Inclusive Leadership | Up for Discussion with Ron Sampaga

Today, we have a very special episode with our very own Ron Sampaga, hosted by Janet Ledger. Both are returning for this #cbspecial episode of Up For Discussion. With a passion for building inclusive workplaces and a wealth of experience in learning and development, Janet and Ron are dedicated to equipping leaders with the skills they need to create environments where everyone can thrive.

In this episode, we delve into:

• What inclusive leadership really means, and why it’s about more than just policies.
• The inspiration behind Community Business's Inclusive Leadership Programme, and Ron's personal connection to its mission.
• The key components of the programme, including how it helps leaders discover their strengths, address unconscious biases, and create psychological safety.
• The challenges that leaders face when trying to create more inclusive workplaces, particularly in the Asian context (changing deep-rooted cultural norms, recognising unconscious biases, etc.).
• Practical advice for leaders who are just starting out on their journey towards inclusive leadership, emphasising self-reflection, openness to feedback and authenticity.
• How inclusive leadership contributes to achieving gender equality in the workplace and why it's important to involve everyone, not just women.
• Practical actions for how to be an ally.

Join us as we explore Janet and Ron's insights on becoming a more inclusive leader and championing gender equality in the workplace. Tune in now!

Click below to find out more about our inclusive leadership programme:

[Janet Ledger]

Hi, my name is Janet Ledger and I'm the CEO of Community Business and I will be your podcast host for today's episode. It's a particularly special episode as this week we have International Women's Day. So today we're up for the discussion with Ron Sampagia, our very own Senior Manager Consulting, Training and Campaigns.

Ron brings his extensive experience in leadership communication and recruitment to his role with a Bachelor of Arts in Mass Communication and over 14 years in learning and development. Ron has tailored programmes that foster awareness on bias and allyship while embracing and enhancing employee engagement. He is a certified disc trainer and life coach who delivers impactful training sessions both in person and virtually across various markets in Asia.

Fluent in English and Filipino, Ron's engaging style makes him a sought-after speaker and we're proud to have him as part of the Community Business team. So welcome Ron.

[Ron Sampaga]

Thanks Janet, thanks for that introduction and I'm happy to be here in our upper discussion.

[Janet Ledger]

You're very welcome, so it's great to great to be talking to you about it. So because this is a programme we're all very passionate about, so you know you're deeply involved in Community Business's inclusive leadership programme. So to start with, to start like what is inclusive leadership?

Why and why is it so critical especially on a day like an International Women's Day?

[Ron Sampaga]

That's a very good question Janet. You know inclusive leadership is about creating an environment when everyone feels valued, respected. People can be themselves, right?

Being their authentic self and has the genuine opportunity to contribute in advance. This month we are celebrating International Women's Day. We highlighted the need for inclusive leadership because women have often been excluded from leadership roles or what has been you know been ignored.

It's about breaking down these barriers and creating a fairer environment for everyone. Actually a few days ago I read a news saying that it's actually the first time that women occupy more than one in five seats on the boards of Hong Kong-based companies. However, reports indicate that there's still significant gaps right in senior management roles and pay equity.

That's why inclusive leadership is very essential and this is not only for women. It's basically inclusive leadership is about everyone right including the minority groups. It's about recognising and celebrating the diverse perspective and experiences each person brings.

[Janet Ledger]

Yeah and I think in a lot of the rhetoric that's going around at the moment the message around inclusive practises after everybody seems to be getting lost in the messaging. So can you just tell us what inspired community business to develop this inclusive leadership programme?

[Ron Sampaga]

Definitely you know community business has been a leader in promoting diversity and inclusion in the job. We noticed a need for the programme like this you know it actually helps leaders to gain skills and create truly inclusive workplaces. Our goal is just to go beyond just discussing diversity and empower leaders to take action.

Actually Janet this one has there's a personal touch on this inclusive leadership you know within community business. I'm very happy to be involved with this especially when I'm a Filipino. I grew up in the Philippines.

I studied in the Philippines moving to Hong Kong. I don't even know what's inclusive leadership before but just to share my experience before I'm very lucky to to be part of an organisation on where when we're having a meeting they all speak in Cantonese but you know my boss stopped the meeting and says that oh we have Ron here you know in our room that he doesn't really understand what we're talking about. Can we just step back a little bit?

