Walking the Walk: Part 4 of 4

From Inclusion as a Policy to Inclusion as a Practice — A Leadership Response to the CMI Report

Inclusion isn’t a document.
It’s not a policy statement.
It’s not a bold pledge on a corporate landing page.

Inclusion is a leadership practice.
It lives in decisions, in language, in hiring panels, in who gets credit, and who gets to speak.

The CMI report made one thing clear: while many leaders believe their organisations are inclusive, employees aren’t feeling it. That gap isn’t about bad intentions — it’s about a lack of integration.

In this final post of the Walking the Walk series, I want to reflect on what it takes to move inclusion out of the policy binder and into the practice of everyday leadership.

Inclusion That Starts — and Stays — at the Top

Values are shaped at the top, but they’re lived (or not) at every level.

When inclusion is integrated into strategic decisions, hiring processes, people leadership, and cultural rituals, it begins to take root. When it remains a statement of principle, but never a factor in decision-making, it becomes decorative.

Inclusive leadership means:

• Asking who’s missing before signing off

• Welcoming dissent without defensiveness

• Challenging bias when it’s inconvenient

• Making decisions that reflect the values, not just the business case

It’s not just what you say you value. It’s how you lead when no one’s watching.

When Inclusion Becomes How You Work

When inclusion is a practice, not a promise, it becomes:

• A leadership value
  Not just a brand value or policy principle. Inclusive leaders don’t treat equity as optional or secondary. It’s baked into how they lead, hire, reward, and relate.

• A strategy
  Inclusion isn’t a “nice to have” add-on to performance. It is performance. When employees feel safe, valued, and heard, they unlock more of their potential. That discretionary effort — the part you can’t mandate or force — becomes available in cultures that earn it.

• A daily practice
  Inclusion doesn’t live in annual reports. It lives in 1:1 meetings, in team reflections, in decision reviews, in language choices, and in who you make room for. It’s not perfection. It’s consistency.

• A signal to stay or to leave
  Employees don’t leave because of a lack of purpose. They leave because the environment doesn’t align with the promises. If you say you value inclusion but reward exclusionary behaviours, people notice. And they walk.

Inclusion as a leadership practice requires reinforcement, not just rollout.

If inclusion training isn’t revisited, supported, and modelled by leaders at every level, it risks becoming shelfware. Leadership needs rhythm: regular reinforcement, real-time reflection, and sustained accountability.

That’s the difference between culture that shifts — and culture that slides.

My Final Reflection

The CMI report offered a window into what many already know: that inclusion can be spoken loudly at the top but remain silent in daily operations.

This series has been my leadership reflection on what it takes to change that. Because inclusion isn’t theory to me. It’s practice. And practice is what I support leaders to develop.

The real work of inclusion happens in the everyday.
When no one is watching.
When it would be easier not to.
And when someone else needs you to speak first.

Let’s keep walking.

—

🍠 Cynthia Fortlage
Inclusive leadership expert. Educator and keynote. Certified mentor for leaders.
Helping leaders go beyond awareness to action.

#InclusiveLeadership #WalkingTheWalk #LeadershipPractice #AcceptanceWithoutUnderstanding