How can you prevent team members from feeling isolated?

As a leader, you need to keep tabs on all your team members, whether remote or on-site. Communicate consistently and frequently, even if it's not work-related. There are inevitably team members who fall quiet. Go through your messaging channels and see when last you communicated with those people. A good practice is to ensure that you communicate at least once a week with each team member.

The importance of an inclusive team culture cannot be overstated. With my remote team, there was a time when nearly everyone had a death occur or were robbed. I realised that I needed to stop the regular schedule and have a 'compassion session'. It was amazing how team members shared the experiences and how they overcame past trauma. I did not have to say much as a leader. I believe that once in a while, it's very helpful to drop the schedule and be human. When team members feel that you care enough about their personal struggles to stop the work and listen to them, they'll feel less alone.

To create a supportive, collaborative and inclusive Company Culture is definitely the way to go in order to prevent team members from feeling isolated or forgotten. In addition to this, another great strategy to prevent the feeling of isolation amongst the team is to promote regular team meetings and one-on-one sessions. These sessions tend to provide great opportunities for discussing progress, giving and receiving feedbacks, addressing concerns, and generally creates a good sense of belonging and unity within the team.

Part of creating an inclusive and supportive culture is providing optional opportunities for you and your team members to get to know each other on more than just a superficial level both inside and outside of the official work environment. Actually knowing the people who you work with will allow team members to feel more comfortable sharing ideas, providing feedback, collaborating on projects, and working together overall.

Preventing team members from feeling isolated requires intentional efforts to foster a positive and inclusive work environment. Interpersonal communication plays a crucial role in building connections and reducing isolation. Inclusive decision-making may be one important way to make team members feel more valued and included. Furthermore, it is also imperative seek input from different team members to ensure diverse perspectives are considered and implemented accordingly.

People tend to feel isolated when overwhelmed with work or expectations. As a leader, you may not always be sensitive to how people react or execute the work given. Sometimes non-performance or poor performance may be due to not knowing how to perform and afraid to ask questions. When communicating with team members, be intentional by stating what you expect from them. It may be that you have to break down one task to make the expectations realistic and the task doable.

It is important to elicit learning outcomes, where possible, for the work given. Even where it's not directly a learning-driven task, assigning a developmental milestone to its completion can motivate team members. It is extra work for a leader, but if you want team members to feel included, make their learning your priority. Knowing that you've taken the time to attach and monitor a learning outcome, should inspire them to complete their work and develop themselves simultaneously.