Let's take some time to translate that to him and I feel that I I feel belong within the organisation. I feel along with the conversation and and through this I feel that it's really important to have this kind of programme to to everyone and at the same time I feel that this is really a great chance for people to learn from different people in different industries you know that they can actually network and I feel that this is a rare opportunity. Not everyone can really have this kind of opportunity to learn from a different view of what are the best practises from other industries what there are the experience of other people that actually you may apply when you work with your team right.

So we would like to use this as a platform for them to explore and distribute sorry explore and discover different side of themselves when it comes to leadership. So and lastly for my last 14 years that I provide training in Asia Pacific I feel that not everyone have the chance to be trained. It can be not including the included leadership but in different types of training and this is a chance for the organisation to nominate promising leaders to attend the programme.

[Janet Ledger]

So that's great I mean you know those these are always the sorts of programmes that are just so great for people depending on what part of their career they're in and you know and I think if you're also I mean the the answer around inclusive work practises is you know I mean it's a it's complex in terms of there's lots of things that you could be doing but a lot of the times people don't understand what inclusive leadership means so it's you know it's it's great that we you know we've developed this programme.

So tell us a little bit more about the structure of the programme.

[Ron Sampaga]

When we you know crafted the initial draft of this programme we're like oh how what are the things that a leader should really understand or should really need to know about this programme and we've been doing a lot of inclusive leadership programmes to different organisations as well and we heard their feedback we heard their you know what are maybe the barriers that they're actually facing and collect all those feedback and opinion to this programme to make it very connected to the participants.

So here we will start more on discovering their strengths basically to find out their current and ideal leadership style along with the errors for improvement in inclusion right get helpful feedback from peers in different industries to boost their leadership skills and basically understand their impact to themselves at the same time to to their team and we would love to use this inclusive leadership you know to have this maybe strategies best practises which is very simple we don't want it to make it very complex because we want them to use it right away right you know when they're speaking with their teamwork to their organisation and analyse and practise real leadership scenarios to inspire own approach basically when when they have the chance to network from other people from other industries right they actually learn something from there and they can apply within their industry and the most special thing about this programme is they really can expand their network right connecting with participants from various industries who share the same commitment right we're talking about inclusion and building the kind of support network for future collaboration and growth so if you notice here our programme it really starts from themselves share their perspective share their experiences learn from other people and have that kind of collective inspiration from it and use that when you go back to your organisation when you go back to your team and hopefully that will help you to have a better communication and better management styles after the training attending this inclusive leadership programme.

[Janet Ledger]

Yeah because I mean quite often I know with all the best intent organisations have great policies but sometimes the leader the leaders who are in the line roles don't necessarily feel equipped to apply those and to also particularly with a diverse workforce so it's great you know we I know we've sort of structured this to help give them that kind of support. Just in terms of challenges so what are the sorts of challenges that we've uncovered that leaders face when they're actually trying to create more inclusive workplaces particularly in the Asian context because I know that's been a consideration in the development of the programme.

[Ron Sampaga]

Exactly you know it really plays a part that like for us here where we're committed business we're based here in Hong Kong at the same time in India we work with different clients not only in Asia Pacific but at the same time in Europe and in the USA but if you notice particularly in an Asian context there's one of the one of that's one of the big challenge actually because we have this changing deep-rooted cultural norms right in some Asian culture there's a strong focus on hierarchy and conformity making it hard to challenge the status quo.

Another challenge that I am seeing is actually recognising and addressing unconscious biases which can be hard to spot right that's why we always ask on the training are you conscious with your unconscious bias right and I feel that creating psychological safety in teams is also difficult it's easy to say okay we need to have a safe space for everyone but I feel that everyone needs to feel safe to share their ideas right being their authentic self because I feel like in a changing work landscape right now everyone is diverse everyone wants to be included right but how can we give that space for them to really share the right ideas. Finally Asia itself you know is very diverse diversity is a challenge what works in maybe in one market may not work in another market right same thing what work maybe in the in one particular industry may not work in another industry but sometimes we are actually surprised we think that way but sometimes even though we think that it will not work in this particular industry but you may be surprised that it may actually work that's why having this kind of different industry different experiences of our participants joining in one space will definitely hopefully will you know that kind of challenge that we're facing will dramatically change that to a positive outcome later on.

[Janet Ledger]

Thank you so what advice would you take or what advice sorry would you give to leaders who are just starting out on their journey towards being a more inclusive leader?

[Ron Sampaga]

I would say it really starts from us right start with self-reflection I would say that understanding your own biases and assumptions be open to feedback and ready to learn from others I would say it's not only for you to provide feedback but at the same time how you receive feedback from other people most importantly is being attentive right if you would love to have this kind of inclusive leadership it really be attentive people can actually easily sense in sincerity so that's why being attentive is very important it all begins with you with you with us basically inclusive leadership is not just about guiding the team but it's about your own growth and understanding so leadership starts within us.

