Learning to Build a Culture of Belonging

During my presentation at the last Rise & Lead Summit in The Hague, I mentioned that I’m a student of leadership. After the Summit, a friend told me that I should stop calling myself a student since she knows me as an experienced leader. I told her that one of the most valuable lessons I’ve learned over the past 20 years of building and leading businesses and communities is that great leaders are great learners. You never stop learning - so I can’t stop being a student of leadership.

Before I launched my first business -- Catwalk and Styles, a female clothing business -- I had no clue how to lead others apart from what I had learned from my bosses in the corporate world. For example, for my first real job, I worked as an executive assistant to the head of the local operation of a multi-national oil and gas company that was very masculine-oriented in its management practices. From him, I learned how to work hard and to demand that everyone else worked hard. Looking back, I realize that my first lesson of leadership was that leaders show by doing.

Leaders set the pace of the culture of the entire organization. In that executive assistant position, I worked from 6 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. every day because my boss needed to leave before me -- which never happened. With those long hours, you may think we were the only ones left in the office. Far from it! Although I was one of only a few from the admin team that stayed that late, all the managers were there.

Why did I work all those extra hours? I was trying to support my boss in any way I could. He was always under pressure to meet deadlines, and he put the same amount of pressure on everyone who reported to him. This experience is why I often empathize with bosses. The pressure they put on their team frequently comes down from another level.

I knew I was not going to work for that company long – at least not as a wife or mother. However, I left that position with that company’s culture and its values of hard work and excellence ingrained in me. I used those lessons to run my second business, a restaurant. Today, I have a very different perspective on leadership. I would run the same restaurant quite differently, and I believe I would still be able to produce amazing results.

There are five critical steps leaders should take to shape a culture of belonging. This culture allows people to be themselves rather than be forced – consciously or unconsciously -- to model their leader’s style.

1. Create a culture that values quality over quantity.

According to the 2019 report Gender Equity Insights, the glass ceiling remains a barrier for women at the CEO level. In 2019, less than 30 percent of senior management roles were held by women throughout the world. Why are there so few female CEOs? From my experience, most operationally-focused companies work under immense pressure to meet deadlines. For many years, these companies have promoted those who play the hard work game. The game often involves being willing to do whatever is required under tremendous pressure - even if it means sleeping on the office floor to get the job done.

As women, many of us need to go home early to take care of our family. In companies where quantity is valued over quality, our fate often is decided before we even get to the middle management positions. However, I believe we can achieve great results without sleeping on the office floor.

Therefore, if companies want to make room to accommodate more women leaders, they should re-evaluate their all-or-nothing culture. The determinant of good business results is not about the length of time you work but the quality of your work.

2. Create a culture where people can share their responsibilities.

American business author John C. Maxwell writes, “If you want to do a few small things right, do them yourself. If you want to do great things and make a big impact, learn to delegate.”

The best leaders are delegators. Leaders can recognize which team members are best for which tasks in order to complete a project efficiently and effectively. Routinely assigning team members to one specific task can limit their growth and potential. Open up conversations among your team members when it comes to responsibilities, so you don’t overlook burgeoning talents.

3. Create a culture that allows people to be who they are, not whom you want them to be.

According to research published on catalyst.org, companies with higher levels of gender diversity are linked to lower levels of employee turnover. The same article reports that businesses with strong “diversity climates” are more likely to have teams with higher job satisfaction and knowledge sharing than other companies.

The value of diversity in an organization is that it can offer new perspectives, opinions and ideas. Leaders will never discover the value of a diverse workforce if they don’t allow their different voices to be heard.

Build a culture that lets your employees know that their insights are welcomed and valued. As a leader, don’t just wait for team members to approach you. Be proactive in asking them their opinions, whether it be in a team meeting or one-on-one discussions. 

4. Create a culture where people can openly discuss their disappointments.

For decades, we have believed that emotions do not belong in the workplace. We have learned that, as professional business people, we must bottle up our pain and just get on with our work. But professionals are also humans, and we need to acknowledge that many discomforts are valid complaints, especially if they stem from the workplace.

Our work environment should be a safe space where employees can freely speak up if they’re uncomfortable with a task or a situation -- without fearing a backlash. According to an article in the Harvard Business Review, when employees feel safe to speak up about problems, they also are more inclined to share their ideas for solutions.

5. Create a culture where everyone is empowered to make the right decision.

“People want guidance, not rhetoric. They need to know what the plan of action is and how it will be implemented,” writes former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz. “They want to be given responsibility to help solve the problem and the authority to act on it.”

As leaders, we need to demonstrate to our team members that we have trust in their skills and talents. We can accomplish this task by allowing everyone to make decisions that are appropriate for their roles. For example, instead of telling a team member how to do a task, ask them what they think is the best approach for completing that task. Provide suggestions and feedback if necessary.

Building a culture of belonging is more important today than ever before. As we deal with uncertain times, leaders need to be both strong and flexible. We all can grow -- both on a personal and a professional level -- when we remember we all are students of leadership.