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What do people mean when they say they feel ‘a sense of belonging’ at their jobs? Belonging doesn’t necessarily mean being popular with colleagues, nor does it mean feeling connected with work peers because you attended the same schools or live in the same neighbourhood.
A sense of belonging is rooted in four elements:
Being seen and appreciated for your unique contributions.
Feeling connected to your co-workers.
Having a sense of support in your daily work and career progression.
Pride in your clinic’s values and purpose.
People who experience “high belonging” at their workplace feel more engaged with their work, they plan to stay at their job for at least two years, and they feel very loyal to their company. Those who experience “low belonging” are four times more likely to say they feel stagnated in their roles and careers.
How to build and foster a culture of belonging in a clinic environment:
Senior managers must act as role models and set the tone by embodying the company’s values. Demonstrate excellent leadership skills by listening to all voices on their team and seeking to connect with all staff members
Managers improve the culture by praising their employee’s work, providing regular honest feedback to improve the work of the team members, responding to employee concerns, publicly praising employees, and empowering staff to make quality decisions
Team members drive belonging with one another and ultimately build an inclusive culture if they can respect their colleagues’ commitments outside of work, praise and thank colleagues for their work, while also communicating assertively with one another about their working relationships.
Everybody will perform better when they feel seen, connected, supported and proud.
Empowering staff
Empowerment examples include giving your team members autonomy and responsibility to manage their own work, objectives, and deadlines. Instead of micro-managing them, you provide them with tools and support necessary for success and you trust them to manage their own columns.
In order to implement a strategy of employee empowerment, you need to first be able to trust your employees. As the team leader, you can promote a culture of empowerment by promoting this sense of trust. Give your staff a voice by requesting and acting on consistent feedback. Provide them with the opportunities to grow and develop by regularly offering options for career progression and increasing their responsibilities.
Recognise employee achievements to help improve confidence levels and engage with your team to establish clear expectations and guidelines. Share your objectives and vision so that your team understand how their role contributes to the overall success of the business.
The benefits of staff empowerment extend past creating a sense of belonging, it encourages an increased trust in leadership, improved motivation levels, increased creativity, and higher levels of employee retention. All of this increased performance and productivity will also improve the bottom line of your business.
Developing great leadership skills
While fostering a culture of belonging, it is necessary to review your own leadership skills. Leadership is defined as the art of motivating a group of people to act toward achieving a common goal. In a clinic business setting, this can mean directing staff and colleagues with a strategy to meet the company's needs.
When faced with problems, true leaders look inward and focus on their own abilities and shortcomings. When you want to empower and inspire your team, you will naturally discover that this starts by accepting that self-accountability is the foundation of becoming a great leader.
Leadership skills are important in any business since they facilitate a strong team with the ability to get tasks done efficiently. Whatever your natural strengths are, continuing to develop leadership skills is a must when managing a team and aspiring to run a financially successful business.
Developing leadership skills will also allow you to grow as a person. It is an empowering process of harnessing your natural talents to inspire others. You will become very aware of your strengths and weaknesses, creating a high level of self-awareness which will make you very effective in daily team communications.
Areas of improvement to consider are:
Building empathy: Are you empathetic to others’ needs and feelings or do you focus solely on your own? Putting others first is essential to building rapport and inspiring your team to follow you.
Improving communication skills: Setting expectations and boundaries, and providing clear goals and direction, while keeping your team in the loop, are all part of creating and leading effective teams.
Making tough decisions: You must be confident in your ability to make tough decisions, always putting the needs of the business first.
Stop micromanagement: An inability to delegate routine day-to-day tasks is one of the most common areas owners and managers need to work on.
Learn to give constructive feedback: It is very tempting for team leaders to limit feedback to the positive. But, if you want business success, you cannot ignore problems within your team and you must learn to give the negative feedback in as positive a manner as possible.
Trust your staff: A team member who feels you don’t believe in them will not perform well and this can create a domino effect of poor morale. Instead, believe in your team and what they are capable of. Developing your leadership skills throughout your business by generating and focusing positive energy is the secret to sustained growth.
If you want a happy team, delighted clients, and a successful business, then focus on creating a culture of belonging with an empowered team and an inspirational owner. After you’ve created that, the sky is the limit for you, your business, your team, and your clients.
Liz McKeon is an international beauty business expert, author, speaker and coach. She founded the International Salon Business School to help transform businesses and help maximise their profits.