Drama Led Inclusive Leadership  

Are you looking to implement a new change to improve your team and make your leaders more effective at being fair and inclusive? The purpose of our drama-led inclusive leadership training is to utilise theatre to equip leaders in various industries with the skills and knowledge to do just that. Effective leadership leads to improved staff morale and retention and creates a safe and happy environment for all. 

If you’re looking to bring about a behavioural change, our team can help, regardless of what level you wish for the change to take place at. By drawing on the power of theatre, we seek to forge better leaders who lead by example. We can help your business achieve its goals, creating a dynamic and inclusive workplace where everyone feels heard and respected. 

Should you wish to learn more or discuss your company’s needs with a member of our knowledgeable team, call Steps today on +44 (0) 20 7403 9000. 

An Introduction to Drama-Led Inclusive Leadership  

Here at Steps, we recognise the importance of maintaining a healthy, happy, and productive working environment. Toxic environments will have a detrimental impact on employee morale. Often, this can be the result of poor leadership with leaders who fail to act in a way that’s conducive to their employee’s happiness and feelings of worth. 

The most inclusive leaders recognise that it’s not all about them and that the secret to success lies with those they lead. After all, it’s their subordinates that deliver the goods, take care of the clients, handle the logistics, design, and make the products, maintain those critical systems, and understand what’s happening and ways to improve the situation. 

Inclusive leaders understand this entirely and so take it upon themselves to lead by example by empowering those beneath them to do their best work. This could take the form of positive acknowledgement and reinforcement. It could take the form of rewarding and coaching. It could even take the form of promotion of vital skills, in-house training, and a focus on development and recognition. 

At the end of the day, you’re looking after a group of people with a set of skills and capabilities that are vital to the business’s success. The purpose of drama-led inclusive leadership training is to hold a mirror up to the various toxic behaviours that often permeate management. Theatre has been shown as an effective way to put behaviours into context and to help bring about much-needed change. 

Our inclusive leadership programme is geared towards bringing about exactly what’s needed to forge better leaders and happier teams. We’ve put together drama-led inclusive leadership videos and framework that blends live-action drama, group exercises, and powerful conversations that unlock the root cause of conflicts that many companies face. 

The idea is to inspire participants to recognise, take ownership of, and make the changes necessary to make for a more inclusive working environment. 

What Exactly Is Drama-Led Inclusive Leadership?  

Many businesses operate with a sort of ‘command and control’ culture that’s driven by corporate strategy. This is often centred on achieving results, outcomes, improvements, etc., and focuses the least on the workplace culture. The problem is that this approach can often foster toxic elements and create a lack of inclusivity that can leave employees feeling unhappy, undervalued, and unappreciated. 

Many training programmes are set up to address this by focusing on the (useful) theories and strategies of effective leadership and management. However, these programmes lack one vital component – how to make the learning experience really pop for each individual, including those in leadership roles. That’s where using theatre can serve to make the lessons learnt a part of the company’s culture moving forward. 

Our approach here at Steps is to engage the hearts and minds of leaders and managers, providing them with an opportunity to understand what it really means to lead by example. We show them how to be a culture carrier in the context of who they are and their role and how to instil these values into those they lead. We leverage the power of theatre to really put these lessons into focus, forging better leaders. 

Our drama-led inclusive leadership training draws on our Steps to Change methodology to guide the developmental journey of each candidate. Leaders are challenged to recognise and take ownership of their behaviours. They are shown a different set of behaviours and introduced to theories and strategies that will support them to live the change. 

Drama-led inclusive leadership training develops the personal and interpersonal skills of leaders, giving them the skills to motivate, coach, and give effective feedback to their subordinates. It equips leaders to develop and support those they lead while instigating the creation of an inclusive culture that leaves employees feeling happy, heard, and valued. 

