Quinn is a midlevel manager who does his best to create an inclusive team environment. He leads a group of seven employees who are diverse along a variety of dimensions. Quinn feels that he does his best to create opportunities for everyone to speak up during their weekly team meetings. He frequently asks for input on issues and decisions and takes the first 5–10 minutes each week to ask his team members to share updates about their personal lives to build trust and comfort among his team members.

Recently, however, Quinn has started to become concerned that two team members are not sharing much during meetings. These team members, Brett and Alex, both come prepared and offer input whenever they are asked directly. In addition, Brett has been leading a project and has been sharing updates on project goals each week very effectively. Still, Quinn has noticed that Brett and Alex are often quiet during the times when the rest of the team engages in a discussion in which team members have very different opinions. Indeed, sometimes these discussions can get a bit heated when people feel passionate about something. Truth be told, Quinn is proud of this and feels like this is an indication that the team is deeply engaged in their work. The conversations are never disrespectful in Quinn’s opinion, just naturally healthy task-related conflict that keeps the team energized.

Quinn decides to ask another team member, Shawn, who seems to have no trouble jumping into the conversations for thoughts on what could be done to better engage Brett and Alex in these debates. Shawn tells Quinn that some members of the team are just “quiet by nature” and could benefit from learning how to be more assertive during meetings. To help them do so, Shawn recommends enrolling Brett and Alex in a public-speaking or other type of communication skills training course.

Questions
1. What do you think is the underlying issue within this team?
2. Based on the leader behaviors identified in the Model of Inclusive Leadership, what should Quinn do to make team meetings more inclusive for everyone?
3. Since inclusion is the responsibility of everyone, not just the leader’s, what can other team members do to help create a more inclusive team environment?
4. This particular case involves only male coworkers. In what ways might your answers change if Quinn were Lynn (a woman) or if Brett and Alex were women reporting to a male supervisor?

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

The underlying issue within this team seems to be a communication and participation style difference among team members While some team members are comfortable and assertive in expressing their opinio... View the full answer