A Culture of Belonging
As a consultant, I get called into businesses for a number of reasons – usually because there is a lack of employee performance at the most customer-facing levels. What the executives who hire me often don’t know is that this lack of performance can usually be directly traced to how employees are supervised (often by those very executives who hired me!). The culture of management in a company is one of the impactful areas we can address.
As a manager, you are the lynchpin for the success of your people. They rely on you to secure the resources they need, to remove the barriers standing in their way, and to help them overcome obstacles and challenges that arise. You are their pep squad and their moral support as well as the coach who guides them in the right direction (and who gives them helpful hints along the way). Your relationship with your people determines their success—and yours.
I’ve also written quite a bit recently on the importance of “groupiness”, of how a strong feeling of belonging within your team can benefit both the members of the team and the organization as a whole (with increased performance, reduced downtime, higher employee engagement, and so on.). The case is solid about why we should want our employees to feel they are an important part of our business, but there seem to be lingering questions about how exactly we can go about doing that.
Putting these two ideas together (your role as team leader and the importance of belonging within the team), it should be clear that a key function of yours, as a manager, is to enhance the feeling of belonging within your team – through your relationship with each member and by facilitating “groupiness”, ensuring each person feels connected to the others.
In a recent Harvard Business Review article, four outcomes were listed as being essential to a culture of belonging. Each employee needs to feel:
Seen – Does each person on your team have the opportunity to share their ideas and accomplishments? How accepting are you (and is the team) of hearing what each person has to say? Are differing opinions valued, or are initial positions immediately defended? Have you shared positive feedback with your team members or bragged about them to others (preferably in front of them)? What are some other ways you could ensure each person feels seen, heard, and valued for their unique contributions?
Connected – Does each team member feel connected to at least one other person on the team? What actions could you take to increase the feelings of connection between you and your team and between the different members of the team? Are their informal times – for example, in a break room – where you could strike up a conversation? Might you want to invite team members to happy hour after work – or to a more formal off-site event for team-building and team bonding? How can you personally create an aura of accessibility and inclusion in the office (or in the field)? What other ideas do you have for how you could encourage your team to feel connected to you and to one another?
Supported – How are you supporting your team members? Do they know you care about them as individuals (and as human beings)? How do you show your understanding, your care, and your support? In what ways have you helped them secure the resources they need to do their jobs well? What barriers or challenges are your people facing that you could assist with? When did you last ask them about what they might need from you (or what they could use from you)? Beyond the daily tasks of work, are you guiding their professional growth and development? Are you looking beyond what they can do for you to what you can do for them? How else can you provide better guidance and support to your team members (both in their day-to-day work and in their career development)?
Proud – How can you tell if your employees are proud of the work they do? What are some of the ways they show their pride? (They might talk about the success of a project or of overcoming an obstacle. They might wear your company-branded jacket or use a logoed mug.) Are there ways you could increase those feelings of pride? (Perhaps by talking about the impact your team has had on the company’s bottom line or in increasing ratings of reliability or satisfaction in customer surveys… or by helping your team members see how their personal values tie into the company’s values and purpose. What about sharing your feelings of pride – of how proud you are of your team or of the work the business does?)
What additional steps are you able to take right now to increase your team members feelings of belonging? Please share your ideas in the comments below so others can benefit from your ideas and knowledge too!
Reference: https://hbr.org/2021/06/what-does-it-take-to-build-a-culture-of-belonging