We can support a leader’s journey in a variety of ways, including: 

• Facilitating Development and Assessment Centres 
• Executive Level Coaching 
• Developing Performance and Feedback Skills 
• Inclusive Leadership 
• Leadership Responsibility in Regulated Environments 

Importance of Inclusive Leadership Training  

Often there is a drive to introduce initiates in an attempt to innovate, but sadly these initiates often fall short. The simple reason is that effective leadership is needed to see these initiates through to implementation. And for leaders to be effective, they must be inclusive and willing to instigate conditions for new insights to emerge, for diverse perspectives to be heard, and for great ideas to surface and be implemented. 

This is why inclusive leadership is so important. It’s necessary for ensuring that diverse thinking is embraced, managed, heard, and applied. A leader who’s truly inclusive will understand how different people think and react to change; said leaders would be well-placed to communicate and influence in a way that encourages everyone to embrace new ideas and new ways of doing things. 

Cognitive diversity is an invaluable asset to any company, but it only works if every thinker is heard. A skilled leader is necessary the more diverse a team becomes. Inclusive leaders play a vital role in reducing unproductive conflict, encouraging different perspectives, and ensuring that all contributions are heard and respected. 

Inclusive leaders are experts at forging teams set up for creative and innovative thinking, edging them towards success. This includes articulating the “why” while providing employees with guidelines, frameworks, and a toolkit to help them collaborate efficiently, consider different ideas and drive creative thinking. 

Inclusive leadership training is important for recognising that mindsets often create barriers to change. Change can be viewed differently from one person to the next. Inclusive leaders proactively address questions and concerns that matter most to different people. They make sure that each person has enough information to avoid them “filling in the blanks” and reaching incorrect conclusions. This helps offset discomfort, anxiety, and uncertainty that employees may often experience. 

Generating ideas is important, but if you fail to execute these ideas, this becomes a pointless exercise. This can prove demoralising and off-putting to those who came up with the ideas. Inclusive leadership training is important to ensure that leaders are including the right mix of thinkers, tools, and training to ensure successful progression from idea to implementation and business impact. 

As you can tell from the above, inclusive leadership training is very important and utilising theatre is an effective way to make significant progress towards a better workplace culture. 

How Inclusive Leadership Training Can Benefit Employers  

Now that you’ve had a chance to learn more about drama-led inclusive leadership training, you might be wondering how exactly it will benefit your organisation. Our theatre-based training helps your leaders embrace the notion of diverse thinking. It helps leaders acknowledge and understand how individuals think and react to change, equipping them with the means to communicate and influence in a positive way. 

Our approach is to leverage the use of live and media-based drama to challenge issues, including unconscious bias. Nobody is made to feel attacked or put on the spot – the training is intended to be honest, enjoyable, engaging, and enlightening. Using theatre has been proven to be highly effective and bringing about positive change. How it benefits employers is through the following: 

• Happier and More Engaged Staff 
• More Confident Staff 
• Improved Staff Retention 
• Improved Decision Making 
• Reduced Work-Related Issues 

By instigating a more diverse and harmonious environment, employees will feel respected, heard, and valued. New ideas will be readily embraced, and employees will be far more open to changing the way they do things.  

Employees will be far more confident with coming forward with great new ideas and concepts. An inclusive leader recognises how to draw out the best qualities of each individual, ensuring the right mix of talent, tools, and training to bring about positive results for the company. 

It should be noted that if employees are happy, they are far less likely to leave the company. Employee retention is invaluable for building solid, experienced teams that understand your business and clients. This, in turn, enables you to deliver the best possible service, ensuring the long-term success of the business. 

Inclusive leaders are far more likely to make better, more informed decisions. Because they are able to engage in diverse thinking, they are, in turn, better equipped to communicate and influence in a way that’s meaningful. With the knowledge and understanding that comes from inclusive leadership training, leaders have the tools needed to make better choices that benefit the business and employees. 

Using theatre as an educational tool is a fantastic way of offsetting many workplace issues that often arise. Drama led training provides the necessary emotional “punch” that puts negative behaviours into context. By witnessing these behaviours, individuals are more likely to take ownership and recognise the need for change. This can, in turn, eliminate issues of bullying and harassment, creating a more harmonious working environment. 

