Inclusive Leadership journey
Turning the challenges of a diverse team into opportunities for growth
Do you have problems attracting and retaining people? Misunderstandings, frustrations, communication problems within your team? Lack of productivity, loss of time and energy? Don't you have any idea on how to start achieving the SDG's on inclusiveness?
Do you want to work with an empowered and self-motivated team with a clear, strategically created plan, without wasting time and energy, endless discussions and unresolved and/or recurring frustrations?
Do you want to implement the business strategy and achieve department, team or company goals, including the sustainable development goals (SDG’s)?
Do you want to learn how inclusive leadership can be beneficial for team dynamics, team collaboration, communication,… and how to put it into practice?
It is logical that the people leading a team cannot solve the challenges themselves, as diversity is often much lower at the leadership level than in the rest of the company or at the customer side. In addition, there is not always an awareness of the diversity challenges within the team. And in the media you often hear very polarised views on diversity issues, which confuses people even more.
Avoid additional recruitment, turnover and productivity costs. These costs add up quickly.
It also affects the bottom line and can be a competitive advantage.
Why do I need help?
Are you aware of diversity and how to be inclusive?
Society and therefore teams are becoming more diverse: diversity itself is becoming more diverse (e.g. gender diversity, neurodiversity,…). The influx of people is more diverse, and therefore the people leading a team need to be aware of diversity and know how to act inclusively to make this diversity work on a daily basis.
Do you recognise this?
- You take diversity into account in your leadership and in your Management Team.
- You are aware that inclusion is a sustainable solution, also essential within the UN Sustainable Development Goals for 2030.
- You focus on business, technicalities, expertise, but also on people (diversity, team dynamics, behaviour,..) and culture (corporate culture).
- You are actively working on your assumptions, hypotheses, stereotypes, ... (unconscious bias).
- You focus on the logic, the ratio, the head but you clearly pay attention to the 'heart and soul' of your business, the connection, the behaviour,…
IF YOU'VE DONE ALL YOU CAN
Why you need to solve this problem now
As the influx of new people (employees, but also suppliers, customers and other stakeholders) becomes more diverse (in the broadest sense of the word), a company can only be sustainable if its leaders embed diversity and inclusion in everything they do.
If not, a company will lose market share and be unable to attract either customers or employees.
As a result, both the company and the employer brand will be affected and this will become a competitive disadvantage.
This can be different, really.
Are you a manager leading a diverse team in a multinational company? Are you sometimes frustrated by staff turnover, hard-to-fill vacancies, misunderstandings, and conflicts? Do you want to put inclusion more actively on your business agenda? Or do you want to build a more diverse team but don’t know how?
- Would you like to actively participate in interactive sessions?
- Do you dare to be vulnerable, reflect on your own perspective in order to understand that of others?
- I offer you all my expertise, I will give you an extra pair of wings on your guided journey towards inclusive leadership. It is up to you to Try-Fail-Learn-Repeat, with me as a co-pilot at your side.
About
Katherina Swings
I am a bridge builder, a connector. I love people in general. I build trust quickly. As long as I can remember people of all ages and backgrounds start talking to me, telling me their life stories, even if we have never met before. I don’t judge, I’m an active listener and that’s what people appreciate about me.
It is also why clients and the college where I teach reach out to me so that I can inspire people to connect with others, with an open mind and heart, aware of possible biases.
I am quick to grasp the challenges faced by organisations and am creative in co-creating solutions that are in tune with the culture and dynamics of the team.
Why choose Katherina Swings?
5 Good reasons:
Connecting – (co-)creating – contributing are my biggest drivers
I easily connect to anyone regardless of background, age or position. I believe in the collective knowledge of teams and therefore also in the power of co-creation: there is already a lot of knowledge in a person and even more so in a team. Through co-creation, we can build upon this to embed changes in mindset and behaviour. I want to contribute to a greater whole, therefor sustainability is very dear to me and the people part of any sustainability strategy is my focus.
I am a teacher
I prefer the word 'learning facilitator' to be honest. I facilitate the learning process for my students. I teach Marketing for HR at Karel De Grote Hogeschool to HR for Business bachelor students who reflect the diversity of a city like Antwerp, where the school is located.
I am used to work in English, Dutch and French
International experience has enriched my life for as long as I can remember. From the age of 4, I travelled to different countries. We always travelled 'locally', so we learned the local language and culture. When I was 18, I was an exchange student in Iceland, living with a host family and attending a local school. I then obtained my Bachelor's degree in Law at a French-speaking university in Namur (BE) and my Master's degree in Law at a Dutch-speaking university (Antwerp, BE), while spending a semester abroad at the University of Salzburg (Austria, in German). For the last 20+ years, I have always worked in an international environment. English, Dutch and French have been the main languages of communication.
