EDI Leadership Toolkit
Effective health leadership is critical to advancing equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI). Women and gender diverse people have long been underrepresented in health settings. This toolkit encourages health leaders to adopt an EDI-lens and provides resources which can enhance one’s understanding of EDI or inspire ideas to improving EDI in the health sector. The toolkit is meant to serve as a reference guide for health leaders to access a variety of materials related to EDI.
The EDI toolkit was developed in alignment with the LEADS in a Caring Environment Framework (LEADS Framework). “LEADS” in an acronym for the five domains of the framework: Lead Self, Engage Others, Achieve Results, Develop Coalitions, and Systems Transformation. In this toolkit, each domain contains a collection of EDI-related resources. Each resource has been labelled with type of resource it is (e.g., article, blog post, report, infographic), a summary of what the resource is, and the link to access it.
Leading an EDI-Informed Self
Leads Self focuses on developing self-motivated leaders. From an EDI-lens, we build on the four original capabilities of the Framework emphasizing how self-aware leaders must think more critically. An EDI-informed leader reflects on their own social, economic, gender, (dis)ability and racial position, they consider how this impacts their work.
Lead Self
Are Self Aware
Manage Themselves
Develop Themselves
Demonstrate Character
Engage Others from an EDI-Informed Position
Engage Others is a key area for EDI-informed leadership. When engaging leaders build teams and foster the development of others, they strive to recognize who they are and are not engaging. Upon that explicit reflection, they develop strategies to reach out to people who have been historically overlooked as leaders.
Engage Others
Foster Development of Others
Contribute to the Creation of Healthy Organizations
Communicate Effectively
Build Teams
Achieve EDI Results
Achieve Results, focuses on goal-oriented leaders. EDI-informed, goal-oriented leaders dedicate resources to address EDI outcomes and embed these processes within their department, division, or organization. These EDI plans must be resourced, implemented, acted upon, and supported with evidence-informed tools. Continuous monitoring, reassessment, and evaluation to track progress towards EDI goals and resetting direction for continuous improvement must be embedded in organizational processes for optimal results.
Achieve Results
Set Direction
Strategically Align Decision with Vision, Value, and Evidence
Take Action to Implement Decisions
Assess and Evaluate
Developing EDI-Focused Coalitions
Just as EDI considerations inform leadership capabilities within one’s discipline, group or organization, it also translates to the development of coalitions with others. Collaborative leaders develop coalitions to create EDI awareness and achieve EDI goals within and across disciplines, groups and organizations. Partnerships are purposively built to create these EDI results with notable time and attention paid to create ongoing relationships of trust.
Develop Coalitions
Purposefully Build Partnerships and Networks to Create Results
Demonstrate Commitment to Customer and Service
Mobilize Knowledge
Navigate Socio-Political environments
EDI-Informed System Transformations
Successful leaders think systemically to help achieve System Transformation. System transformation is not only focused on the health system, but also on systems that perpetuate inequity, lack of diversity, and exclusion within the health system, be that sexism, racism, ableism, classism, ageism, or settler colonialism. By leading from where they are situated presently, successful leaders can champion and orchestrate systemic change.
System Transformation
Demonstrate Systems / Critical Thinking
Encourage and Support Innovation
Orient Themselves Strategically to the Future
Champion and Orchestrate Change
Being a woman in a profession filled with men comes with hurdles that make reaching the top difficult, including hurdles people don’t always conside