Inclusive leadership in STEM, Biotech and Pharma

Building inclusive cultures is critical, powerful work that is long overdue. If everyone sees the world through the same lens, innovation and customer focus will fail. Famously, Mothercare was lacking mothers at the top, as it hit the skids forever. Driving inclusion takes commitment, belief and drive. Organisations simply perform better when everyone feels they belong.

Where does Clearworks fit into the inclusive leadership landscape?

If some people feel they belong more than others in your STEM organisation, we can help. Working alongside great D&I strategy, and real leadership commitment to change, we believe that group coaching conversations are the best way to truly bring about real change in the behaviours of Inclusive Leadership. The very nature of group coaching brings exquisite listening, non-judgemental working, turn-taking, deep curiosity and courage. By building a tight contract, held in place by an experienced coach, psychological safety can be guaranteed such that great conversations can flow. Diagnostic conversations and Coaching Circles are our speciality.

Every psychological model that refers to human wellness and psychological safety will reference the state of ‘belonging’; of ‘relatedness’; of ‘inclusion’. We’ve been in the world of people development long enough to see the limitations of webinars, training courses and self-development in developing inclusive leadership. If you want your leaders to become inclusive leaders, to their very bones, it’s the big conversations that will do it.

At Clearworks, we’re thrilled and excited that the world seems to be finally accelerating conversations around diversity and inclusion, but the pace is miles away from where it needs to be. We know where our expertise lies, and we know the impact of coaching circles in sustaining inclusive cultures. We’re committed to building inclusive thinking and planning across our own organisation and can support you to do the same. Please read more about Clearworks Coaching Circles which can be delivered to all leaders or to specialist groups with a shared purpose or mission, or to those with protected characteristics and their teams.

Are we the team for you?

    If you are:
  • Already building inclusive cultures and keen to embed and accelerate change
  • Looking for ways to support your D&I strategy in practical ways
  • Promoting behaviours of inclusive leadership: listening, positive regard, non-judgement
  • Looking to connect leaders across your organisation to build connection and inclusion
  • Seeking affordable approaches to this big challenge

The Clearworks way…

Clearworks Coaching Circles

Focus on Inclusive Leadership characteristics and behaviours, across the whole leadership population or in specialist groups.


Recent examples…

Building Belonging

As we delivered the Clearworks Coaching Circles for women in the pharmaceutical sector we came to realise the secondary benefit of working in this way: The strong contract of equity, community, belonging and listening meant that every person’s time and space was honoured and the conversations and reflections could be brave and challenging without risk. As a result of this, we now offer Coaching Circles as a key tool in embedding and sustaining inclusive leadership strategies, from breaking down silos to raising understanding of how others work. Bringing groups who are the same or different together, to work in safety with an experienced Circles Coach can lead to transformational conversations and actions. Ethinicity, age, gender, physical ability, neurodiversity, race, even part-time working, based in a different country, introvert or extrovert – any characteristic or preference is enabled to belong.

Building Understanding at the Top

In one of the organisations where we ran Circles for women, we heard stories of inequality and gender bias coming from the top teams. Members of the coaching group were supported to broker a meeting which enabled us to facilitate a programme with the Board, to bridge the gap in their understanding of the issues for women, and particularly women of colour in their organisation. Focus groups and interviews allowed us to gather anecdotes to build an interactive coaching session for the Board, exploring local experiences, themes of bias and to understand the commercial benefit of building inclusive leadership. As a result, recruitment practices have been changed, Board members took individual commitments to make specific change in their own behaviours and business areas and a reverse mentoring programme has been set up.