Rebecca Kowalski Sheds Light on How Inclusive Leadership Drives Performance

Inclusive leadership elevates home care by leveraging each team member’s unique talents, experiences, and perspectives to achieve outstanding results. When leaders prioritize genuine connection—learning each caregiver’s strengths, aspirations, and communication styles—they cultivate an environment where individuals feel seen, valued, and empowered.

This sense of belonging directly translates into higher engagement, as caregivers who know their unique contributions matter are more motivated to deliver compassionate, client-centered support. Moreover, inclusive leadership fuels innovation: by inviting ideas from across roles and neurodivergent thinkers, agencies uncover creative solutions to complex scheduling, compliance, and client-matching challenges.

Retention also improves dramatically; when caregivers experience trust, respect, and growth opportunities tailored to their abilities, attrition rates decline, and institutional knowledge is preserved.

Finally, clients benefit from a stable, invested workforce that understands their unique needs and preferences, resulting in higher satisfaction and better care outcomes. In home care, where human connection is at the heart of service, inclusive leadership is not just a moral imperative—it’s a strategic driver of operational excellence, financial performance, and lasting impact.

To shed some light on the same, we interviewed a home care industry expert to bring her perspective on how inclusive leadership drives performance.

Let us now delve into what she has to say about how inclusive leadership drives performance:

Question 1: How have you brought your “human-first leadership” philosophy to life in a home care setting, especially in supporting both caregivers and clients?

In an industry that can feel downright brutal and where over 65% of our home health workers endure verbal abuse and 44% face physical aggression, I’ve refused to sit behind a desk and manage from afar, even though I do manage virtually.

Sounds like an impossible task but it’s really not. From day one, I’ve made it my mission to connect personally with every new hire the moment they take their first case in Long Island.

I believe you simply can’t effectively manage what you don’t know. That’s why I reach out directly, introduce myself, set clear expectations, and let them know without question: “I see you, you matter, and I’ve got your back.”

My coordination team echoes that same welcome, calling each new hire, even if they’re not staffed yet, to forge that human connection and build trust before any issues ever arise.

But it doesn’t stop there. I speak to every client and their family too, because this is a “big picture” business. I learn about their unique dynamics, their hopes for caregiving, and the little details they cherish.

Then I empower my team to use those insights to make perfect personality and clinical matches, ensuring caregivers feel seen and valued and appreciated while clients feel genuinely supported and important.

When mistakes happen, and they inevitably will, I’m there to extend mercy and grace, rather than judgment, because compassion is the cornerstone of true partnership in home care.

Question 2: You’ve spoken about your late ADHD diagnosis and how it reframed your understanding of inclusion. How has that experience influenced the way you build neurodiversity-aware teams in an industry where empathy and adaptability are so critical?

My late ADHD diagnosis was eye-opening: I realized that what people perceive as insubordination, aggression, or a cocky attitude is often just curiosity, passion, and innovation.

None of us are intentionally malicious, we simply think and communicate differently. That revelation made me acutely aware that while our individual perception may be OUR truth, that doesn’t mean it’s THE truth. So, I’ve made it a non-negotiable to tailor every conversation and every training module to the way people actually learn and communicate.

Through “relentless optimism,” I lead with the assumption of positive intent, practicing radical empathy by approaching each person and situation with genuine curiosity instead of judgment.

And I’ve taught everyone in my staff how this translates into real workplace behaviors, so they can implement this idea judiciously and create equity for everyone. To bring this to life in the practical work setting, I’m overhauling our training resources, incorporating videos, job aides, classroom sessions, and hands-on clinical coaching from our nurses in the field.

I take the time to learn each person’s unique talents, as well as future goals, and then design growth plans that gently stretch them beyond their comfort zones while also letting them use their natural strengths every day.

This ensures they have opportunities to learn and develop while also allowing them to be successful and find fulfillment in their work. By giving them the tools, resources, and accommodations they need, I ensure they not only survive but thrive, and advocate for themselves every step of the way.

Question 3: Home care workers often operate behind the scenes and under pressure. What intentional changes have you made to ensure caregivers feel heard, supported, and empowered—without adding to their stress or complexity?

Aside from opening the door for direct communication with me, I also taught and trained my coordination staff how to approach caregivers curiously, how to conduct unbiased and honest investigations into issues, and how to listen to understand instead of listening to rebut.

This approach has made the staff feel safer bringing problems and issues forward, being honest about their struggles, and has removed the stigma that asking for help equates to personal failure, because it doesn’t.

