High performance and inclusion are too often treated as competing priorities in the workplace. Performance is often associated with commercial outcomes and productivity, while inclusion is often linked with culture, belonging and employee experience. But with organisations challenged by economic uncertainty, rapid technological change, skills shortages and growing social and political polarisation, the human experience of work should be inseparable from organisational performance.
The World Economic Forum estimates that 39% of workers’ core skills will change by 2030, with human capabilities such as leadership, social influence and empathy cited among the most important skills. Organisations must start putting people at the centre of performance. This means recognising that emotions influence behaviour, behaviour influences relationships, and relationships ultimately influence how teams and organisations perform.
From human experience to performance
|
Emotions |
Relationships |
Performance |
|
How people feel influences how they behave |
How people behave influences how they relate to others |
The quality of those relationships ultimately influences how teams and organisations perform |
|
Psychological safety |
Trust and belonging |
Collaboration and collective performance |
|
Wellbeing and energy |
Communication and connection |
Better decision-making |
|
Fairness and inclusion |
Perspective-taking and respect |
Innovation and problem-solving |
At FAIRER, this is one of the conversations we’re having with our clients. Whether we are talking about productivity, AI, leadership capability, wellbeing or organisational culture, the common denominator is people. Our approach is grounded in behavioural science, social psychology and neuroscience because changing culture ultimately means changing human behaviour – and understanding what drives it.
In this article, we explore 10 principles that can help leaders, HR professionals and inclusion specialists put people at the centre of high-performance cultures, and create the conditions for both inclusion and performance to thrive.
When organisations face economic pressure, the instinct can be to focus on targets and productivity while treating culture and inclusion as secondary concerns. Yet performance is delivered by human beings, and the emotional and social environment in which people work has a direct bearing on how they behave, collaborate, make decisions and respond to pressure.
Tajfel and Turner’s 1979 Social Identity Theory proposes that people naturally categorise themselves and others into social groups, creating distinctions between ‘us’ and ‘them’ that can influence assumptions and behaviour. The problem is that these assumptions often operate automatically and unconsciously, shaping who we trust, who we collaborate with and, ultimately, who gets opportunities. Left unchecked, these patterns can reinforce bias and limit the people and perspectives organisations benefit from.
The divide between 'us' and 'them' often shapes workplace outcomes.
This is why inclusion needs to be connected to the wider business strategy. Leaders are asking how to improve productivity, how to work effectively alongside AI, how to retain talent and how to build resilience. As FAIRER MD Dan Robertson explains: “These factors are not separate from the inclusion agenda. A culture in which people feel psychologically safe, fairly treated and able to contribute is a culture that is better positioned to perform.”
Inclusive leadership is a capability that can influence groupthink, collective wisdom, innovation, wellbeing and ultimately the performance of teams. It’s “a thinking process, a behavioural thing, but also an action thing,” says Dan. Leaders need to think and behave differently if they want to change the experience and performance of the people around them. This also means moving away from the idea that inclusive leadership is simply a position within a hierarchy. “Leadership is a shared responsibility, and the skills required to lead inclusively can be developed by everyone,” Dan adds.
For example, FAIRER worked with Lloyd’s of London to design and deliver an inclusive leadership programme for its executive leadership team. The programme focused on role modelling, recognising leadership bias and translating inclusive leadership into practical action, with leaders developing greater confidence and individual action plans to embed these behaviours.
We have also delivered inclusive leadership programmes at scale, including for a leading US transportation supplier, where around 60 senior leaders and 1,600 people managers took part in bespoke training focused on inclusive leadership, psychological safety, bias in decision-making and practical behaviours.
The acceleration of AI makes the shift towards human-centric leadership even more important. Our research at FAIRER has shown that the human dynamic is going to be more important than ever, relying on skills such as perspective-taking, curiosity, emotional intelligence, cultural intelligence and critical thinking.
As more organisations use AI to filter candidates and support organisational decision-making, leaders need to understand how bias can be embedded and reproduced through systems and data. Dan points specifically to recruitment, where AI screening can filter people out against organisational criteria and potentially reproduce existing biases, with disproportionate consequences for different groups. Organisations therefore need to understand how these tools work and ensure that the employees using them are exercising critical thinking and judgement alongside developing technological capability.
It’s not possible to build high-performing cultures by focusing on performance in isolation. Leaders need to understand the human and organisational conditions that enable people to perform and contribute effectively. At FAIRER, we believe that inclusive leadership is a combination of thinking, behaviour and action, rather than a mindset or a position within a hierarchy. That means creating the conditions for psychological safety, wellbeing, engagement and collective performance, while ensuring people have fair access to opportunity and can contribute across different groups.
