The other day I saw an excellent article that talked about what it takes for females to join the C-suite. While a good read, I think it fell short of addressing an equally important issue, inclusion.

I’ve seen too many cases where leaders seem to think they’re doing good because they have diversity on the team. They will proudly point out the number of non-white people or the balance between genders. Truthfully, though, diversity is nothing more than window dressing without inclusion.

Inclusion requires people to recognize and confront their internal conflict, which is preventing inclusion from happening. The best way I know to start disarming the internal conflict is to talk with people. Get to know them and begin to discredit the assumptions you’ve formed throughout your life. Only once this happens will you start to reap the benefits of inclusion.

You’ve got this.