HERE’S HOW TO CREATE A SENSE OF BELONGING SO YOUR MOST VALUABLE PEOPLE NEVER WANT TO LEAVE

83% of US workers suffer from work-related stress 

~ The American Institute of Stress

35% of respondents said their main source of stress at work was their boss 

~ Korn Ferry

After making sure your team feels welcome, making sure people feel comfortable is the second transferable thread between hospitality and leadership. 

When people feel comfortable, they:  

  • Open up and engage in more conversations
  • Feed their curiosity with more exploration, research, and discovery
  • Foster deeper relationships with people around them
  • Feel a sense of belonging in the workplace.

Leadership is about inspiring and influencing the absolute best effort and the best versions of everyone on the team. Therefore, it behooves any leader, in any industry, at any level, to make their team feel comfortable enough to be their best, give their best, and become the absolute best they can be.  

Leaders who lead with hospitality create a sense of belonging by inspiring a culture rich with meaningful conversations, passion for curiosity, and by focusing as much on fostering relationships as delivering results.

Bringing it all together:

Build community

  • Make sure people feel comfortable coming to work.  Few leaders and even fewer organizations activate a true sense of community all of us are literally wired to crave. Relationships will ultimately expedite your results. Be human and be vulnerable, and then just watch your team soar.

Promote curiosity

  • Make sure people feel comfortable asking questions.  Be curious and give your team permission to be even more curious. Foster a never-ending thirst for knowledge, intel, insight, feedback, and opportunities for your organization to grow. 

Make uncomfortable the new comfortable

  • Help people get comfortable getting uncomfortable. The only way people grow, improve, and truly become better is to step outside their comfort zone. People want to improve, but they need an encourager, a champion, and a leader to give them a nudge. That’s you. 

“A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all people.  We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong.  When those needs are not met, we don’t function as we were meant to.  We break.  We fall apart.  We numb.  We ache.  We hurt others.  We get sick.”  

~ Dr. Brené Brown 

Have a great day.

PS – Pre-order my next book, Lead with Hospitality here. Release date is April 27th, 2021.

I’ve compiled twenty years’ worth of leadership lessons, stories, and applications for how to lead with hospitality and why it makes a difference that matters for everyone in your life, at work, at home, and in your community.