From budding start-ups to well-known multinational brands, all the companies look for diverse talents and capabilities for building a team. Diversity in the cultural heritage of people along with age difference is what makes a good, rich and experienced team.

But does bringing a mix of people together alone guarantee high performance? We know it does not and if not handled carefully, such a team breaks into daily chaotic differences. 

A team requires inclusive leadership, a kind that makes all the members feel respected and valued, and cultivates a sense of belonging. It makes them confident and aspiring for more achievements.

It is important to understand that inclusive leaders make each team member believe that every person counts. If that sounds easy and simply good teamwork, it really is a lot more than that. To make such practice work in the day-to-day workplace, a leader has to break the conventional mindset. Sometimes, that is most tricky. 

It means moving on from conventional wisdom and routine practices. This might require setting goals in a different way, making the appraisal process more unbiased and moving on from routine hiring techniques. That means accepting suggestions or at least listening intently to colleagues. 

There are four traits every inclusive leader needs to develop. If you are a new business and team is relatively small, this should begin now.

Mettle: Taking each imperfection in your stride involves personal risk-taking. Inclusive leaders speak up and challenge the norms. Pass on or share the spotlight and still be humble about strengths and weaknesses. Such leaders are comfortable in acknowledging their personal limitations and will admit to making mistakes. It takes courage to show gender neutrality, religious tolerance and equal opportunity at work. At times, people crack jokes at your inclusivity. 

Being unbiased: Highly inclusive leaders are mindful of personal and organisational blind spots and self-regulate to help ensure fair play. They are aware of and understand personal biases. This enables them to make fair and merit-based decisions about talent. They follow processes to ensure that their personal biases do not influence decisions about others. 

They identify and address organisational processes that are inconsistent with merit and employ transparent, consistent and informed decision-making processes. They provide clear explanations of the processes and reasons for the decisions made. It's making the shift from emotional intelligence to emotional maturity that's really critical. 

Cultural intelligence: Diverse teams bring in a lot of cultural baggage. We may come across as almost insensitive when joking about food habits or facial features of particular states in India. With so much globalisation, cross-culture intelligence is even more necessary. Understanding that proverbial “just five minutes,” as per acceptable Indian norm can be frowned upon in Japan if it is beyond five minutes. More than knowing the different cultures, it is rather essential to understand that these differences are here to stay. Learn to respect that. 

Accountability: An inclusive leader can't just tell people they're accountable, and then leave them to it. They need to set up mentoring sessions, create checklists and make sure to handhold. At the same time, let people grow and allow them to make mistakes. It is strategic to let everyone know that they will be held accountable for the activities and the possible outcomes. This process is non-threatening, and hence, inclusivity is crucial. This also is the opportunity to offer praise and encouragement to move people further if things are going well.

Accountability is something that has to be worked upon. There has to be a clear and consistent roadmap with guideposts as how it is going to evolve and yet keep everyone involved. It starts with the leader but is applicable at all times and to everyone.

When you can implement such leadership, it will help you create a culture of inclusivity, with supportive team members where the organisation will have a very positive impact on performance and results. It still will make mistakes, but get into a learning and reflective mode with course corrections. That is where success lies. 

The writer is strategic advisor and premium educator with Harvard Business Publishing