[Janet Ledger]

Yeah I couldn't agree more I mean I mean I think that bias an unconscious bias is something that's often can be demonised and I don't feel it is something that should be demonised because it's the natural human condition to have your own preferences and your own biases it's how we function in life so you know understanding where those you know where those might be either blocking you or blocking how you show up for others is certainly something really important you know like it's I know having done when I was doing my studies and also in my previous organisation we did a fair bit of work digging in around our own unconscious biases and it's quite surprising when those are you confronted with those you know and I think but starting with your self-reflection is important because I think when you do start to gain some sort of awareness around what those biases might be you can take some action. Yeah okay now turning to International Women's Day how can inclusive leadership contribute to achieving gender equality in the workplace?

[Ron Sampaga]

I would say it's about actively and consistently create opportunities for women to advance ensure their voices are heard you know we challenge gender stereotypes inclusive leadership understand that gender equality is a business strategy that benefits everyone you know when I attended DNI summit recently even for some conferences in Hong Kong they always talk about intersectionality right like for example women have diverse experiences based on their race ethnicity sexual orientation gender identity disability and socioeconomic status we need to celebrate these differences and afflict marginalised voices you don't need to be part of that community yeah to be let's say an ally or to support something International Women's Day is actually for everyone we need to involve men right men should engage in events listen to women's experiences find ways to be a better allies use your voice to advocate for gender equality especially for myself personally you know I have a good relationship with my mom and my sister by understanding the way they think maybe why they do things like that why they're acting this way we could actually um rest I can actually resonate that and you know when I work in organisation I can bring that aspect that okay I have this kind of um relationship with my mom based on my mom how she thinks even in my sister I apply that in my daily life so let's be involved let's involve everyone actually it's not only about this International Women's Day it's only for women everyone can be involved in this and it's not only about celebrating it every for the month of March but I would say we need to have that kind of sustaining efforts beyond International Women's Day our commitment to gender equality should extend beyond a single day and work towards a more inclusive and equitable workplace every day and practise thoughtful partnership we need to stay curious we need to stay aware of what's currently happening and then bit by bit um you know share experience to other people and learn from other people experience as

[Janet Ledger]

well yeah I couldn't I think it's so important that men are on the journey around gender equality because you know it's it's only going to happen when that's the case because you know I think we all benefit when you lift women up you know and it's sort of and and so yeah I you know I couldn't agree more I think men the more men that are involved and and um and and our allies the better um one other point I guess I sort of think if I reflect on International Women's Day as well as around making sure that you know we compensate fairly but you know we we know that we do know globally that there's quite large um there's still gaps so you know I think it's it's important to recognise um that that as well in terms of International International Women's Day so but yeah lots of food for thought there just back on the programme then um so if someone is listening and they'd like to sign up for the programme how would you do that and and what are the costs or are there any discounts associated

[Ron Sampaga]

with the programme um basically the first thing is you know check this check the details in our website sign up on our website we normally put their link for us you know if you would like to register to get to know a little bit more about the programme um you can actually register there and we're happy to discuss that further maybe on the call and we're also going to be inputting the link will be in the text of this podcast we will be adding that um standard standard pricing for this inclusive leadership programme will be 3,500 US dollars for participants however we will provide an early bird discount until this end of this month March 31 we will provide 10% as early bird discount um for those people let's say two or more participants from from an organisation we will provide 15% discount and at the same time community business network members they will have 20% discount and it's actually a great use we will offer a special offer to non-profit organisations who will be participating on this programme we will give them that kind of offer and then feel free to reach to us and we're happy to let you know more about the details of

[Janet Ledger]

this programme thanks ron and thanks for sharing i mean this is an important offering for us because i guess we've we've we've understand that organisations may not be in a position to invest in large groups large group programmes such as this but the real beauty of this will be that network that it creates or that community it creates that's cross-industry um so you know by all means please do reach out to ron and the team if you're more if you're interested in more details on our programme um happy international women's day but let's keep the work up beyond international women's day and and finally ron thank you so much for um joining us for up for

[Ron Sampaga]

discussion today to talk about our new programme yeah it's my pleasure and you know so i'm so happy to be part of this offer discussion and talk about inclusive leadership thanks ron thank you

[Janet Ledger]

Thank you for listening to cb up for discussion for more information about our work across asia head to the community business website