Ultimately, every individual in the workforce is responsible for making the people around them feel safe and valued. This includes managers, teammates, colleagues in other departments, upper leadership — everyone. When values of equity and respect are firmly established, they become something that each employee feels personally responsible to uphold. A mistake that’s commonly made across all industries is that organizations leave it up to HR to foster inclusive environments. When CEOs delegate the “inclusion project” to their people team, they can inadvertently send the message that it isn’t a personal priority for them as a business leader. An organization’s staff look to leadership for guidance not just on the company’s vision and mission, but also its values and ethics. Inclusion should be central to the operations and direction of any business that wants to invest in it. While diversity training and equitable values, policies, and structures are essential, efforts need to be made at both an organizational and a team level to build an inclusive culture. Team dynamics and employees’ sense of psychological safety play a big role in feeling respected and valued at work, and this is where management comes in. Managers have a direct impact on the employee experience, so they must make inclusion a priority and demonstrate fairness in their management style.