Since 2015, I have my own company. My clients are mainly multinational companies.
My last job as an employee was HR director at ABInBev, based in Leuven (BE) but reporting to my manager who was based in New York City. I started my own company in 2015. Since then I've worked on HR and change management projects in companies such as ABInBev, GSK Vaccines, Philips Lighting, Covestro and Engie. Since 2018, I've been focusing on working with growing companies with an international footprint to put diversity and inclusion on the talent attraction and recruitment marketing agenda in partnership and co-creation. I count companies such as Worldline, Devoteam, Alpega,... among my clients.
A believer in lifelong learning
I'm always learning, I recently completed training to become a professional learning facilitator, as well as training on inclusive leadership and employer branding, to name a few.
What others say about working with Katherina
Experiences
Would you like
To save time? Have fewer people leaving your team? Fill your vacancies quicker? Get a better reputation as an employer? Build a well-functioning, diverse team that also reflects the company's values?
KNown from:
The method
Inclusive Leadership Journey
A number of sessions over 6 months where you get to know:
What diversity and inclusion really mean.
How to gain a better understanding of your own and your team’s diversity.
You will learn how to ‘make the mix’ of a diverse team work so that you can avoid the challenges, not to say frustrations, that can arise in a diverse team that is not managed inclusively.
You will learn to understand the concepts of diversity and inclusion before looking into the diversity in your team. We will look into the impact it has on the challenges you face. You will learn how inclusive leadership can be beneficial for team dynamics, team collaboration, communication, … and how you can put that into practice. So that the team can work more closely together as you understand the importance and the necessity of inclusive leadership for the benefit of your team and the business.
You will learn to understand the importance of culture and how to put practices in place to create a positive culture.
You will more concretely achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, SDGs (UN Sustainable Development Goals 5, 8 and 10).
Stay competitive in the market, bring your company culture to life, implement the business strategy, be more productive, more efficient, more innovative,… You will learn how to meet the SDG’s (UN Sustainable Development Goals in particular SDG’s 5, 8 & 10).
The programme
Inclusive Leadership Journey
The programme consists of sessions over a period of six months. We can set up the intake session soon and agree on a starting date.
We can work together in English, Dutch or French.
Intake – We will set up a meeting so that we can assess the challenges that you are currently facing, what you would like to achieve and whether I can help you to achieve it.
Working together to define the success, the plan and the timetable.
Starting the Inclusive Leadership journey: Try-Fail-Learn-Repeat, with me as a co-pilot at your side
Debriefing – What are the takeaways and possible next steps?
Register here
To arrange an intake meeting,
please schedule a meeting in the calendar.
The first step is to arrange an intake meeting so that we can discuss expectations and see if there is a personal fit.
You can communicate in English, Dutch or French.
FIND YOUR ANSWER HERE
Frequently Asked Questions
Diversity is about the mix, the unique differences between people. If you were a cook, diversity would be the ingredients for the meal you are cooking.
By ‘in the broadest sense of the word’ I mean that this mix can vary from the common themes of age, gender, disability, ethnicity, to less mentioned ‘ingredients’ such as appearance (visible tattoos, weight, …), part-time versus full-time workers, working from home, office versus factory workers, introverts versus extraverts, … The mix is becoming more and more colourful.
If diversity is the mix, then inclusion is making the mix work. If you are still cooking and the ingredients represent diversity, then putting the meal together is inclusion.
Inclusion requires an action. Inclusion is active. It is more than a state of mind.
Diversity is the mix. Inclusion is what makes the mix work.
Diversity is the ingredients that the cook puts on the counter. Cooking the meal would represent inclusion.
Diversity is a fact, a reality. Inclusion requires action.
“Inclusive leadership is a kind of leadership that values team members, invites diverse perspectives, and creates an atmosphere where people feel their opinions and contributions improve the company’s well-being.
In workplace culture, inclusive leadership is emerging as a popular and necessary form of company growth.” (Source: Masterclass.com)
“Inclusive language is the recognition that words matter and that word choice can be used, intentionally or unintentionally, to include or exclude others. Using inclusive language communicates with people in a way that is respectful and brings everyone into the conversation.” (Source: Deloitte)
“Snap judgements we make about people and situations based upon years of subconscious socialization.” (Source: Harvard)
The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), also known as the Global Goals, were adopted by the United Nations in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity.
SDG 5: Gender Equality – Ending all discrimination against women and girls is not only a basic human right, it’s crucial for sustainable future; it’s proven that empowering women and girls helps economic growth and development.
SDG 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth – Sustained and inclusive economic growth can drive progress, create decent jobs for all and improve living standards.
SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities –
- 10.2 By 2030, empower and promote the social, economic and political inclusion of all, irrespective of age, sex, disability, race, ethnicity, origin, religion or economic or other status
QUESTIONS?
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