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Stop Projecting Your Own Experiences onto Others

“You’re a new mom? OMG! Get ready to never sleep again in your life!”

“Yeah, it’s great that you have such high ambitions but you’re too young and you have to pay your dues.”

“You shouldn’t work so much. It’s going to affect your health!”

“You don’t want kids? I’m sure you’ll change your mind!”

“It’s very hard to actually make an idea work. Maybe you should consider looking for a real job instead of starting your own business.”

This is just a tiny sampling of comments that are made every single day to people pursuing something aspirational in life. Maybe, you have even said something similar before to others. Of course, there is usually good intention with these comments as it is a way to help others not go through the same pain or surprise you have been through or a way to help others not make the same mistakes.

But, stop.

Just stop.

Seriously, stop.

Stop projecting your experiences onto other people. If they ask for your story or your experience, that’s great that you can share it and what lessons you learned but it’s not necessary to discourage others from going for their dreams simply because it didn’t work out for you.

Oh, and if they didn’t ask for your opinion, you really do not need to share your negative thoughts.

We are all capable of different things and that is what is beautiful about the human race and what should be bringing us together, not tearing us apart. So when others are aiming to do something that didn’t work out for you, encourage them to succeed even if it seems so impossible in your mind.

In the words of Amelia Earhart, “Never interrupt someone doing what you said couldn’t be done.”

Stop. Projecting. Your. Experiences. Onto. Others.

And, if someone is projecting their experiences onto you, remember that your story does not have to be their story. Write your own story and know that it can and will be an awesome one!

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You DO Have Time

I cringe when I hear someone say they’re too busy or they have no time. These have to be two of the worst excuses ever! Trust me, I’ve used them myself.

It’s a lesson I learned a long time ago but still have to check myself, even today. Recently, I was asked to speak at a conference, one of my favorite things to do. I nearly jumped at the opportunity when I caught myself and took a step back. I am currently working full time, going to school full time, volunteering, siting on the board of a nonprofit, chairing a committee for another organization, writing a blog and writing for about five other sites periodically. In between all of that, I try to stay connected with friends, family and my network of peers across the country.

It sounds like I have no time to take on anymore but that is not the case. I actually do have the time but I have to make choices. I can either find a way to work smarter so that I can take on more and simply spend less time on each task or I can give something up to take on something else.

Life is about choices. We make time for everything we think is important enough. So when you think about this in the context of work, people have time to do what is important but the problem is that importance is defined differently by different people.

What are you making time for in life, professionally and personally? What is important to you and are you being honest about what is not?

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5 Millennial Leadership Tips from A Millennial Leader

I was at a great conference recently and found myself in a deep conversation with some peers about millennials in the workplace. You’re shocked, right? Who isn’t talking about this? It actually seems like we talk about it way too much!

Someone made a comment about how they feel like there is a lack of perspective on this topic. She said that she constantly finds herself trying to learn about millennials but every speaker and writer she came across seemed to be of a different generation. It got her thinking about the gap in this picture – why aren’t we getting advice and hearing about millennials from actual millennials?

I get requested for thought forums, interviews and presentations on the topic of multiple generations in the workplace because I fill this gap. I am a millennial in the workplace.

One of the most popular questions I get is about what advice I have for millennial leaders. Many millennials, very much like generations before them believe it or not, are itching to get into leadership and sure, many probably think they should already be there. That annoys some people like there’s no tomorrow!

So, here’s my leadership advice for new and aspiring millennial leaders and if you haven’t caught on, I am a millennial leader.

1. Put Your Earmuffs On…Strategically

Stop complaining about the noise around you and feeling sorry for yourself. People are going to judge you. They are going to make unfair remarks about your generation and somehow, ridiculously define you by your generational stereotypes. Then, they will argue why you cannot and should not be in leadership because of it. People will always tell you that you are not capable. Go for it anyway. What you tell yourself is more important.

In the end, this stereotyping is just useless noise. Become familiar with this type of noise and learn when to put your earmuffs on. Getting sucked into it, being overly hurt by it (it always hurts a little), feeling sorry for yourself or retaliating with equally hurtful remarks will get you nowhere!

2. Play Nice In the Sandbox

So, they pick on you for your age. It does not mean you get to pick on them for their age. Don’t stoop to lower levels. As a leader, you have to be able to play nice with everyone – people from all walks of life, with diverse backgrounds and with different ideas. Use this as your competitive advantage.

