33 © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022 J. Marques (ed.), Innovative Leadership in Times of Compelling Changes, Management, Change, Strategy and Positive Leadership, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-67258-4_3 Chapter 3 Inclusive Leadership in an Increasingly Diversifed World Babar Dharani and Kurt April Abstract An instinctive in-grouping and out-grouping of people by our psyche is a form of an adaptive ‘fxation’ that can lead to immense suffering for those excluded. Exposure to diversity is a foundational step to break free from this fxation, which has been supported by social movements pioneered by iconic leaders and is now vastly regulated through legislation, moral inclinations, as well as an acute recogni- tion of the benefts of diversity to groups and organizations. Therefore, the role of leadership in enhancing diversity is proven and profound. However, the needs have now shifted to enhancing inclusion. While a concise defnition of ‘inclusive leader- ship’ is under debate and overlaps yet differentiates itself from other forms of lead- ership, it is embedded in ensuring justice and equity, enabling people to belong to a group while helping them preserve their uniqueness, becoming conscious of one’s own privileges, as well as fnding the voice to express our concerns and opinions skilfully when out-grouped. Inclusive leadership emanates at all levels in an organi- zation, from top management to managerial levels, as well as at an employee level— from those belonging to privileged groups to those being out-grouped/marginalized. Collective leadership initiatives from all levels can allow for enhanced inclusivity. Keywords Group dynamics · Exclusion · Diversity · Inclusion · Inclusive leadership Introduction Theories of group dynamics (Friedkin & Johnsen, 2011; Lewin, 1947) highlight that when we interact with others, we tend to marginalize and out-group some peo- ple and include and in-group others (Tajfel et al., 1971), or revert to purposeful social distancing (April et al., 2013). In-grouping leads to inclusion, while B. Dharani (*) · K. April University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa