How an executive coach can help with EDI

As an executive coach, when clients ask me how to lead inclusively, I start with a simple truth: inclusion doesn’t happen in isolation. You can’t bolt superficial tactics onto your existing leadership style and hope for the best. The most effective EDI work happens when leaders build genuine trust, examine hidden power dynamics, and use data to make real change stick.

Let me walk you through some of the approaches I use in my executive coaching sessions to help lay the foundations for shaping EDI in teams.

Before that, let me address something head on. 

Is EDI still a thing?

You’ve probably heard the “DEI is over” narrative doing the rounds lately. Some leaders tell me they’re worried about investing time into something that might be yesterday’s priority.

The facts

Well, the facts tell a different story. Recent research shows that 58% of US workers say the effort and resources their companies put into EDI are appropriate, while 48% of women and 56% of Black respondents wouldn’t work for a company that doesn’t take EDI seriously.

It’s not just the employees who care about it, either. In January 2025, 98% of Costco shareholders voted to continue EDI efforts. When shareholders are that united about anything, you know there’s solid business reasoning behind it. 

You can read more about this in the Dampen the Fire with Facts article, which examines why EDI isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

So, EDI matters – the statistics speak for themselves. Now, one of the most common questions leaders ask me in executive coaching sessions is this: how to make EDI actually work so it’s more than just a compliance or “tick-box” exercise? Well, that starts with trust.

Trust

Trust is the meta-skill that enables innovation and resilience in organisations. It binds teams together, is essential for innovation, and keeps your company culture thriving. Without it, even the best-intentioned EDI work falls flat.

One of the things I often see as an executive coach is that many leaders assume they have trust of those they work with when either they don’t or they simply don’t know. 

I use the Triangle of Trust in my executive coaching work. There are three essential components to create high-trust environments: Congruence, Communication and Competence. When leaders master these three areas, they create the psychological safety that makes inclusive leadership possible—you can’t skip the trust-building work and expect EDI initiatives to succeed.

You can read more about this in my post The Triangle of Trust: Foundations for Modern Leadership, but here’s a rundown:

Trust pillar 1—Congruence

Congruence is the bedrock of trust and is where a leader’s words, actions and values align. This is different from authenticity, where the focus is on the leader not on the teams they lead. Congruence means what you say matches what you do, consistently.

Say-do gaps destroy psychological safety faster than almost anything else. The more you can reduce the gap between what people believe is safe to say and what they really think, the more effective your team will be. We explore this in more detail in Congruence: The Key to Successful Leadership.

Congruence sets the tone, but leaders also need to communicate inclusively.

Trust pillar 2—Communication

Most leaders treat communication like an information dump. They share something once and assume the message landed as intended. Where many leaders go wrong is thinking communication is about sharing information, when the real purpose is to foster understanding.

Effective communication means checking how things have landed and whether people know how to act on the implications. Leaders should communicate openly and consistently to build psychological safety and allow team members to understand not just what decisions you’ve made, but why you made them. 

Even with great communication, leaders must show competence to earn trust. It’s one of the things that make leadership hard. People are watching and judging. It’s fine not to be popular, but it is crucial that people can see your skills and knowledge at play. 

Trust pillar 3—Competence

Competence means much more than technical skill. Too many organisations under-invest in leadership development and fail to realise a simple truth: if a leader isn’t competent in leading and managing, team members naturally won’t trust them. 

As an executive coach, I see it all the time. Newly-promoted leaders are often unprepared for the pressures that come with leading a team. These can be intense: rapid technological change, rising employee expectations and widespread burnout. As an executive coach,  I focus on building resilience, managing pace, and finding sustainable balance while still delivering results.

You can read more about the pressures leaders face these days in Leadership: It’s Not Like the Old Days.

Once leaders have the three pillars in place, we can focus our executive coaching sessions on the deeper, hidden dynamics that often derail EDI work.

Understanding power dynamics

I use the Full Colour Power Dynamic Model© with clients wanting to embed inclusive leadership practice. This Full Colour model has three elements: factors that influence power (like relationships, time and culture), how power is exercised and how power is received.

If you ignore power dynamics, your change efforts will backfire. Understanding these dynamics before you start means you can design interventions that work with your organisation’s reality.

We explore this framework more in How to Identify Power Dynamics.

Once trust is built and power mapped, we need to make inclusion measurable and real.

Making EDI stick using data and feedback

Organisations have metrics and targets they track for all areas of their business—and EDI should be no exception. As part of executive coaching, we assess how we can measure success.

For example, we may track a company’s recruitment process at three stages: who applies, who gets shortlisted and who gets appointed. If people are applying but not getting interviews or job offers, we dig into what might be happening.

We can also track exit rates and follow up qualitatively when patterns emerge. Do colleagues from minoritised backgrounds stay with you for less time than others? If so, we need to understand why.

Work with Full Colour

These are just some of the approaches I use with leaders as an executive coach to lay the foundations for EDI, and there’s much more we can explore depending on your organisation’s needs. Whether you’re looking to build more inclusive leadership or tackle specific equity challenges, Full Colour’s executive coaching services can help. Having climbed the leadership ladder myself—including CEO and board roles—I understand what it’s really like to lead. My coaching blends strategic EDI thinking with practical steps you can implement in your day-to-day. To arrange a confidential, no obligation chat to see if we’re right for you, contact Izzy Taylor at [email protected] or visit our Contact page.