Consider five of the top challenges in education today and discover the innovative leadership skills needed to promote student success.
Online doctoral programs provide students with a long list of benefits. While some may come to mind immediately — the ability to complete coursework from your home office or a breakroom at work, for example — others are less obvious but equally meaningful.
Examine DEI leadership, and learn why integrating diversity, equity and inclusion into leadership training can help companies build a supportive culture.
Successful diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategies come from the top — initiated by company leadership that takes those goals seriously.
DEI initiatives directly address a historic lack of business diversity. Organizations that implement these initiatives can reap a wealth of benefits, but only when a commitment to DEI is reflected at the top.
Strong DEI initiatives must include a resolve to promote DEI leadership development. This process is complex, emphasizing a top-down approach in which leaders are trained to lead by example and drive the philosophies that can shape the workplace.
Leaders empower, inspire and encourage others to commit to a company’s mission and culture. Leadership goes beyond any specific position or job title and can be developed in individuals throughout an organization.
Leadership development is the curation and cultivation of the skills that allow individuals to guide groups toward goals that align with a company’s mission and values. It helps employees cultivate stronger communication, teamwork and analytical skills. It can also help employees strengthen important characteristics, such as integrity, honesty and an increased drive to achieve results.
Effective DEI programs rely on strong leadership development. Collectively, DEI principles can minimize resistance to change and maximize acceptance of new DEI policies.
Different circumstances drive day-to-day business operations. Because of this, several core concepts can come together in a typical leadership development strategy.
These concepts include the following:
Collectively, the principles of encouraging different perspectives guide these concepts, providing opportunities for collaboration and different perspectives and allowing individuals to make important contributions. All these principles can help a DEI leadership strategy thrive.
Organizations can take many different approaches to cultivate leaders who execute impactful DEI strategies.
Mentoring programs involve seasoned leaders personally guiding less-experienced managers through an organization’s leadership strategies. This allows mentors to reinforce DEI initiatives and values as fundamental components of the company’s philosophy.
Training programs take a broader approach to leadership development by creating general strategies that follow a specified formula. These programs can be designed in-house; sometimes they’re outsourced to a third party. In this scenario, DEI initiatives may be integrated into these formulas.
In action learning programs, leadership development occurs through identifying workplace problems, creating teams to develop solutions, taking action to implement those solutions and reflecting on the results.
Before defining DEI leadership development, understanding DEI is important. This requires a look at each DEI component and how they interact.
Diversity relates to workforce representation. Characteristics representing diversity include the following:
The term “equity” refers to making sure that every member of the workforce has the same chance to thrive. This differs from equality, which strives to treat all employees the same, regardless of their background or circumstances. Workplace equity can feature support systems that help ensure greater fairness in work-related scenarios.
The term “inclusion” refers to building a work environment that allows all employees to have their voices heard. This allows everyone involved to contribute meaningfully to a company’s strategy.
The three components, when brought together, deliver a holistic approach to business at key stages, from recruitment and hiring to long-term goal development. This approach organically invites a wider range of ideas and perspectives while allowing optimal personal growth. The practice is also ethical, as promoting and encouraging workplace fairness is simply the right thing to do.
Developing a DEI culture yields many positive benefits that should encourage businesses to embrace the principle.
DEI strategies open organizations to a more diverse range of quality employees. It can also attract top talent that cares about a company’s DEI stance. According to a 2021 survey conducted by CNBC and SurveyMonkey, 78% of workers stated the importance of working at a company prioritizing DEI principles.
An effective DEI strategy can help a company improve its bottom line. A 2022 report by Research and Markets indicated that diverse companies experience 2.5 times higher per-employee cash flow than nondiverse companies. Furthermore, the report found a 35% improvement in productivity among inclusive teams.
Building and maintaining a DEI plan organically allows people of all backgrounds to feel welcome. This can allow each team member to feel useful and satisfied. The sense of satisfaction can improve employee engagement, which can impact economic performance.
Satisfied employees are also more likely to remain at a job. A 2021 study by The Josh Bersin Group indicated that employers with DEI strategies established were 2.6 times more likely to retain their workforce. This stability can also positively impact the bottom line: According to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the cost of hiring someone to fill a position can cost three to four times the position’s salary.
