Inclusive Leadership Isn’t Easy | 030 | But It’s Essential
Re-imagining inclusion in higher education through the lens of paradox.
Sometimes one sharp insight is all we need to hold on, reset, or reengage with purpose.
Practical takeaways from the Student Success Podcast summarized so you don’t have to listen to the episode (unless you want to).
Episode with Dr. Bernardo Ferdman: Show Notes | Apple | Spotify
Dr. Bernardo Ferdman is a respected scholar-practitioner on inclusion, leadership, and diversity. A longtime expert on inclusive leadership development, his work spans academic research and hands-on consulting with organizations across sectors.
As educators and leaders, we aspire to build learning environments where everyone belongs and can contribute fully. Yet creating that kind of inclusion is rarely simple.
In his conversation on the Student Success Podcast, Dr. Bernardo Ferdman explores one of the most enduring challenges in education today: how to create genuine inclusion when the work of inclusion itself can trigger discomfort or resistance—even among those who value it most.
Key Takeaway: The Paradox of Inclusion
Drawing from his article, Paradoxes of Inclusion (2017), Dr. Ferdman introduces a core insight:
Inclusion requires both honoring group differences and building common ground.
Yet honoring difference can feel divisive, and emphasizing unity can feel like erasure.
This is the paradox:
We want every student, staff, and faculty member to be able to bring their authentic selves to the institution and to develop in way that is appropriate and meaningful to them.
But we also want to build a sense of shared community and purpose.
And sometimes, those two goals clash: visibly and emotionally.
As Dr. Ferdman puts it, inclusive leadership isn’t about avoiding this tension. It’s about recognizing that it’s built into the very nature and work of inclusion. The goal is not to eliminate the tension, but rather learning to work with and navigate it with awareness, curiosity, and compassion.
Why This Matters Now
In today’s political climate, where inclusion efforts are under attack and “diversity” has become a lightning rod, this paradox can be even more pronounced. For educators, these tensions play out in classrooms, committees, and policies every day.
Practitioners across higher ed are stuck in a bind:
If we emphasize or even address race, gender, or identity, we’re accused of being divisive.
If we emphasize generic unity, we risk erasing those very identities and ignoring the ways that identity and culture can relate to educational opportunity and experience.
This isn’t just a philosophical issue. It shows up in real campus decisions every day:
Who gets invited to the table, and who gets heard when they’re there?
What (and whose experiences) get counted as “valid” data or “credible” knowledge?
Who feels seen or represented in the curriculum, and who must adapt to belong?
What kinds of student behaviors or faculty discourse are deemed “professional” or “appropriate”?
Inclusive Leadership Requires Self-Work
Dr. Ferdman makes it clear: leaders and educators must do the inner work of navigating discomfort. He offers three powerful practices that educators can apply right away:
1. Embrace and Practice Both/And Thinking
Move beyond “either/or” thinking, such as “either we focus on group differences or we focus on unity,” and instead ask:
How do we make room for both in our planning, policies, and pedagogy?
In practice, this means designing classrooms, meetings, curricula, and student engagement efforts that welcome and hold complexity, rather than simplifying it for convenience.
2. Surface Hidden or Unspoken Norms
Every campus has unspoken rules about what counts as “normal,” “professional,” or “appropriate.” Naming those norms — and asking whose perspectives they serve — is a first step toward shifting them to make them more inclusive.
What’s considered “normal” on your campus?
Who gets centered or noticed in the classroom, at the committee table, in the data?
Naming these norms is the first step toward potentially shifting them to make them more inclusive.
3. Engage in Real Dialogue, Not Just Discussion
Many institutions default to “polite” conversations that avoid discomfort. True dialogue invites openness, listening, and mutual learning.
Ferdman argues for courageous conversations grounded in both truth and empathy. Inclusion grows when we can stay engaged even when it’s uncomfortable.
Action Prompts for Practitioners
Reflect
Think of a time when you felt you didn’t belong on your own campus, or excluded or silenced in an academic space. What made you feel that way? What contributed to that experience?
Discuss
In your next team meeting, ask: “Where do we see a paradox of inclusion here? What might it look like to lead through it here?”
Act
Identify a course, committee process, meeting format, or policy that you can reimagine to better reflect both difference and unity. Be specific.
Tools for Application
Read Ferdman’s article (Paradoxes of Inclusion, 2017) to explore the three paradoxes in full.
Listen to the full interview. Dr. Ferdman discuss how leaders across sectors can cultivate inclusion that is authentic, sustainable, and nuanced.
Start with your own circle of influence. Don’t wait for permission from the top. Inclusion starts in your own classroom, meeting, and interactions, not only in institutional plans.
Final Word
Dr. Ferdman’s message is clear and urgent:
Inclusion isn’t a checklist. It’s a continuous practice of holding contradictions: belonging and difference, comfort and discomfort, stability and change. It’s about doing the hard work of creating belonging and authenticity alongside shared purpose and mutual adaptation, without erasing either.
In a time when higher education is being pulled apart by fear, fatigue, and political agendas, this kind of grounded, paradox-embracing leadership is more necessary than ever.
Let’s keep doing the work.
And let’s connect on LinkedIn.
Onward…
Dr. Al Solano
Founder, Continuous Learning Institute | About
Host, Student Success Podcast
A meaningful test of success is how helpful we are in contributing to our fellow human being’s happiness.