Leadership doesn’t happen in isolation. It emerges when different perspectives collide, when lived experiences shape decisions, and when inclusion becomes the engine that drives innovation forward.
In our DEI conversations, we’re still obsessed with the numbers game. Hiring quotas, demographic targets, percentage breakdowns on dashboards. But here’s what I’ve learned after two decades in this space: genuine inclusion can’t be captured in a spreadsheet. It’s not about who’s visible in the room, it’s about whose voices actually influence what happens next. And that requires us to grapple with something more nuanced: intersectionality.
Legal scholar Kimberlé Crenshaw gave us this framework to understand how overlapping identities create unique experiences. A Black woman doesn’t simply face racism plus sexism; she navigates something entirely distinct at that intersection. When we build leadership strategies around this reality, we move beyond surface-level diversity toward something transformational.
The organisations getting this right aren’t just changing their headcount. They’re cultivating teams with genuine empathy, creative thinking, and cultural intelligence that drives real business outcomes.
Why Our Current Approach Isn’t Working
Most corporate DEI efforts still operate in silos. Women’s leadership programmes here, ethnic diversity initiatives there, LGBTQ+ mentoring circles over there. These have their place, but they miss something crucial: the complex reality of how people actually experience the workplace.
Consider the woman of colour moving up your leadership pipeline. She might access support through women’s networks or ethnic minority programmes, yet neither addresses the specific challenges she faces at the intersection of both identities. The microaggressions, the cultural assumptions, the double bind of being both “too aggressive” and “not assertive enough” depending on who’s watching.
Without understanding these intersections, even well-meaning initiatives can leave people feeling partially seen at best. Worse, they can inadvertently preserve the status quo while we pat ourselves on the back for our diversity metrics.
The Intersectional Leadership Advantage
Intersectionality isn’t academic theory. It’s a practical leadership tool that helps you see what others miss and build cultures where people genuinely thrive.
Leaders who embrace this approach consistently:
- Spot hidden biases: They recognise how layered identities create unique challenges and opportunities that single-lens approaches miss entirely.
- Create authentic belonging: Moving beyond representation to environments where people feel genuinely understood and valued for their complete selves.
- Drive better decisions: When teams reflect intersectional diversity and feel safe to contribute authentically, the quality of thinking improves dramatically.
Think of it like a well-conducted orchestra. Each musician brings something different, but the magic happens in how those differences harmonise to create something none could achieve alone.
Making Intersectionality Work in Practice
Right, so how do we actually do this? How do you embed intersectional thinking into your leadership development without it becoming another tick-box exercise?
Here’s where I’d start:
● Reimagine Your Succession Planning
Your leadership pipeline probably looks remarkably similar to what came before. Same backgrounds, same pathways, same unspoken criteria for “leadership potential.” If the people identifying future leaders all look the same, guess what your future leadership will look like?
Ask yourself:
- Are we defining leadership too narrowly based on historical norms?
- Do our promotion criteria inadvertently favour certain backgrounds or styles?
- Can everyone access meaningful mentoring and sponsorship, or do some identities get left out?
This isn’t about lowering standards. It’s about expanding your definition of what excellent leadership looks like in a complex world.
● Transform Leadership Development
Today’s leaders need more than strategic thinking and commercial acumen. They need cultural fluency, emotional intelligence, and the confidence to lead through influence rather than authority.
Effective leadership programmes now include:
- Deep exploration of intersectionality and its implications for team dynamics.
- Structured opportunities for leaders to examine their own assumptions and blind spots.
- Exposure to perspectives and experiences outside their usual circles.
You’re not trying to create flawless leaders. You’re developing thoughtful ones who can navigate complexity and build bridges across difference.
● Build Culture That Actually Includes
Culture isn’t your values statement on the wall. It’s what happens in team meetings, casual conversations, and moments when nobody’s watching. It’s shaped by leaders who create space not just for different people, but for different ways of thinking and being.
Practically, this means:
- Regular, honest conversations about identity and belonging that go beyond awareness raising.
- Employee resource groups that reflect intersectional realities, not just single-identity categories.
- Celebrating the full spectrum of what matters to your people, not just the holidays everyone already knows.
Inclusion is a daily practice. It becomes natural when leaders model it consistently, without making a production of it.
● Connect Inclusion to Business Results
Here’s the compelling bit: intersectional leadership isn’t just morally right, it’s commercially smart. Diverse executive teams consistently outperform, innovate more effectively, and adapt faster to change.
Make this connection explicit by:
- Including diverse perspectives in product development and service design from the start.
- Ensuring your marketing reflects the multifaceted reality of your customers.
- Leveraging insights from underrepresented leaders to identify new opportunities and markets.
Intersectionality doesn’t just improve your internal culture. It expands your market relevance and competitive advantage.
Leadership for a Complex World
We’re moving into an era where your job title matters less than your ability to unlock potential in others. Where leadership success is measured by connection, not control.
Intersectionality reminds us that people are beautifully complex. When leadership development reflects that complexity rather than trying to simplify it away, we create teams that aren’t just more diverse on paper. They’re more adaptable, creative and effective in practice.
The question isn’t whether you can afford to embrace intersectional leadership. It’s whether you can afford to keep operating as if people are simpler than they actually are.
Ready to Lead Differently?
If this resonates with your experience, you’re part of a growing movement of HR professionals and leaders who understand that the future belongs to organisations that can hold complexity gracefully.
I share weekly insights on building organisations that work for everyone, covering everything from leadership psychology to practical HR transformation. The focus is always on strategies that create genuine change, not just better optics.
Connect with me on LinkedIn for regular thoughts on what it takes to lead with authenticity and impact in today’s workplace. Let’s figure out how to do this better, together.
Because the best leadership happens when we acknowledge that people are never just one thing. And neither should our approach to developing them be.
