Drive Performance Through Culture: Takeaways from INCLUSION 2024

The SHRM INCLUSION 2024 conference offered business leaders key insights into fostering workplace cultures where inclusion and diversity (I&D) thrive. It also showed how leaders can make a strong business case for inclusion.  

Here are three key lessons from INCLUSION 2024 that showcase how authenticity, empathy, and inclusion help leaders build high-performing teams, mitigate turnover, and retain top talent.

1: Authentic Leadership Enhances Team Performance

Recruiting and training costs stemming from high employee turnover can be overwhelming in a competitive market, said Jim Fielding, founder of All Pride, No Ego LLC, in his session, “Authentic Leadership Lessons to Build High Performing Teams and Cultures.”

“There is a war for talent right now. And it is hard to build loyalty, and it is hard to develop your team,” he said. To attract, retain, and develop the best and brightest employees, leaders must focus on creating a thriving workplace and culture by leading with authenticity. Fielding explained that contrary to authoritarian leadership, authentic leadership is “a mission-driven management style focused on creating safe, inclusive, and empowering cultures.” Fielding recounted chasing aggressive ROI, strategic planning, and budget goals during his time as president of Disney Stores Worldwide. “How you do that is as important as achieving the goal itself,” he said, outlining the following steps to building a high-performing culture through authentic leadership.

5 Ways Authentic Leaders Build High-Performance Teams

1. Build transparent and collaborative relationships within your workgroups and with the teams you support. Authentic leaders model transparency and collaboration. The most effective way to encourage communication and teamwork is to “walk the walk, and talk the talk,” said Fielding.
2. Create environments where people understand their role and how their work performance will help the team achieve its goals. When coaching teams, Fielding finds that people often can explain what they do, but not how they support the overall goals of their company. “They don’t know where they fit in the overall puzzle,” he noted. Employees must be aware of not only their roles, but how they directly support objectives for their division and company.
3. Allow anyone to earn their way into “the room where it happens.” Authentic leaders create open environments where everyone is allowed a proverbial seat at the table. Prioritizing a collaborative culture and transparency in decision-making will make employees feel valued and significant to the success of their team and organization. 
4. Create a true open-door policy to allow the free flow of conversations and ideas. As a leader, you don’t necessarily have to literally keep your door open at all times. However, you have to be accessible, make time to listen to employees, and accept feedback willingly.
5. Embrace the realities of today’s workforce and competition for talent. Leaders are responsible for developing employees and building their skills. At the same time, you don’t want them to be poached. To retain top talent, building employee loyalty is key. Create environments where the investment you’re making in employees is evident and, hopefully, will encourage them to stay on board.

By creating an environment where employees can thrive and achieve goals, “what you’re doing is building culture,” said Fielding. “It’s really about how we work together.”

2: Balance People, Performance, and Personal Boundaries  

Prioritizing team performance while avoiding employee burnout can be a balancing act. However, empathy may be the key to sustaining accountability while supporting a thriving culture, said Maria Ross, speaker, author, leadership trainer, and host of The Empathy Edge Podcast. She explained that leading with empathy can prevent declines in employee engagement and productivity, while reducing quiet quitting.

“Everything at work is an interpersonal issue because work is a collection of people doing things together,” said Ross. Empathy isn’t “being nice,” caving to unreasonable demands, or simply agreeing with someone. Instead, empathy in the workplace is about listening and understanding to find a better way to engage employees. This approach can help overcome cultural conflicts, which can make understanding different perspectives in the workplace difficult.

To model effectively empathetic leadership, leaders can follow Ross’ “5 Pillars” to strategically balance performance and people, and prevent employee burnout. 

