Essential Ingredients for Leadership

Written By Nooreen Rahemtullah

The world doesn’t pause at the workplace door.

Whether it’s inflation, targeted violence, or climate instability external tensions don’t stay outside. They shape how we feel, how we communicate, and how we show up for our teams. In today’s climate, inclusive leadership calls for more than just strategy. It demands empathy, clarity, and alignment with our core organizational values.

So, we turned to you our community of leaders to find out: What does it really feel like to lead during times of conflict and uncertainty?

Over 100 leaders took part in our recent survey, and many joined a live focus group. You showed up with honesty, insight, and courage. And we listened. Here are five core insights that emerged:

1. Confidence Is Present But It’s Being Tested

Most leaders expressed a baseline confidence in leading their teams - 66% of respondents indicated that they are confident or highly confident in their abilities to lead their team during times of conflict. But that confidence is tested when external realities clash with internal workplace policies or when organizational values feel unclear.

Leaders are asking for:

  • Clearer equity-based policies that reflect today’s challenges

  • Space for reflective leadership practices

  • Decision-making that aligns with stated DEI values

In short, confidence thrives in clarity, consistency, and inclusive leadership strategies.



2. Conflict Resolution Needs Real-World Tools

66.7% of participants consistently expressed that conflict resolution in the workplace is essential for supporting team members and needs to be part of formal leadership development training. Leaders shared that confidence wavers when their personal beliefs are in direct conflict with others or with the organization itself.

What we heard:

  • Many leaders feel unprepared to mediate value-based disagreements at work

  • Team leads are looking to their supervisors to model how to engage in healthy conflict resolution

  • Teams want open, honest dialogue in the workplace - not avoidance or silence

Leaders want support that moves beyond policy into practical DEI training solutions.


3. Emotional Intelligence Is the #1 Leadership Skill

Of all the qualities named, emotional intelligence (EI) was cited most often (at a rate of 88.5% of all respondents) as essential to leading through conflict.

Leaders emphasized the importance of:

  • Practicing empathy in leadership without overextending themselves

  • Setting and respecting emotional boundaries at work

  • Listening non-defensively, especially when stakes feel high

In today’s environment, emotional intelligence in the workplace is more than a soft skill - it’s a leadership necessity and a cornerstone of effective DEI implementation.

4. Psychological Safety and Belonging Need Intentional Care

Leaders are feeling the emotional toll of external conflict and so are their teams. Balancing employee performance with emotional wellbeing - grief, anger, or fatigue - is not easy.

What leaders shared:

  • There’s a need for models that support emotional wellbeing in leadership and accountability

  • People want to feel psychologically safe enough to share what they’re going through

  • Belonging isn’t just a value it has to be practiced in every interaction

Supporting inclusive workplace culture through disruption means making space for their full selves.

5. Mentorship and Peer Support Are Essential

More than half of participants indicated that leaders need safe spaces to engage in peer-based learning - especially when navigating polarizing workplace issues. They want peer mentorship programs and real-time leadership development.

Recommendations included:

  • Brave space circles for leadership reflection to share, process, and problem-solve

  • Peer coaching models that prioritize support over perfection

  • Accessible, community-based leadership forums to build leadership muscle together

The ask is simple: create spaces where leaders can grow with not in isolation from each other.


Interested in learning more?  Be the first to read our white paper on Leading During Times of Conflict.  Sign up to Curated Insights, our weekly newsletter to help you build a more inclusive workplace. 

Nooreen Rahemtullah

Nooreen holds a Masters of Education in Educational Leadership and Policy. Her academic work explored looking at gender in policy, decolonizing the Ontario Arts Curriculums, and anti-colonial pedagogies in the classroom.
As an advocate of education through experience, she believes in the power and necessity of oral histories as a way of being and learning. She is a fierce critical feminist of reclaiming narratives of pop culture and within her faith.