Ryleigh Harvey

HDF 413
November 9th, 2022
Inclusive Leadership Statement
One of the biggest values in leadership is understanding everyone’s diverse backgrounds
and ideas and generally being inclusive. Inclusive leadership is centered around relationships,
fostering those with recognizing everybody’s ideas and values by beings aware of your biases.
You want to actively seek and consider the values of everybody and ensuring nobody around you
feels they aren’t valued in a given space.
The Developmental Model for Intercultural Sensitivity explains the importance of
inclusivity in your role as a leader. “As one’s perceptual organization of cultural difference
becomes more complex, one’s experience of culture becomes more sophisticated and the
potential for exercising competence in intercultural relations increases (Bennet).” This
model describes six developmental stages of intercultural sensitivity and communication:
denial, defense, minimization, acceptance, adaptation, and integration on a scale from
ethnocentrism to ethnorelativism.
It’s importance to note that these stages within the model can be applied to individuals or
groups. A lot of these developmental stages show growth within an individual that hopes to
become a more inclusive leader. You cannot build those valuable relationships if you don’t
accept and understand the value of each of these stages. Going from denial to integrations
means you went from being acceptive of different ideas to cultures to recognizing their
value and implementing them into your facilitation as a leader.
Cox’s Model of Change also talks about the management of cultural diversity with 6
categories: acculturation, structural integration, informal integration, cultural bias,
intergroup conflict, and organizational identity. The first three refer to the composition and
ways in which individuals’ interface across levels and with the larger organization itself. The
others address the ways in which members recognize, reconcile, and negotiate cultural
differences within the organization. This model encompasses the actions it takes to be inclusive.
Recognizing differences and how they come across diversity in different organizations.
Coming from a predominantly white town, a majority of my facilitation experience didn’t
include variety or diversity. I worked with individuals who all shared similar beliefs in values
which made it easier to recognize the few areas they differed. Over the summer, I had the
privilege to be color war captain at my summer camp job. In this role, I got to facilitate all the
competitive activities that week. During that period of time, I worked with kids from all different
backgrounds and age groups. I was a role model to them so getting rid of my biases was a huge
factor in the effectiveness of me as a leader. Now coming to a more diverse university, I have
worked with a very diverse group of individuals. Learning these different models allowed me to
reflect and understand that I have room to grow and improve as a leader. I can always improve
and this area is one I feel the most potential. I never want to walk out of a room and feel that
certain individuals felt unheard or excluded. Using this feeling is super important in my future in
facilitating. I will make it a goal for myself to ensure that I lead with purpose and facilitate by
making everyone feel included and valued.

“Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity.” Organizing Engagement, 9 June 2022,

https://organizingengagement.org/models/developmental-model-of-intercultural-
sensitivity/.