I also utilize my clinical team to assist when clients are asking the staff to do things that are outside the scope of their job or are being put into impossible or difficult situations. It’s our job, as leaders, to be the bad guy when necessary and their job to be the hero.

The company has also launched multiple initiatives to reconnect with the staff such as our Caregiver of the Month Awards, and the use of the Caribou platform to recognize individual achievements publicly, give monetary bonuses for exceptional or above and beyond efforts, and provide a safe place to give anonymous feedback about everything from their cases, to management, to ways we can improve their experience as employees.

Our hope is that this sends a tangible signal that every voice matters, every win is worth honoring, and every concern will be heard.

Question 4: You’ve said that inclusion isn’t about buzzwords, but real outcomes. Can you share a specific example where inclusive leadership led to measurable impact, whether in caregiver retention, client satisfaction, or operational performance?

When I first took over, one team member was pegged as “a bad fit” as he appeared to struggle with communication and basic metrics. Instead of writing him off though, I re-interviewed him (and then every single person on my staff) and discovered he was also neurodivergent, and that there was a glaring mismatch between his currently assigned roles and his natural talents.

After speaking to the rest of the team, it turned out these misalignments weren’t singular to him, it was prevalent in them all. However, I also recognized that these weren’t individual failures; they were leadership fails.

So, I realigned each person’s responsibilities to their strengths, created clear lines of communication and delegated collaborative tasks, and welcomed honest feedback. Even when that meant they didn’t agree with me or required me to admit I was wrong.

The transformation was nothing short of remarkable. That same employee who was once written off now arrives two hours early and handles all the market issues until myself and the rest of the staff come in.

He manages his own $200K/month book of clients and effectively assists with running the daily operations of the market alongside his lead coordinator. Collectively, they’re responsible for 2/3rd of the client base and overall revenue.

Their counterparts, a newly promoted coordinator and her teammate run the other third. Overall, our Long Island market became one of the most profitable in the company as monthly revenue jumped 2.5X and profits tripled.

In just eight months, our inclusive leadership approach didn’t just feel right—it delivered results, propelling us to the industry lead in successful starts of care, caregiver matching, compliance, and attrition reduction.

Question 5: What would you say to other home care leaders who want to move beyond task management and toward a leadership model rooted in trust, empathy, and purpose, especially in today’s challenging labor market?

Stop trying to lead from the front. You don’t belong there. In fact, you don’t belong in the game at all. You don’t see football coaches running out onto the field to replace their struggling players, do you? Absolutely not! Why? Because that’s not their place.

Our role is to empower, teach, and grow our staff so they can win in our absence and “lead the charge” towards the future themselves. If you want to shift from micromanagement to true leadership, start by asking your team two simple questions: 1) “Do you know exactly what’s expected of you every day, whether I’m here or not?” and 2) “Do you have every tool, piece of equipment, and resource, including my support, to succeed?”

If the answer to either is anything less than an unequivocal “yes,” that’s where you begin. Then, take a look at yourself and your behavior and start making changes. Admit when you’re wrong (publicly when necessary), redefine failure as an opportunity for learning and to gain wisdom, and take accountability instead of placing blame, so your shoulders bear the weight of your team’s success.

Lead with absolute honesty, integrity, and transparency. And finally, be vulnerable so you can establish an atmosphere of mutual trust. I heard a quote once, (and I can’t remember where) but it said true trust is giving someone the power to destroy you, while having faith that they won’t.

Understand that you can’t truly manage someone without knowing them as a person, and they won’t follow a leader they don’t trust. In other words, WE have to open that door and take the first step and we do that by being vulnerable.

Once you’ve learned to embody these principles, that’s where the magic happens, and you move beyond just transactional task management into a transformational leadership model rooted in individuality, empathy, purpose, and lasting impact.

Conclusion

In closing, Rebecca Kowalski’s insights remind us that inclusive leadership isn’t an abstract ideal—it’s a practical strategy that elevates every aspect of home care. By genuinely understanding each caregiver’s strengths and aspirations, tailoring growth plans, and fostering neurodiversity-aware environments, leaders ignite engagement, innovation, and loyalty.

This human-first approach not only reduces turnover and amplifies profitability but also ensures caregivers and clients alike feel respected and empowered. As labor challenges persist, the organizations that commit to intentional trust, empathy, and purposeful connection will outperform and outlast the competition.

Let Rebecca’s experience guide your next leadership shift: small, meaningful changes today drive transformative results tomorrow.