Leadership for Building Belonging

by Jennifer VanAntwerp, May 1, 2022

There are piles of evidence that an organization benefits when its members feel a strong sense of belonging. These employees are more creative, more productive, more engaged and involved, happier, and likely to stick around with the organization longer.

As leadership consultant Alexis Zahner puts it, 

"IMAGINE showing up to work everyday and not needing to defend your worth because you're the 'only' person like you at the table." 

It doesn't take much, then, to imagine what it might feel like to show up to work everyday if this were not the case.

So how does this culture happen? It isn't by accident. An inclusive culture where everyone, including the organization, thrives, requires the members to embrace it. And that is much more likely to happen if the leadership, at every level, actively seeks and supports this. Again, from Alexis Zahner, 

"Actively creating a culture of inclusion and belonging by helping others to feel seen, heard and valued is a core competence of Human Leadership."

Wherever you fall in the organizational chart, you are a part of shaping the workplace culture. Next time you evaluate your professional goals, consider adding one goal related to improving the culture of belonging within your own corner of the organization.  Will you focus on listening more?  Withholding judgement?  Understanding your own biases? Helping others to collaborate more? Becoming more attentive to the culture of others? Restructuring meetings to give attendees equal opportunity to speak and be heard?  These are just a few of the proven techniques for supporting greater inclusivity and building belonging for everyone in the workplace. There are plenty of strategies out there - feel free top pick one below or customize one of your own to get started!

A few basic places to build your knowledge base...

• "The diversity and inclusion revolution: Eight powerful truths." Deloitte Review, 2018. 
• "Diversity wins: How inclusion matters." McKinsey & Company, 2020.
• "Diversity and inclusion efforts that really work." Harvard Business Review, 2020.

Jennifer VanAntwerp is a professor of chemical engineering at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She researches how engineers learn, work, and thrive, beginning in college and extending throughout their professional careers