Belonging and Psychological Safety

Life + Leadership

Do you feel a sense of belonging at work? Or do you spend time and energy trying to fit in? Do you downplay any part of who you are? Do you feel safe being vulnerable with colleagues? Cultivating a sense of belonging and psychological safety is crucial for innovation, creativity and risk-taking, yet most of us don’t feel comfortable bringing our whole selves to work.

Today, we explore the concepts of belonging and psychological safety, describing what it looks and feels like when these attributes are present—or absent—in work culture. We discuss Brené Brown’s research on the distinction between belonging and fitting in and explain how our sense of belonging impacts our performance at work.

We go on to introduce the idea of psychological safety and describe its role as a core competency of high-functioning teams. Listen in for insight around how leaders show up in organizations with high psychological safety and learn how creating intentional connections inspires engagement at work!

Themes explored in this week’s episode:

• Katie’s comprehensive definition of belonging and our search for belonging at work
• Brené Brown’s qualitative grounded theory research around fitting in vs. belonging
• The differences among diversity, inclusion and belonging + how belonging impacts our performance at work
• What belonging feels like and the mental energy exhausted in its absence
• The definition of psychological safety and its role as a core competency of high-functioning teams
• The characteristics of an organization with high psychological safety + how its leaders show up
• Tegan’s simple exercise for gauging the level of psychological safety on your team
• What it looks like when we don’t feel safe at work and the connection between psychological safety and abundance
• Why disengaged workers give their time—but not their energy and passion
• The value in creating intentional connections in the work environment

Resources from this episode:

• Watch Katie’s Disrupt HR video: Create Belonging or Get Out!
• Learn more about Brené Brown and her grounded theory research
• Read Brené Brown’s Braving the Wilderness and The Gifts of Imperfection
• Explore articles on psychological safety in the Harvard Business Review, The New York Times Magazine, Medium and Forbes
• Read “I’m Exhausted From Trying to be the ‘Right’ Kind of Black Girl at Work”
• Study the Deloitte research on inclusion and Gallup’s State of the American Workplace
• Learn more about “Students’ Need for Belonging in the School Community”

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