Why Choose Steps Drama?  

Here at Steps, we’re committed to being the number one provider of quality training solutions that bring about much-needed positive change in workplaces throughout the world.  

We maintain a global presence offering drama-led inclusive leadership training to businesses operating around the world. Many of these businesses transcend different cultures, and many speak different languages. Because we operate in over 70 locations globally, it’s always been important for us to deliver truly diverse and inclusive training solutions. 

Our industry-leading training programmes are designed with cultural insight and awareness in mind. We have a core team operating worldwide with hubs and offices in: 

• UK 
• India 
• US 
• Europe 
• Asia Pacific 

Factoring logistics in can often prove time-consuming. The good news is that our programme takes this complex aspect and makes it both easy and seamless, providing global programmes that make all the difference. 

Because we operate in over 70 countries worldwide, it’s necessary for our programmes to be translated into many different languages and adapted for a multitude of cultures. Diversity sits at the heart of what we do, and we take immense pride in maintaining an excellent workplace culture here at Steps. We’re dedicated to the fair and equal treatment of our employees, ensuring that everyone is heard, respected, and is given the same opportunities to succeed. 

If you would like to learn more, we encourage you to check out our video resources. Here, you’ll find many useful insights and gain a greater understanding of what we do and how it can benefit your business. 

Diverse, Experienced and Highly Skilled Coaches

We take great pride in our excellent team of facilitators and coaches, all of whom are highly experienced and professionally trained. Our coaches and facilitators specialise in the application of our proven theatre methodologies within a learning and development context. All possess the relevant experience and awareness of how to apply various learning models and theories alongside theatre-based content. 

Every member of our team is carefully selected via an audition process. We recruit individuals with the right skills as roleplayers, facilitators, coaches, and writers to bring the necessary value and depth to our training programmes. Through regular engagement forums, such as development workshops, we ensure that our team members receive the necessary development. 

This ensures that we are continually maintaining our exceptionally high standards. We also take on board feedback and assume collective responsibility for implementing robust ways to deliver our programmes. 

We’re able to fully and credibly reflect the diversity within our clients’ organisations thanks to our diverse actor facilitator pool. Regardless of our industry, sector, or subject, we can provide team members with the necessary knowledge and experience. This includes delivering our programmes in a range of world languages. 

We recruit our team members from a diverse range of backgrounds, including professional actors, learning specialists, and senior business people. Our process ensures the right chemistry between coach and client and that a business-centred approach is adopted. Our highly skilled coaches take note of the outcomes and ensure a clear process to fulfil these outcomes. 

Bespoke Training for Every Client

At Steps, we recognise that there’s no “one-size-fits-all” approach when it comes to instigating positive change. Every organisation has different needs and realities that must be accounted for. And so, at Steps, we offer a flexible, bespoke approach, tailoring the drama-led inclusive leadership training that we provide. Our approach ensures that your employees receive the training that’s appropriate. 

Our programmes are available for all members of an organisation at all levels, from an apprentice on the lowest rung to those in the upper echelons of management and leadership. 

Contact Us  

At Steps, we’re committed to forging effective leaders that lead by example and foster a safe, happy and inclusive workplace environment. We work with companies of all shapes and sizes, providing inclusive leadership training through the use of theatre that’s proven highly effective. You should now be more familiar with our drama-based training and how it can benefit your employees, having read through the article above. 

If you would like to get in touch with Steps, you can do so by calling us on +44 (0) 20 7403 9000. You’ll speak directly to a member of our helpful, insightful team who will answer any questions you have concerning our inclusive leadership training programmes. Alternatively, you may prefer to get in touch using a written method; for instance, you may have a lengthy enquiry. You can do so by filling out our online contact form or emailing mail@stepsdrama.com. We’ll be in touch as soon as possible.