A diverse workforce invites different perspectives and worldviews. These perspectives can lead to insights that a homogeneous team might never consider, and result in more informed decisions.
DEI initiatives can enable employers to be more receptive to shifting cultural landscapes. This can make it easier for employers to cultivate a corporate culture that welcomes all employees. A strong company culture can boost morale and help attract top talent. According to a 2022 LinkedIn report, 40% of surveyed American workers considered company culture a top priority when choosing a job.
More employers recognize DEI strategies' importance. A 2021 Pew Research study revealed that 61% of surveyed employees worked for an organization with DEI hiring practices. The same survey indicated that 52% had DEI-focused meetings or training at work.
However, these plans are only effective if they’re implemented properly. This is why companies need to integrate strong DEI strategies within the context of their leadership development.
Effective DEI initiatives must start at the top. This means that a company’s CEO and other C-suite executives are responsible for creating and maintaining a corporate culture driven by DEI principles. However, DEI initiatives aren’t merely designed — they’re crafted through effective leadership development.
The principles of leadership development allow employers to integrate DEI strategies well. Given the advantages of these programs, DEI leadership training should be considered a top priority.
Before organizations can transform their employees into effective DEI leaders, exploring the concept of DEI leadership and why it matters is important.
DEI leadership involves developing internal policies that cultivate an environment of fairness and inclusivity in every aspect of work, distributed through all departments. Leaders must work to encourage employees to adapt to policies that lean into DEI principles. This is key to success, as an effective, supportive DEI culture relies on full participation from everyone, from C-suite executives to entry-level employees.
Effective DEI leadership integrates the core DEI principles into their typical daily job duties. This can include the following:
Committing to these principles can set an example for employees on how to integrate DEI into their own day-to-day activities. This can be a critical step for a DEI leader to ensure that an organization fully embraces diversity and inclusiveness.
The goal of fostering an inclusive, supportive, diverse culture is to create a welcoming work environment for all. However, achieving this goal involves developing core competencies, including those below.
It’s not enough for leaders to know about different perspectives; they need to take the time to understand where these perspectives originate. They can accomplish this by listening to employees’ perspectives and considering what the world looks like from their point of view.
Leaders can never understand every perspective and those who think they can may be undercut by their own presumptions. Approaching DEI situations with humility and self-awareness can help them be conscious of their own biases while making them more open to understanding situations they may not know much about.
DEI environments contain ample opportunities for leaders to learn. To make the most of them, leaders must be proactively respectful, open-minded and curious, using these tactics to lead a workforce away from conflicts or problems rather than reacting to issues after they develop. They can also use their curiosity to educate themselves on diverse perspectives and experiences outside of professional settings.
Overseeing DEI strategies isn’t always easy, and it can lead to difficult situations. Leaders need to lean on courage to initiate and engage in conversations that may be uncomfortable but necessary to enact positive change.
The soft skills needed to govern a strong DEI strategy mirror those needed for general leadership success. These soft skills for DEI leadership can include the following:
Effective DEI leadership training strategies strengthen these soft skills as they nurture DEI.
Effective DEI leadership development strategies must be carefully constructed to succeed. The tips below can help ensure that DEI remains an essential component of leadership development.
Examining leadership development programs to ensure that they genuinely foster inclusivity is important. This can include blanket actions, such as building a safe space for people to express their concerns and ideas freely. It can also include personal activities, such as reaching out to underrepresented groups to ensure they’re represented.
Extending a company’s DEI principles to the hiring process is important. Companies can use blind hiring practices — deliberately obscuring candidate details that indicate race or socioeconomic status — and partner with organizations that recruit from different sources. Also important is routinely analyzing the success of DEI hiring initiatives to see what’s working.
Integrating DEI principles is essential to building an effective talent pipeline built around diversity and long-term success. This can be created organically by deliberately creating opportunities for underrepresented groups so that they can grow their knowledge and skills. Such opportunities can include involving them in mentoring programs, giving them more responsibility and ensuring equitable promotion procedures. These tactics can build a pipeline that can stretch from the hiring process to the C-suite.
Developing a company culture that makes DEI and working together the norm is essential to building an environment that makes every employee feel welcome. This can be developed through corporate team-building events or long-term developmental strategies, such as mentoring systems or employee training. It can also be achieved through policies such as incorporating inclusive language in the workplace and establishing gender-neutral bathrooms.
