Traditional leadership training requires a significant shift to meet the requirements of the fast-evolving digital era. In 2025 the Business School of Lomonosov Moscow State University (LMSU BS) will introduce a new leadership course aimed at generating a holistic understanding of leadership, specifically focusing on a leader who strikes the right balance between business, ecological, and societal inclusion.

Since inclusive leadership (IL) is a key topic in the business leadership course and the concept of inclusion is at the center of a new leadership paradigm, more theoretical and empirical research exploring the understanding of inclusive leadership is needed.

The author provides an exploratory analysis of the term “inclusive leadership”, identifies the essential components and emphasizes functions of an inclusive leader. The study builds on existing literature and business cases.

Drawing from the findings of semi-structured interviews conducted in Russia with a sample of business and management students (n=35) and experienced managers (n=12), the author examines the following aspects:
(1) key understanding of the terms (“inclusive leadership”, “inclusive leader”, and “inclusive management”);
(2) roles of inclusive leaders within organizations;
(3) challenges in forming and establishing inclusive practices.

The paper provides a comprehensive definition of the term “inclusive leadership”, outlines the major obstacles to the development of inclusive practices in Russia, concludes that inclusive leadership will remain a vibrant area of study and practice, and formulates recommendations for future studies in this area. The results of the study contribute to management and leadership theory and practice being especially useful for fostering collaborative idea-sharing in a new business leadership course at the LMSU BS. They can be valuable in upgrading the following academic disciplines: “Business and Management”, “Management”, “Organizational behavior”, “Leadership”, etc.

Keywords: Business leadership, leader, inclusive leadership, management, exploratory research.