Constant volatility and unrelenting change mark today’s business environment, in which only the most resilient teams thrive. In fact, 90% of C-suite leaders said the pace of change has accelerated since January 2025, with 84% expecting this pace to increase further, according to the Accenture Pulse of Change survey.
Resilience enables teams to weather internal adjustments and external pressures and is linked to key markers of success such as innovation, engagement, and performance. Recent research from the McKinsey Health Institute showed that employees who scored high in resilience and adaptability were three times more likely to report high engagement and four times more likely to report innovative behaviors than their peers.
But how can organizations create resilient teams? Employers can only foster resilience when leaders create inclusive environments.
“Inclusive leaders ensure that their teams and their people are equipped to innovate, collaborate, and excel, no matter the external dynamics,” said Kristin Barrett, a leadership development consultant and executive coach.
When organizations support leadership development that teaches managers human-centric skills, they create inclusive, future-ready leaders who maximize their teams’ potential for resilience and promote long-term success.
Where Traditional Leadership Falls Short
Inclusive leadership imparts a sense of fairness, featuring practices like transparent decision-making processes, in which all voices are weighed before choices are made.
“At its best, inclusive leadership is about unlocking the full potential of people,” Barrett said.
Most leaders support this management style in principle, but many struggle to align action with intention — often due to a lack of know-how. For example, a supervisor may affirm her company’s value of belonging but fail to support neurodivergent employees or those from cultural backgrounds different from her own.
When organizations equip leaders with inclusive behaviors, however, managers know how to create environments in which teams perform at their best. Supervisors will understand how to implement accommodations that support neurotypical and neurodivergent team members alike. They’ll know how to make all employees feel welcome and valued, regardless of their cultural background.
Leaders who operate this way ensure their teams thrive, even amid change. When leaders enable performance through inclusive behaviors, they ensure team members are both resilient and adaptable.
The Behaviors That Help Teams Adapt Under Pressure
Organizations that prioritize training for inclusive leadership position themselves to tackle the challenges facing the modern workplace, such as talent scarcity and increased demands for agility.
“An inclusive leader does three things well: They promote inclusion, foster belonging, and leverage uniqueness in how they operate,” Barrett said.
Inclusive leaders are trained to invite quieter team members to contribute, for instance. They invite these individuals to use multiple modes of communication and rotate responsibilities to spread opportunity and skills building. This approach ensures a balanced workload and affords everyone the opportunity to learn new skills and take new opportunities.
Inclusive practices translate directly into resilience. Open communication encourages quieter voices to contribute new ideas, and task-sharing equips employees with a variety of skills. The result: teams prepared to adapt and excel under pressure.
Why These Behaviors Deliver Measurable Results
Inclusive habits generate important business outcomes, too, including faster adaptation and reduced conflict. Without fear of judgment or failure, employees are more comfortable taking risks, expressing new ideas, and challenging the status quo, even when facing external pressures, Barrett said.
“Inclusion is not only a moral imperative, it’s a business advantage,” she said. “The most effective leaders can consistently impact their people, their culture, and their business.”
This broad impact explains why inclusion is a rising priority for many organizations. According to SHRM’s CHRO Priorities & Perspectives report, 50% of CHROs said they anticipate a growing shift toward human-centered leadership, emphasizing empathetic and people-focused management.
Turning Inclusive Intent Into Everyday Practice
How can organizations position their leaders to lead with inclusivity, not just in name, but in practice? High-performing organizations design leadership development programs around inclusive practices such as equitable decision-making and team empowerment.
The most successful programs leverage experiential learning and feedback mechanisms to ensure leaders learn skills that are aligned with and support organizational goals, according to Barrett. By doing so, these organizations create safe spaces in which fledgling leaders can put their abilities to the test and develop human-centric qualities that support business values.
The SHRM Linkage Purposeful Leadership Model is one such approach, rooting training in specific skills to develop inclusive managers who can deliver on organizational values — creating pipelines of inclusive leaders who embed high-impact personal practices in organizational cultural norms.
The Case for Building Capability, Not Just Capacity
Leadership development that prioritizes human-centric qualities positions organizations to thrive, even in turbulent environments. It’s an approach that promotes equity, strengthens culture, and drives performance.
“When organizations prioritize inclusive leadership, they’ll experience less turnover, greater loyalty, and better adaptability and resiliency,” Barrett said. “It’s a strategic lever that positions organizations for long-term success.”
In an unpredictable world, leaders who make inclusion their advantage are the ones who build true resilience.
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