Higher Purpose Podcast 111: The Belonging Factor
Devin Halliday recently emailed his subscribers to announce the release of his new book, The Belonging Factor. Since Kevin Monroe couldn’t remember signing up for the list, he replied to Devin’s email explaining that he was unsubscribing on principle. Devin immediately felt that he had broken trust and he immediately emailed back Kevin to express regret and hope that he could earn back his trust in time. That interaction eventually led to today’s show. Kevin and Devin chat about finding your tribe, the belonging deficit and its effects, and how leaders can create an environment where people feel like they fit in.
Listen to the full episode.
Finding Your Tribe
We’re all looking for our tribe, Devin says. He relates how he came to realize that it was his responsibility as a leader to create an environment where his team could feel a sense of trust, connection, and cooperation. By creating a team with this dynamic, you're creating a culture where people can truly feel like they belong.
The Belonging Deficit
It's tragic that many people experience a belonging deficit, Kevin says. Devin explains that social media in particular exposes this. When we post on social media and many people like our post - ironically, most of whom we have no real-life relationship with - we experience a quick dopamine response from feeling we belong. This dopamine fix goes away quickly and the belonging deficit returns, so we post again and again. In the workplace, the belonging deficit manifests itself in 3 major areas:
- Misalignment between your personal values and the organization’s values - if the organization’s values are not lived by leaders, or employees are not allowed to fulfill these values, they start to question whether they belong. Ultimately the cost to the organization is the repeated loss of its highest-performing talent.
- Misalignment with your direct leader - when you don't believe you have trust from your leader, or you're unable to express your voice or share constructive dissent, you feel a growing dislike for your job.
- Misalignment with your team - this can usually show up in teams that are focusing on diversity just to fulfill a metric. Without the right leadership, the team will be unable to innovate or communicate, and members would feel that they don't belong there.
5 Key Characteristics
Devin describes five characteristics shared amongst brands and leaders that when replicated, have a tremendous impact on creating a sense of belonging.
How Leaders Can Create an Environment of Belonging
Belonging is feeling permission to show up as yourself, Devin says. Leaders can create an environment of belonging by:
- Being an ally and advocate four people in a different position than themselves;
- Making sure they have clearly defined the organization’s values, culture, and roles and behaviors;
- Modeling what's expected by being transparent.
If you aspire for great impact, be the leader who is taking the appropriate actions and live the values. Devin admonishes, choose the challenge of struggle because it's that path that's going to lead you to exactly the outcome you want to achieve.
Resources
Win one of 2 free autographed copies of Devin’s book: HigherPurpose.BelongingFactor.com
Email Devin: ibelong@belongingfactor.com
Website: devinhalliday.com
Kevin@higherpurposepodcast.com
Phone: 678-744-5111