The Solution: How Inclusive Leadership Actually Becomes Global + Adaptable

New York City, US

Now that we’ve explored why inclusive leadership starts with examining your existing systems and structures, why misapplying “universal” concepts like vulnerability can backfire, and why cultural intelligence is critical across all industries, let’s get practical: what steps can leaders take to enhance their cultural intelligence and ensure inclusion truly resonates across teams and borders?

Steps Leaders Can Take to Enhance Cultural Intelligence

1. Get Curious — Learn First, Lean Later

As a leader of a global or culturally diverse team, you have a responsibility to seek knowledge first before asking team members to share lived experiences, particularly when power dynamics are at play. Doing so demonstrates respect and avoids placing an undue emotional or cognitive burden on employees.

Where to start? Read. For example, one of the first books my partner read upon arriving in the Philippines was Leading Gen Z Filipinos — Without Micromanaging by Mike Grogan, which helped him adapt his leadership style to better support his team.

But your reading doesn’t need to (and shouldn’t) be limited to leadership “how-to’s.” Since arriving in the Philippines, I’ve been exploring Filipino literature— from historical accounts and biographies to novels and short stories — because fiction can illuminate a culture just as powerfully as non-fiction.

2. Use Intercultural Assessments for Self-Development

There are a lot of intercultural assessments out there — from the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI) to the Intercultural Readiness Check (IRC) to the Cultural Intelligence (CQ) 360 to name a few of the more popular ones — each with its own strengths and limitations. I’ve tried many of them myself and done plenty of research on how they work. I’m also aware of a common critique: these assessments are often just snapshots, and because they rely heavily on self-assessment, they are inherently biased.

That said, I see significant developmental value in assessments like the CQ 360, particularly because it gathers input from team members as well as the individual. This helps highlight potential gaps between how leaders see themselves and how others experience their behaviours — something standalone self-assessments often miss. On their own, these tools can feel limited, but when used as a starting point for reflection and learning, especially when paired with tailored actions and developmental pathways, they become powerful catalysts for growth. 

This is exactly how I work with leaders as a certified CQ facilitator: interpreting results, exploring discrepancies, and co-creating a personalized plan that makes the assessment actionable and meaningful.

3. Complete a Cultural Profile with Your Team

Erin Meyer’s The Culture Map and its tools such as the Cultural Profile give a practical way to visualize cultural tendencies across eight dimensions — for example, Deciding (consensual vs. top-down), Communicating (low-context vs. high-context), or Trusting (task-based vs. relationship-based).

I’ve guided Canadian managers working overseas through their Cultural Profile, mapping their tendencies against the country they were in and spotting the biggest gaps — which in turn highlighted where they needed to ‘stretch’ their approach.

I recommend leaders take this further by doing the activity with their teams. This helps everyone:

• Visualize how team members’ tendencies span across the dimensions and how they relate to the leader’s style and to one another.

• Appreciate intracultural diversity — even people from the same cultural background may land at very different points on the scale

• Question assumptions about what “expected” behaviours look like

Ultimately, if the goal is to bridge cultural gaps, everyone on the team benefits from this knowledge, not just the leader.

4. Design Culturally Intelligent Team Norms

Culturally intelligent team norms are co-created, grounded in context, and reflect the diversity each team member brings. David Livermore (2023), drawing on Ang, Rockstuhl, and Christopoulos (2021), outlines a simple process for designing culturally intelligent team norms: identify current and desired norms, define behavioural indicators, monitor them, and reinforce what works.

Take the example I shared before about my Master’s class: students received lower participation grades for not “speaking up” during class — even though many came from educational systems where speaking up wasn’t encouraged. A culturally intelligent norm would be:

• Norm: Everyone contributes to the learning and growth of the class

• Behavioural indicators: Participation is expected, but how it happens is flexible — speaking in the seminar, sharing in breakout groups, or submitting a reflection online all “count.” (As I noted in that article, this doesn’t mean students shouldn’t be encouraged and eventually required to participate in multiple ways — the leader’s, in this case the professor’s role, is to support students in developing the skills they may not yet have.)

I also love Gustavo Razzetti’s Culture Design Canvas, which helps teams map their organizational culture and clarify what’s expected versus where flexibility exists. While it focuses on the team rather than individuals, working through its 10 building blocks often uncovers team members’ own cultural tendencies in action.

What surprises me is how often leaders skip these conversations, assuming expectations are obvious. Left unspoken, norms can unintentionally undermine inclusion, create misalignment, and limit adaptability. Clear, co-created norms give everyone the map they need not only to understand what’s expected, but also to ensure the entire team is aligned and moving forward together — able to show up fully and flex when the situation calls for it.

5. Get Yourself a Coach

Even with the best tools and frameworks, navigating cultural complexity is challenging. This is where coaching makes the difference.

I say this as someone who’s completed four degrees and continued taking certifications and courses well beyond leaving academia — I love learning. Still, some of my most meaningful growth came not from another framework or course, but from receiving coaching as a part of a Change Management training cohort for managers. The tailored, reflective, and accountable space it created helped me apply what I was learning more intentionally. That experience led me to work with another coach and, eventually, to become certified myself after seeing how impactful coaching can be when it’s well-timed and thoughtfully applied.

Coaching helps turn insight into action — where inclusion and cultural intelligence actually start to show up in day-to-day work.

My Approach: The Four A’s

I guide leaders using the framework below:

1. Awareness: Understand your own tendencies, your team’s, and your organization’s culture.

2. Anticipate: Identify potential points of friction arising from cultural differences.

3. Adjust: Proactively stretch your behaviours and leadership to bridge cultural gaps.

4. Align: With your team, co-create culturally intelligent team norms to ensure shared expectations and adaptive behaviours across the team.

Final Takeaway

Inclusive global leadership is a journey. It demands curiosity, flexibility, and intentional action. With the right frameworks and mindset, leaders can ensure that inclusion isn’t a theoretical exercise — it’s a lived, culturally intelligent practice.

I help leaders bring an intercultural lens to their inclusion practices so they truly resonate — across teams and contexts. If this sparked reflection, feel free to reach out or connect — I’d love to continue the conversation.

Happy new year!

(This post was originally published on my LinkedIn on December 31, 2025.)