Leaders can use their skills to help those in management positions identify and approach opportunities to build diverse, meaningful work relationships and further cultivate a DEI culture. This can help expand and solidify the presence of DEI principles in leadership across organizations.
Successes stemming from DEI initiatives should be celebrated. This is why leadership trainees need to learn to recognize positive behaviors that directly exemplify DEI principles, such as honesty, kindness and a willingness to listen and adapt. Such recognition may inspire other workers to mirror these behaviors and can, in turn, improve the chances of an organization reaping the benefits associated with DEI.
Leaders can explore the following resources for developing DEI strategies in the workplace:
The American population — and workforce — is more diverse than ever, and this trend will only continue. For businesses, developing leaders who demonstrate and encourage DEI principles can give them an advantage in finding, nurturing and retaining top talent. Embracing DEI is both the right thing to do from an ethical perspective and the smart thing to do from an organizational standpoint.
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Learn more about the importance of excellent training and development, discover how strong leaders can be positive change agents in talent development and consider how a doctorate of education (Ed.D.) can equip professionals to lead in hiring and retaining top talent.
In a rapidly evolving marketplace and increasingly polarized society, organizations are looking for the types of leaders who regularly seek to improve their leadership skills for the sake of their employees and those their organization serves.
More than ever, it takes strong organizational leadership skills to transform organizations and communities. But what is organizational leadership exactly, and why is it important?
The stories of our students each represent the powerful, embodied outcomes of an Ed.D program for professional leaders. Their examples—and those of many others—reveal the profound positive benefits of earning a doctorate in leadership.
By learning more about leadership styles and considering transformational leadership examples, professionals can identify and develop the skills they need to become effective change agents.
The first step in creating a safe learning environment is to prioritize students’ emotional and physical safety. Read more about school safety plan benefits.
Originally published on September 7, 2023, and refreshed on May 17, 2023.
Students have more to worry about than ever before, and their education leaders are concerned about it. A recent study revealed that 90% of school district leaders have either “moderate” or “major” concerns about students’ mental health.
For example, generalized anxiety in students is on the rise in tandem with the stress of returning to the classroom post-lockdowns, the barrage of news related to mass school shootings and increased reports of cyberbullying. Researchers have found that while emotionally unsafe academic environments lead to stress, poor attendance and lower academic performance in students’ engagement, schools deemed to be emotionally safe are linked to good identity development, positive learning experiences and a greater sense of self-worth in students.
Professionals interested in pursuing education leadership career paths must ensure that fostering mental and emotional health matters just as greatly as fostering academic success. Completing an advanced education such as a Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) can prepare graduates with the skills to provide students with a positive learning experience.
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Worrying about students’ well-being daily is a heavy burden for education leaders who want to see their students and schools thrive.
Just as leaders need to ensure physical safety in schools, they should also proactively work to foster an emotionally safe environment. Recent insights into the state of students’ sense of well-being in schools has revealed the following:
It is paramount that education leaders step up to create plans to help both their students and teachers thrive. Below are just a few of the ways for leadership to create a safe school environment.
While the past several years have brought mental health conversations to the forefront of American culture, there is still a significant stigma around issues like anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts. The stigma has detrimental effects, including relationship conflicts, bullying and reluctance to seek support or treatment. In fact, only one in five children with diagnosable mental health issues receive support, and 67% of people aged 18–24 who suffer from anxiety or depression don't seek treatment.
By talking about mental health in informative, inclusive ways, education leaders can reduce stigma and encourage students to pursue support. School leaders can address mental health stigma by:
Education leaders can’t take on the full burden of addressing mental health issues on their campus by themselves, but by working with key professionals like counselors, social workers and other experts, they can make a significant difference in the mental well-being of the students they serve.
While principals and other high-level education leaders have some direct connection with students, they do not spend as much time in contact with students as teachers and other support staff. Therefore, one of the best ways for principals, deans and other school leaders to foster a safe school environment is by ensuring that teachers and support staff are receiving training, resources and support in key areas of emotional student well-being. In addition to benefiting teachers, staff and students, these offerings also help education leaders themselves as they can rely on the expertise of their teachers and staff to a greater degree.
