NCUMA24: America's Credit Union's Salem Shares 8 Practices for Inclusive Leaders...

Samira Salem

​America’s Credit Union’s Samira Salem, VP of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion and Ph.D., gave her NCUMA Hawaii Conference presentation entitled: "Rewriting the Script: Unlocking Success through Inclusive Leadership."

In Samira's session she explored the dynamics of the changing workplace and why inclusive leadership is essential now more than ever. Specifically, she shared eight practices for inclusive leaders:

1. Commit to Inclusion & Belonging — as a leader, you must commit to inclusiveness to create an environment of belonging and feeling valued. This environment allows an organization to bring different perspectives, build into its values (CUNA has “inclusive” as its 5th value), if you include different perspectives, people feel that they belong and valued, If a person feels like they don’t belong, they will find their way out the door and somewhere else.
2. Confident Humility — This practice allows for confidence to know that a leader is on the right path, fulfilling thir “why," A leader is confident that the organization is on the right track but humble enough that they still need to learn, grow their mindset, and be vulnerable. The best leaders have these traits.
3. Curiosity + Listening — Another best practice is to employ active listening (listening to understand). To engage in active listening, leader must  have curiosity — tell me more, what do you think about that, etc.
4. Psychological Safety — This practice enables folks with the freedom to say something that might be contrary to popular thought (respectful) without negative repercussions, Leaders are able to garner interesting ideas and cultivate that space, which creates honest conversations, Samira added that 56% of employees say bosses are mildly to overly toxic, which leads to stress at work where they don't feel safe.
5. Name & Disrupt Bias — Samira said that the human brain takes shortcuts, which create biases. Early man/woman had to learn to quickly determine friend or foe/fight or flight to survive. People still use these reactions to protect ourselves today. But, unfortunately, they create inequities, which leads to biases in life and at work. Leaders need to be cognizant that these biases exist, recognize the bias, name the bias, and disrupt the bias.
6. Authenticity — As a leader, it's vital to know yourself. To get there, engage in regular practice of asking "why" questions -- those drive how you show up in different circumstances. Samira asked the audience "what is your why? Some of the primary responses were: family, empathy, lift others, inspire, building a better world, faith, humanity, kindness.
7. Empathy — Empathy creates connection, while sympathy creates a disconnect. Leaders have to be there for others. Essentially, you need to connect with others and understand their needs.
8. Allyship — This is the practice of using all your power to support others, advocate for others, and amplify others,  Using power to support and advocate for others.

Samira's challenge to the audience was to make a commitment, choose a practice or two -- or all -- and enact them to move forward personally and professionally.

Check it out and let us know your thoughts. Be sure to visit our NCUMA Hawaii Conference Studio Lounge interview archive page to see more episodes and stories from the conference. And please review and inquire our conference supporters and hosts from NCUMA, PARC Street Partners, and College Ave.

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