Author: Steve Dion
Feeling connected to others is fundamental to our survival as humans. And we're not alone — species organize in herds, packs, colonies, families, pairs or some equally critical support system. Simply put, to be, we need to belong. But belong to what? And how important is belonging at work? Do employee connections lead to an engaged workforce?
Nearly every aspect of our lives is organized around belonging. We grew up in a family, lived in a town and joined a class, a sports team or a club. The list is long. We belong to spiritual groups and political parties and, ideally, we're proud employees who feel connected to the organization in which we work. Our social and emotional wellbeing is closely tied to the health of the groups we're part of and the quality of those relationships. The social ties that accompany a sense of belonging help us manage stress, think more clearly and live longer.
Great workplaces typically report higher productivity, lower turnover, impressive innovation and market-leading profits. They don't have employees who just work for a paycheck.
As reported in Harvard Business Review, high belonging is linked to a massive 56% increase in job performance.1
The pandemic made it difficult to retain our most treasured human connections. And while the social distancing of the pandemic is behind us, many of us still work from home or are in different parts of the country — or the world — from our colleagues. Navigating the workplace with video calls and chat platforms make cultivating relationships more effortful. Feeling fully informed, aligned with your leader, backed by your peers — in short, maintaining that sense of being part of something greater than yourself — requires a different strategy.
With employees in different locations, leaders are challenged to:
- Create pathways to bring belonging to their employees.
- Enhance their skills to connect with others over a screen.
- Find time to build programs that bring connection, meaning and community to workers asked to continue grapple with working from home.
During the pandemic, I wrote an article in CEOWorld Magazine called "Are Leaders and Managers Essential Workers?" in which I describe the challenges leaders overcame during the coronavirus pandemic and the toll it took taken on them.2 Organizations quickly solved many of the fundamental infrastructure issues, and employees settled into a new way of working. But the leaders who are in critical positions to make or break our revamped organizational cultures still need support.
Many deep bonds form when individuals band together during a challenging situation. Now is a perfect time to galvanize your team and create long-lasting connections that will engage your workforce for years to come.
Three tips to bring belonging to your team:
- Communicate openly and often. If ever there was a time to overshare, it's now. The more you can tell your team members, the more connected they'll feel. Use screenshare meetings as a standard practice. Written communications are helpful for sharing knowledge, but creating connectivity within your team requires more. Schedule regular meetings and make them a priority.
- Allow everyone to fully contribute. When you assemble as a group, proportion time for others to talk, ask questions and share their views. Listen. Acknowledge the important role everyone plays in the larger mission of the organization.
- Cultivate vulnerability. Share your fears, successes and views of the future. Allow your team to do the same in a caring and non-judgmental way. Let them see that you care about them as people, dealing with issues beyond work, like childcare and personal safety.
I've always believed that good things come from bad situations. Use this time, through your actions as an empathetic leader, to create strong bonds with your team. Ensure they know you're all in this together and that they belong. This attention and effort will create lasting employee connections, leading to a more engaged workforce.
