Her question to us was: "What are your core leadership values, and how do you centre them in pursuit of inclusive leadership?"

This question has two elements for consideration, and both can be broken down to explore all aspects the question is aiming to draw out. Leadership as a general concept takes many forms - sometimes authority alone is enough to be a leader for example. However, this fails to incorporate how a person should lead. For me, true leadership hinges on trust. People should not choose to follow a person because they must, but they should follow them because they choose for themselves that they want to. This desire to follow comes from trusting the capabilities and judgement of a leader, so clearly trust is a core concept. I think that trust is not something that is needed for a relationship between two persons - I believe it is a product that demonstrates the strength already existing in the relationship. Leaders are trusted because they have already earned respect, and they earn respect by conducting themselves in line with principles and characteristics that resonate with the people they lead. This means that not everyone will necessarily be drawn to the same leader - a profit-maximising oil entrepreneur would likely be able to lead like-minded people far more easily than they could lead a group of climate activists. A few interesting ideas can come be taken from this:

(i) a good leader would benefit from having emotional intelligence to recognise what is meaningful to the people they intend to lead, and they should aim to incorporate these ideas and principles into the overarching aim they are leading towards.

(ii) ethics are an ideal way to earn the trust of people. Leading ethically and inclusively means people feel valued. Principles that often exist to protect someone or something are not desecrated. On the contrary, objectives become contingent on their preservation. These objectives are unifying, and unanimity is a powerful device when working towards a goal.

(iii) a leader must be able to make the right decision under pressure. Whether a decision was truly right or not on the facts can only be reviewed retrospectively. For a decision to be right in the moment, it must be justifiable objectively under scrutiny, where the scrutiniser can be assumed to be any reasonable person consisting of the average beliefs and knowledge of the general population. Personal emotions should be detachable from the situation in question, whilst emotions of the stakeholders directly involved in the situation should be of the highest concern to a good leader.

In light of these, how should a good leader go about incorporating these core leadership values into their conduct in order to maintain inclusivity? They must appreciate the value of every individual, and separately, the value of a group of individuals working together. Voices should be heard, the environment should welcome the raising of concerns, and explanations should be given before any action is taken (should time permit so). They must not alone be capable of making decisions without the capacity to be challenged. They must not take it upon themselves to decide the value of anything without input from others.  A good leader leads because society requires as such. There should be no reason to have a leader but for the intrinsic value their leadership offers. Where society could function without a leader, that leader should no long assume a responsibility to lead.  

All of these are just a few ideas as to what leadership should entail, not what leadership must entail. It is a leader's responsibility to not lose sight of the value of the trust they have earned. Leading without trust is no different to deciding on behalf of - a concept not mutually exclusive to leadership, but far from identical also.