pages for easy access (such as "You show up as an inclusive leader every day, not just when it's convenient"). Norman's anecdotes from her own executive career are pertinent and engaging. A book that offers a pleasing and effective mix of psychology, experience-based wisdom, and helpful advice to create a happier and more productive workplace.

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