What it takes to be an inclusive leader? Developing six signature traits to master inclusive leadership

Purpose With the increasing trend of a diverse workforce, encouraging inclusive leadership holds the key for improving employee experience of all work group members. This review aims to describe various stages of the inclusive leadership continuum to identify the current status of manager’s inclusiveness. It also highlights six important signature traits that managers can build to become successful inclusive leaders by transitioning across these stages. Design/methodology/approach This study draws on existing literature in the domain of inclusive leadership. It extensively reviews the inclusive leadership continuum and the six important traits that may guide managers to become more inclusive in their approach at workplace. Findings An important contribution of this study is to help managers find out where they are located on the inclusive leadership continuum and how they can reach its next stage to become more inclusive. This study lists six behavioural traits, namely, cognizance, curiosity, courage, commitment, cultural intelligence and collaboration to facilitate development of an inclusive leader. Practical implications Organizations can identify at which stage managers are situated on the inclusive leadership continuum. This study also explains six signature traits essential for managers to transition from one stage to another. These traits can be inculcated in managers through well-designed inclusive leadership development programs. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this study is unique because it presents an integrated framework to explain which key traits should be developed by managers to move along the inclusive leadership continuum and become successful inclusive leaders.