As workforce demographics evolve and globalization reshapes organizational dynamics, leadership today demands more than operational skills—it requires cultural awareness and ethical insight. Some experts are now reexamining the effectiveness of traditional cultural competency frameworks in leadership development. Among them is LaVerne Collins, a licensed counselor and educator who has contributed to ongoing discussions around inclusive leadership practices.
Collins says, “For decades, cultural competency has served as the backbone of many diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs.” It emerged with the intent to help organizations manage differences and foster understanding across cultures. However, according to Collins, this framework is outdated and insufficient for the demands of today’s workplaces. “Cultural competency suggests an endpoint—something that can be achieved and completed,” Collins says. “It encourages a mindset where culture is viewed as a checklist or a set of generalizations, rather than a living, evolving construct that must be continuously engaged with.”
This critique comes at a time when many organizations are reassessing the efficacy of their DEI investments. Companies have poured resources into cultural competency workshops, only to find minimal improvements in employee experience or inclusion outcomes. The issue, Collins explains, lies not with the intention but with the structure. “Competency frameworks often reduce people to fixed categories and neglect the role that privilege, bias, and power play in shaping workplace interactions,” she notes.
A significant problem with cultural competency is its tendency to externalize culture. Leaders are trained to study “others”—their values, behaviors, and customs—while rarely interrogating their own cultural positions. This imbalance reinforces the idea that some cultures are normative while others require adaptation or accommodation. Collins argues that such approaches not only overlook intersectionality but also risk deepening marginalization.
In contrast, cultural humility and responsiveness represent a fundamental shift in leadership development. These models move away from a deficit-based view of difference and move toward a growth-based framework that centers self-awareness, lifelong learning, and mutual respect. Cultural humility means recognizing and setting aside any position of normalcy that we accept about our own identities. It is deeply introspective work, examining your biases, your stereotyped beliefs, and any judgements of inferiority about other cultures. Collins believes that it is the best position for multicultural awareness to begin.
Collins draws from both professional expertise and personal narrative to underscore the importance of this paradigm shift. Describing her own lived experience as someone who holds multiple, intersecting identities—including roles as an African American woman, counselor, educator, minister, and first-generation college graduate—she illustrates how reductive categories fail to capture the full scope of individual identity. “Each of those identities intersects with the others,” she explains. “Cultural responsiveness doesn’t flatten my identity into a single label. It respects the complexity of who I am.”
The shift toward culturally responsive leadership is also essential for promoting organizational health and mental wellness. Research increasingly shows that psychological safety—the feeling of being seen, heard, and safe to express oneself—is critical to employee engagement and performance. Cultural humility cultivates this safety by replacing assumptions with inquiry and superiority with empathy.
This, Collins explains, leads to four specific mental wellness benefits in the workplace. Employees are relieved of the cognitive burden of code-switching, allowed to take risks without fear of being stereotyped, able to engage authentically without burnout, and supported against the effects of impostor syndrome. Together, these outcomes contribute to a more stable and productive workforce, and a stronger bottom line.
Yet Collins stresses that adopting cultural humility requires more than a change in terminology. It demands structural changes in how leadership is trained and evaluated. One-off seminars or standardized cultural briefings are not sufficient. Organizations must instead embed continuous education, feedback systems, and reflective practices into their leadership development programs.. It also requires examining institutional norms that may unconsciously reinforce exclusivity or resistance to change.
Collins has supported a variety of organizations in making this transition. From academic institutions to counseling practices and mental health organizations and corporations, her consulting services focus on equipping leaders with tools to remain culturally attuned and behaviorally flexible. “Leadership in the 21st century must go beyond knowing facts about differences,” she asserts.
Organizations seeking to move beyond the limitations of cultural competency must adopt an internal culture of learning. Rather than framing DEI as a compliance issue or public relations asset, they must see it as a core leadership capability. Only through this lens can inclusion become sustainable, scalable, and truly impactful.
As Collins emphasizes, the future of inclusive leadership depends not on mastering cultural knowledge, but on cultivating the humility to remain teachable. This shift not only honors the lived realities of diverse employees but also enables leaders to build workplaces where belonging is not aspirational—it’s operationalized.
For more information, visit New Seasons Counseling, or connect with Dr. LaVerne Collins via Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. Inquiries can also be directed to Dr*******@********ns.training.