Prioritize Performance and People Through These 5 Pillars

1. Self-awareness: Understanding your strengths and pitfalls is essential to embracing empathy. Effective leaders will put ego and defensiveness aside and instead adopt a growth mindset. Building self-confidence is key to realizing you don’t have all the answers—and you don’t have to. Request input, leverage self-assessment tools, and practice reflective listening to avoid judgment and assumptions. Most importantly, listen to understand—not just to respond.
2. Self-care: Prioritizing employee well-being starts with prioritizing yourself. Enforcing boundaries, taking time to recharge, and delegating responsibilities enables you to be your best self, as well as a stronger leader. Make sure to honor who you are, identify your triggers, and seek support and advice when needed.
3. Clarity: Leaders must communicate with radical but kind honesty. Make your boundaries, mission, and values clear to your team, and don’t forget to seek clear and constructive feedback. Clarity ensures all team members are on the same page about expectations and next steps, reinforces accountability, and removes guesswork and stress.
4. Decisiveness: The ability to synthesize points of view and make thoughtful yet swift decisions will enhance leadership. Gather perspectives, create deadlines, and be transparent about the decision-making process. Don’t forget to solicit input fairly and swiftly from all employees, considering different seniority levels and communication styles.
5. Joy: While focusing on goals and KPIs, you should also find time for levity and fun in the workplace. “It’s about creating a workplace where people can relax,” said Ross. Stress shuts down the creative thinking process and prevents employees from performing at their best. In contrast, building relationships with your employees builds trust, resulting in higher engagement and lower absenteeism. Workplace issues are complex, and teams need to be able to work together quickly and rely on trust to effectively solve problems.

3: I&D Requires Accountability

Engagement and morale are critical drivers of individual and team performance, Proliance Group leadership coach David Suson said in his session, “Creating a Culture of Accountability, Diversity, and Inclusion.” According to Suson, building an inclusive culture not only enhances engagement and morale, but also supports accountability and performance.  

“Why do employees hate their jobs? They hate their boss. Why won’t they quit? They love their boss,” said Suson. “We need to change our mindset of how we manage our team and how we think about leadership.” By fostering a culture of accountability, inclusion, and diversity, organizations will achieve better business outcomes, increase employee morale and engagement, and improve teamwork. They'll experience fewer problems and roadblocks, and better attract and retain top talent. Suson lists the following steps to achieving an accountable workforce:

• Model accountability and I&D.

• Set clear expectations and goals for team members.

• Communicate effectively to your team.

• Provide meaningful work and opportunity for advancement.

• Provide fair pay.

• Hold others accountable.

However, when it comes to achieving these transformations, “the reality is it is simple, but it’s not easy,” said Suson. Leadership seminars and training often aren’t helpful due to “Band-Aid approaches” that fail to target the root causes of bias: habit, self-perception, and ego. Often, these approaches encourage leaders to demand change, rather than inspire it. True change, Suson argued, comes from inspiring workers by using a three-step “MVP” approach to leadership.

How to Be an ‘MVP’  

Mindset: The first step in inspiring change requires leaders to acknowledge they are responsible for coaching, mentoring, and developing their employees. While threats and intimidation may be effective in achieving results, these approaches are detrimental to engagement and morale. Leaders must shift their mindset from “My employees are lucky to have a job” to “I’m lucky my employees chose to work for me.” Think of employees like volunteers: You can’t threaten to fire a volunteer; you can only inspire them.

Value: Leaders should thank employees for their hard work and for working with them, rather than a competitor. To express appreciation, learn about employees’ interests and families, and recognize special days such as birthdays and work anniversaries. When coaching and mentoring employees, make sure to appreciate their perspectives as individuals. “You get what you look for, so look for the good,” said Suson. For leaders who lack the time to coach or mentor, he suggests hiring administrative help, offloading work, or restructuring your teams. 

Push them up: “To create accountability and inspire your employees, what we want to do is push them up,” said Suson. Learn about their goals, what they want to be, what they want to do, and help them get there. Sometimes, developing employees means they will surpass you. However, impactful leaders will put ego aside. Establishing an inclusive, thriving culture will empower employees to excel in their careers, leading to high morale and low turnover. “It’s not what you know, it’s what you do,” said Suson, challenging leaders to get started now and commit to inspiring true change.

Want to join some of the most sought-after I&D experts in the world to continue these discussions? Register for SHRM INCLUSION 2025 in Louisville, Ky., Oct. 26-29, 2025.