By implementing opportunities for teacher and support staff professional growth, education leaders can ensure that school staff know they are valued and that their leaders want them to grow. Professional development opportunities for teachers that can empower them to create a safe learning environment for students may include:
When training and professional development are delivered in a one-size-fits-all manner, it can feel like just one more thing teachers and support staff have to get done. But by delivering opportunities that are uniquely suited to the needs of a certain campus, education leaders can better train their educators and let those educators know that their leaders are intentionally addressing their specific needs.
To create a safe school environment for all students, education leaders need to consider the specific student populations they are responsible for educating. For example, an elementary school in a rural Midwestern community will not have the same needs as a downtown Chicago high school, and the leaders of those schools must understand their students’ specific needs in order to implement emotional safety solutions that will work for them.
Additionally, within a school, there will be a range of learning styles, home lives and academic goals among students. Principals and higher education leaders can foster equity and inclusion for students by encouraging teachers to present content in multiple ways and ensuring that accommodations are offered, implemented and maintained for students who need them.
Supporting specific student populations in school may look like:
By recognizing and uniquely supporting students from specific populations, school leaders can help prevent students who might otherwise be overlooked from falling through the cracks.With support, these students can succeed as valued members of the school community and beyond.
The National Center on Safe Supporting Learning Environments reports that schools that have a school safety plan aimed at protecting students from bullying, exposure to weapons, the sale and use of drugs, harassment and violence have better student outcomes. While establishing emotional safety in schools may not be an education leader’s easiest task, it is achievable. By starting with examples from fellow leaders and academic institutions, education leaders can find the encouragement, ideas and support they need to foster a safe school environment.
For example, back in 2011, the Adams-Friendship Area Schools in Wisconsin recognized they needed to tackle system issues in their school environments. This rural community implemented a curriculum that gave teachers scripted lessons and supplementary kits on topics like drug education and anti-bullying. The program led to positive outcomes such as:
When people have a sense of community, they are likely to be healthier than people who do not. Lacking a sense of belonging is associated with stress, illness, decreased well-being and depression. Education leaders can foster a safe learning environment for students by empowering teachers to build community within their classrooms and throughout the school as a whole.
Here are a few examples of how educators build community in their classrooms and schools:
Education leaders like principals can also build community in their schools by seeking advice from teachers, parents and students. In doing so, leaders can communicate that they value collaboration — a key component of a flourishing community.
When education leaders cultivate an environment of celebrating student achievements, they tend to see positive effects like increased student motivation, greater student self-esteem and more positive classroom environments. At the elementary, middle and high school levels, celebrating student achievements school-wide may look like posting student art or essays in the hallway. At the collegiate level, a celebration of student achievements could look like an email celebrating recently acquired internships or insightful student projects.
The celebration of student achievements also creates an opportunity for education leaders to communicate their holistic vision for student education. Rather than only celebrating academic successes, leaders can praise students for volunteerism, kindness to fellow students or achievements in the arts or athletics.
Additional examples of celebrating student achievements include:
As education leaders build a safe learning environment by celebrating student achievements, they are also encouraging students to notice and encourage the successes of others.
From elementary schools to college campuses, today’s students need education leaders who are invested in their emotional safety. Through innovative approaches to issues like reducing mental health stigma and intentional efforts to build community and celebrate students, leaders in education can empower their students emotionally, mentally and academically. Something as simple as an encouraging email or as grand as a campus-wide event can speak volumes to students and build a safe learning environment that lasts.
Marymount’s part-time, fully online and accredited Ed.D. program offers a highly personalized and accelerated cohort model, one committed to building a sense of community, support and safety. Coursework in leadership, organizational change and social justice empowers Ed.D. students to be agents of transformation in their schools. For instance, take David Slater — a campus principal who recognizes that innovation is a primary component of successful educational leadership today.
“The organizational innovation component of this degree program was also a big factor for me,” Slater said. “So much of what education leaders are called on to do these days transcends the traditional administrative functions and asks us to reimagine, reframe and redesign what has been done before to generate improved student outcomes.”
An innovative approach to emotional safety in schools can make a positive change in the lives of students and whole communities. Prepare to lead that change by connecting with a Marymount admissions advisor and learning if the Marymount doctoral program in Education is right for you.
What are some of the most significant innovations in higher education? Explore some of the most recent advances empowering academic efficiency and success.
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