We at FAIRER have developed a holistic framework covering five key dimensions of the employee experience, including fairness and opportunity, belonging and workplace safety, community and cohesion, wellbeing and energy, and freedom and flexibility. Looking at these dimensions together gives leaders a much more useful picture of the emotional and cultural conditions within an organisation, and therefore a better basis for deciding where intervention is actually needed.
“Perspective-taking is one of the most important – and most difficult – skills an inclusive leader can develop,” says Dan. It means being able to recognise validity in a viewpoint that you fundamentally disagree with, and having enough intellectual and emotional flexibility to understand where another person is coming from before deciding how to respond.
Social psychologist Adam Galinsky found that perspective-taking can increase perceived similarities between ourselves and others, thereby reducing stereotyping and in-group bias. With political and social divisions in the workplace, leaders are often expected to navigate conversations around identity, values, beliefs and belonging. If we cannot see beyond our own frame of reference, we risk creating cultures where people talk only to those who already think like them. Perspective-taking gives leaders the opportunity to understand and value difference, and make better decisions as a result.
Without perspective-taking, leaders may seek validation rather than understanding.
The strongest leaders understand that their role is not to have every answer, but to create the conditions in which other people can contribute their expertise. That means asking for ideas, sharing decision-making, removing blockers and recognising that the person closest to a problem may have insights that are unavailable to the person at the top of the hierarchy.
This is where psychological safety becomes important. People need to be able to admit mistakes, challenge assumptions and contribute different perspectives without fearing that doing so will damage their standing. Moving from ‘power over’ to ‘power with’ means using authority differently – rather than removing it completely – to create the conditions for collective performance.
This approach was central to our work with BBVS, where we developed and delivered an inclusive leadership programme alongside a wider Respect programme focused on behavioural and cultural change. The programme explored how leaders can create psychologically safe environments, recognise inappropriate behaviours and build a culture where people feel able to speak up.
Curiosity is another core capability of an inclusive leader, but genuine curiosity begins with accepting that we do not know everything about the experiences of the people around us. When leaders ask questions, listen properly and remain open to having their assumptions challenged, they gain insight into experiences that may otherwise remain invisible to them.
That insight enables behavioural change. If a leader understands how someone experiences gender bias, racism, homophobia or another barrier at work, they are able to make better-informed decisions. We therefore see curiosity as a route to cultural competence, providing that insight is combined with meaningful action.
Belonging is important but it’s not enough by itself. Someone can feel that they belong within their own community or team while remaining disconnected from the wider organisation. “As workplaces become more polarised and fragmented, leaders need to think about the broader theme of cohesion,” says Dan. Do people feel connected to others across different groups? Do they have access to the relationships and networks they need to succeed? Can different communities interact positively rather than operating in organisational silos?
This is particularly relevant to employee and business resource groups. These groups can create psychological safety and a sense of community, but leaders should also think about how they connect people across difference. Rather than dismantling spaces that give people safety and support, the opportunity is to use them as part of a wider organisational ecosystem. Building positive social interaction across groups is an important leadership responsibility.
One of the clearest tests of inclusive leadership is what happens to people's careers. It is relatively easy to say that everyone has equal opportunity; it is much harder to examine who actually receives the opportunities that accelerate progression. Leaders should be asking who gets opportunities, who is selected for high-profile projects, who gets promoted and who has the sponsorship needed to progress.
This is where allyship becomes practical. Leaders have power and privilege within organisational systems, and inclusive leadership means being willing to use that power on behalf of people who may not have the same access. FAIRER's work with organisations focuses on turning these principles into behaviours that leaders can apply in everyday decision-making. Inclusion becomes meaningful when it changes who gets heard, supported, developed and given opportunities to succeed.
High-performing cultures are cultures in which people can disagree constructively and still work effectively together. That distinction is becoming more important as social and political tensions enter workplaces, and leaders face more difficult conversations around values and identity.
Avoiding disagreement may create the appearance of harmony, but it does not create cohesion. Leaders need the skills to navigate conflict and understand competing perspectives in order to create environments where challenge is possible without relationships breaking down. The goal is to create the conditions in which difference can produce better thinking and more resilient relationships.
The organisations that perform best will be those that understand the relationship between the emotional experience of work and the behaviours that drive performance. Explore our Inclusive Leadership training, designed to coach leaders in thinking critically, navigating difference, promoting psychological safety and putting people at the centre of performance.
We will continue this conversation at FAIRER Conference London on 22 October, bringing together senior HR, DEI, L&D and wellbeing leaders to unpick what human-centric and inclusive leadership means in the modern workplace. The conference will explore how organisations can align people and performance, build cultures that are resilient through change, and create the conditions in which people can do their best work.