There is so much drama, hate and manipulation not just in the workforce but in the world. If you can turn this around, you’ll be ahead of the curve. Bring people together; be a connector. Help people see their similarities despite their differences. Help people find solutions together despite their problems. Help people reach their potential despite their doubt. Help everyone play nice in the sandbox.

When your team reaches that point of working well together, recognize them. Don’t ever forget to recognize and reward people both individually and as a team. Just be sure it is genuine and meaningful.

3. Don’t Give Up or Give In: You’re In Sales

As a leader, particularly a millennial leader, you will face a lot of scrutiny, a lot of resistance or distrust and a lot of skepticism. It can become very easy to give up on yourself or give into the pressure. The way to overcome all of this is to do things you believe in and believe in everything you do. If an organization’s values does not align with yours, you are in the wrong place.

Every leader is a sales person. Millennials, you better start believing this. If you want buy-in and influence, you have to be able to sell your ideas, your initiatives and your changes. You absolutely cannot assume that if you suggest something that everyone will get behind it. Many people are doubting you already. Prove that you are worthy.

It may not seem fair. You have to work extra hard to gain the trust of your team, especially if you have a diverse team that may not believe in you right away when you take over the team as the new leader. It’s even harder if you were a peer and got promoted into a leadership role. If you really want to be successful, don’t give up, on yourself or others, and don’t give into the pressure or the fear.

4. Always Fail Forward, Never Fail Back

You will fail so get a little comfortable with that. Don’t look at failure as a setback. Use it to your advantage every time it happens. Learn from it and let your lessons launch you forward. The weight on your shoulders will only get heavier every time you fail, but don’t let it weigh you down.

Yes, some people might even thrive in the fact that you failed. Don’t waste time thinking about that. Use your precious time and effort focused on the next great idea, project or initiative. Show everyone how your failures made you even stronger.

5. Be Willing to Stand Alone

In leadership, everyone is watching you. As a millennial, you are likely to have even more scrutiny. So, you have to be doing the right things all the time even if that means doing the difficult things – making unpopular decisions, coaching poor performers or challenging your superiors.

Like most things, the grass always looks greener on the other side. Leadership often looks glamorous from the outside looking in but for those who are in it, you know it is not all roses. Leadership can actually be an extremely lonely place. You are constantly balancing the pressure of the people on your team with the pressure from your superiors and the two never seem to agree. It can feel like a lose-lose situation sometimes.

If you want to succeed in leadership, you have to be willing to stand alone. When it seems that everyone else wants to take the easy road or the right thing is not the popular thing, you have to make that tough call. Contrary to popular belief, if you’re willing to stand alone as a leader, you actually rarely have to. Your employees will support you. People who believe in doing the right thing but who are too afraid to will follow you.

You may hope that people will not judge you by your generation but you cannot wish something like that away. All you can do is stay focused on what matters. If you become a strong leader that your team trusts, they will stop seeing you as a “millennial leader.” They will see you simply as their leader, someone they trust and support.

Loyalty is not dead…but it requires effort.

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Leaders Execute

I had the privilege of hearing Chip Madera, renowned speaker and organizational development expert, speak again for the second time in one month. This past week, he talked to us about leadership and execution and his message really stuck with me. We were a bunch of healthcare leaders in the audience and if you know healthcare, you know that the industry is going through a boat-load of changes.

But, going through change is not a good excuse for not executing. Leaders need to be the example. As Chip puts it, we are the “keepers of the culture.” It starts with us and it is up to us to lead it. If we don’t get this right, we will not survive because “culture eats strategy for breakfast.” If we don’t keep the culture, our employees will create it anyway and it won’t be the culture we want because if we’re not part of it, they will know that pretty quickly.

We cannot continue blaming employees and trying to hold them accountable without first holding ourselves accountable. I constantly run into leaders who complain about their employees not performing but they never actually do anything about these employees. If we want A players, we need to pick A players, we need to grow A players and we need to be A players. Only when we start looking within ourselves can we start leading and executing for our teams and our organizations.

