Leading Libraries Series: Leading for Inclusion
Challenges to inclusive practice
The impact of exclusion on individuals
We are now going to move on to help you develop an understanding of how inclusion is related to people’s sense of identity and the impact on people when their identity is not honoured in their environment.
Inclusive leadership is about creating environments in which people feel safe and accepted when they express their full identity. Although certain characteristics form part of who we are, leaders need to recognise that how each of us lives,
experiences and expresses those characteristics can, and often will differ.
For example:
- People from BAME backgrounds are not all part of one homogenous group
- People from different racial groups will experience discrimination is different ways, as made even more apparent in the 2020 Black Lives Matter campaign
- People within the same racial group can, and often do have different cultures, experiences and perspectives.
As leaders in public service you need to be aware and open to these nuances, and appreciate the complex nature of identity. By developing this awareness you will become more open to the lived experiences of different people, and what this
means in terms of their needs as an employee or service user.
Here we will consider the impact of exclusionary behaviours on ourselves, on others and on our services.
Identity & 'covering'
When people from minority groups are unable to fully express their identity, they face pressure to fit in with dominant or mainstream ways of being and behaving.
This pressure to fit in with the ‘in-group’ is often very subtle, but can also be very explicit. This can cause people from minority groups to supress or ‘cover’ parts of their identity, and in the long run they end up paying a psychological
cost for this.
As a leader it is important to reflect on how you may have covered to fit in, and how people within your teams and services might be covering in order to fit in with group norms and power dynamics, as well as the personal and professional
cost of doing so.
Four dimensions of covering
Kenji Yoshino is a Professor of Law at Yale Law School, and through his own experiences as a Gay, South East Asian-American man developed a model that outlines fours ways in which people from minority groups ‘cover’ their identity to fit in.
He defines covering as playing down your identity to fit in with mainstream or dominant norms.
Appearance
Altering your appearance to blend in with the mainstream. E.g. not wearing cultural or religious attire to work.
Association
Avoiding contact with people from the same minority groups as you. E.g. not bringing your gay partner to a work event.
Affiliation
Avoiding behaviours associated with your identity. E.g. not talking about your children because you are a woman.
Advocacy
Not speaking up for people from your minority group. E.g. ignoring jokes made about disabled people because you are disabled.
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