When you want to be fulfilled Part Four: 7 tips to inspire connection
Number 4 on our fulfillment at work list is Connection. When I wrote my list in 2011, I had no crystal ball to see a pandemic coming that would force us to our homes with no reprieve except to run to the grocery store, or, unfortunately, the doctor.
Recent times have motivated people to pursue their dreams, achieve long-time goals, get healthy and realize what matters to them most. Even the most introverted of my friends and colleagues say they missed connecting with close friends "live" from time to time.
Not everyone needs to connect with people 24/7. Some of us, including me, value our alone time. I will admit that when I find I may have a couple of hours to myself, I make a plan for what I want to do -- shop, read, write, nature walk (although my dog would not allow me to be by myself on a walk), or the latest true crime documentary. I cherish being alone, being with my tribe, and being in a crowd connecting with people.
Connection is not just physical ... meaning we can have coffee with someone, sit in a conference room with a colleague problem-solving, and deliver a presentation to people in a room and not over a webcam. Connection also means finding a more profound emotional, mental, or even spiritual connection with the work we do, the organization and team we work on, and the leader we work with.
This type of connection is much harder to feel or find sometimes. I have written many times that we may not be able to find a deep connection with our work, or rather, our work alone. When we pin our hopes and dreams on only one thing, we can be disappointed when it doesn't go our way.
As leaders, managers, and professionals, how do we inspire this level of connection? We are all getting more comfortable with how to provide some human connection between colleagues in our distributed workforce. But when thinking about this deeper level connection to help others feel fulfilled in their work, what can we do? Here are seven actions you can take or enable as a manager.
Focus on values.
We should start by identifying our values and what matters to us to feel a greater connection. Once we know this, try and link to the team's and the broader organization's values. If integrity is important to you, you will want to feel this value in the workplace to help your level of fulfillment. Are people doing the right thing, doing what they say they will do, etc.? If security is important, working for a volatile, fast-paced organization may not be a good fit for you to feel good. While listing and reflecting on values is a very personal and individual exercise, as a manager, you can spark the focus on this and give time and space to do it.
Plan as a team.
Have you had a team planning session where you create your purpose, scope, and strategic alignment? Or is this something you did last year? It is almost time to do this again. People support what they create, and being involved in setting team priorities helps them stay connected and feel a part of the team. It is never the wrong time to engage the team on a team purpose and goals exercise to align with the vision, mission, and values of the organization.
Work across silos.
Now is a great time to encourage your team and yourself to have virtual/in-person coffee chats with people to ensure you are aware of their corner of the world and you can align with what they are doing. Hold these connections cross-region, cross-function, and cross-team to share what others are working on and ensure alignment and awareness. Focusing outside your immediate group can help give everyone more perspective and give a larger sense of purpose and connection. This may also help your team see how their work impacts others.
Create a charter.
Knowing the organization's high-level strategy and business objectives can help you align the goals of each project, process, or client relationship you are working on. We often skip creating short charters for each project, team, or account. These charters are how we define the background, objectives, approach, roles and responsibilities, and timelines. Having this in a one-pager for each effort clarifies what we were doing, why we are doing it, and a little bit of how. We so often jump to execution in our fast-paced work environments, but documenting these key project elements will help keep people connected to the overall purpose.
Set up communities.
I have spent my career in talent management and knowledge management. One of the cornerstones of a knowledge-sharing strategy is to set up communities of practice to connect people across certain silos to share best practices, solve problems and innovate. Whether you are setting up communities to solve business problems or setting up communities of interest to connect people across topics, like gardening, wellness, book clubs, and cycling, connecting people to people will only help bolster that sense of fulfillment. Communities, be they business or social, help fuel learning and engagement.
Enable development and mentoring.
Communities are an excellent way to enable development, but also taking courses, attending conferences, and securing a mentor are other ways to feel connected to a higher purpose and help someone understand and connect to their self, career, and organization. Learning is underrated as a means to provide a connection to something larger than ourselves.
Give back.
With so much focus on ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) strategies, most organizations have some commitment to the community and philanthropy. If you don't, you can start small and set aside an afternoon to pack food, paint a school, run a coat drive, or collect food at a pantry. There are many opportunities for groups, not just individuals, to give back. Create a company-wide plan or keep it small and organize your team. People feel fulfilled when helping others. Gallup, Huffington Post, and others have run studies to show that giving back leads to greater happiness, health, positivity, bonds, loyalty, inner peace, and general feelings of fulfillment.
I am sure you can come up with more on your list to help people feel connected from a human and internal perspective. Underpinning the seven above is forming groups, solid communication, and aligning values and work to help us feel good about what we are spending our time on. Connection has never been more important to our collective feeling of self-esteem. This doesn't always happen by accident so we need to plan for and focus on executing the above strategies to ensure we feel connected.