Building Inclusive Leaders: Why Indian companies and B-Schools must partner for skills-based hiring

Many Indian workplaces are facing alarming challenges today. Their employees are experiencing elevated degrees of loneliness, isolation, and stress in levels greater than those in other global workplaces. And the recent Gallup Workplace report found that 86% of Indian employees say they are struggling or suffering in some way at work, a figure higher than the global average.

These conditions and statistics should put businesses and their leaders in India on high alert. Companies with disengaged and disconnected workforces experience lower productivity, produce lower quality work, and often have higher rates of employee turnover.

What causes this to be a particularly fraught issue in India? A few factors include:

Loneliness is not just an individual crisis. It’s an organisational risk to high performance.

Despite these obstacles, companies must realise that there is a path to a more generative environment. And addressing the effects of these trends won’t just make employees more engaged and healthier; it will improve a company’s competitiveness and its bottom line over time.

So where should businesses start?

The key focus in these efforts is already in the workplace. It’s the secret of the first-line team leader, who occupies a place in an organisation with outsized influence and ability to positively (or negatively) affect individuals, teams, and by extension, entire workforces.

Savvy companies have learned that investing in the development of these first-line leaders can build a pipeline of capable leaders who can leverage the expertise within their teams.

Why is that important? Improvements at the team level have a multiplier effect in an organisation. A first-line leader who can foster a connected, engaged team empowers multiple people, thereby improving work quality, productivity, job satisfaction, and employee retention.

Business schools are key partners in this effort. Through executive education partnerships and programs, business schools tailor training and development programs that target leaders and situations and arm them with skills that are specific to a company’s unique, real-time needs.

The business schools should work with companies to consistently develop programs that address specific needs. A key focus should be on empowering front-line leaders to foster connections among employees that pay off in numerous ways.

Partnerships between companies and business schools can yield comprehensive programs and training. But your first-line leaders can start now. Get to know your colleagues. Learn who they care about, why they do the work they do, and what they most care about. Asking about their backgrounds and interests seems simple, but it energizes, creates connection, and pays huge dividends.

Creating connection goes beyond showing kindness. Leaders can lend their status and credibility to others.  Doing so creates an ecosystem in which individuals’ expertise can be recognised and leveraged.  We are often eager to help those who are already established. Helping those who need to build their brand, however, builds loyalty and motivation to work to deliver meaningful outcomes. Many people are apprehensive about asking for help, so when you spot a colleague in need and fill in the gap, you'll boost your relationship and engender loyalty. Helping others makes us feel good ourselves, so you get double benefits.

These are simple approaches, but they are the first steps to building a critical component to more effective and inclusive teams – social connection.

Good social connections and trust among colleagues improve a company’s culture by helping colleagues forge a bond with one another. In turn, that bond creates a shared capacity for listening to and learning from one another, fostering collaboration and even jumpstarting innovation.

This approach might be simple, but it’s not easy for front-line leaders or team members.

For some, it’s scary and feels awkward, especially if the workplace has not typically fostered social connections. Putting in the effort can be exhausting. It’s easier to retreat into a mobile phone and virtual connections, which require far less effort and carry fewer perceived risks.

If you truly wish to connect, be bold and vulnerable. Commit to being curious about others and sharing your own experiences.

Frontline leaders can facilitate connection in small doses by hosting regular opportunities for employees to learn more about one another or engage in collective efforts around hobbies, passions, games, or non-work problem-solving interdependent activities. A connected team is more engaged and willing to probe to leverage the expertise of its members toward organisational performance.

Companies can invest in developing engaged, capable first-line managers who perform as community builders, not taskmasters. This, too, is an opportunity for effective partnerships between companies and business schools.

Team leaders are crucial: they can set the culture of curiosity and seek divergent views, build trust, and enable employees to express their unique expertise.

In the end, this is an investment with a return for today’s businesses in ultra-competitive environments. A connected work community is a business advantage. More than that, it’s a competitive imperative.