To lead a culture that people will follow and buy into, we need to connect with them. We need to be able to relate to them and to meet them where they are. As the workplace gets more chaotic and stress levels rise, leaders are challenged with channeling their emotions while maintaining operations and leading people. This is no small task but where leaders often fail is the people part. They begin to drown themselves in the day-to-day and neglect their teams.

Chip challenged us to “fall in love with our people again.” He didn’t mean this literally, of course, but we need to take a step back and remember that we chose to accept leadership positions and that decision comes with specific responsibilities to our people.

So, have you reflected about your leadership lately? What are you going to do to reignite your passion for people and execute, particularly the culture?

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We Create Our Comfort Zones

I’m over the excuses for why people don’t get things done or take chances on themselves. At a minimum, on a weekly basis, I’ve been finding myself engrossed in conversations about productivity, change and/or success. They seem to always include excuses as to why people “can’t” do something. I’m in an industry of constant change and quite a bit of chaos so lately, the common excuse is “I’m not comfortable.” This is one of my favorites. It’s right up there with “I don’t have time.”

It’s one of my favorite excuses because it’s ironic to me. People talk about comfort zones like they’re magical things that just exist without effort. They assume that everything else that is not already in their comfort zone will remain in their “uncomfortable zone” forever without the possibility of movement.

Here’s a reality check and some good news: everything in our “uncomfortable zone” can become part of our “comfort zone.” A comfort zone is a completely fabricated concept. We made it up! Everything in our comfort zone was moved there because we got used to things that we were uncomfortable with at first.

So, it’s funny to me when I hear this as an excuse for not trying something new or not living out dreams. I pretty much get this excuse at least from one person every time I propose a new change or project, “Lotus, I’m not sure I’m comfortable with this.” My answer usually? “Awesome! Neither am I! Let’s get comfortable with it!”

Recently, I invited a coworker to join a Twitter chat since she wanted to find a convenient way to learn from other organizations without having to attend conferences across the country. She told me that she isn’t part of the generation that is comfortable with social media and that I’m better at it because I grew up with it. She was shocked when I told her that I went off Facebook until recently, that I didn’t really use LinkedIn until 2011 and that I didn’t even get a Twitter account until 2013. I told her my story about how terrified I was to start writing and going social. It definitely was not in my comfort zone. In fact, I still don’t think it is in my comfort zone, but I do it anyway. She got herself a Twitter account and met a couple awesome people in the industry already!

Comfort zones don’t just happen to us. We create our own comfort zones. There’s so much that I’m intentionally working on adding to my comfort zone. What are you trying to add to your comfort zone? When are you going to purposely take a chance on YOU?

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Want to succeed? Ask questions!

Ask questions! That is my one piece of advice to all new employees. Heck, start asking questions before you get the job. The traditional interview process is no longer relevant. It’s not a one-way Q&A session anymore. The Q&A goes both ways now. Ask your new employer questions that are meaningful to your decision process. This will help both you and your potential employer make a better decision about whether or not you would do well in the job, in the organization and on the team.

Once you start a job, it is just as important to continue asking questions. No one knows everything even if they tell you they do! I’ve heard all the excuses and assumptions:

  • I’m scared I’ll sound stupid.
  • I’m afraid they think I should know the answer to that already.
  • I don’t know who to ask.
  • I don’t want to bother them.
  • They’re so busy. They don’t have time to answer my questions.
  • I probably don’t really need to know that right now. I’ll ask if I ever have to know.
  • If I needed to know that, they would tell me so I don’t need to ask.
  • I’m sure someone else will ask my question.
  • I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually.

Well, guess what? These are all actually very valid concerns and feelings. But, guess what else? They don’t need to stop you from asking questions and growing yourself and your career.

  • So, someone thinks you sound stupid. Who cares? You still gain something out of getting the answer. Who’s problem is it that they think you sound stupid? It’s not your problem.
  • Maybe you should know the answer but if you don’t, keeping quiet isn’t going to get you the answer.
  • If you don’t know who to ask, ask everyone until you find out who the right person is to ask.
  • If people are bothered by you asking a question, that is their burden to carry, not yours.
  • Everyone is busy, including you, I’m sure. You’ll be more productive if you ask and so will they because they know you’re getting your work done.
  • Growth is about learning as much as you can so even if you don’t need to know it, ask questions about things you want to know.
  • Never assume that someone is going to look out for you. You need to ask questions proactively rather than waiting for people to give you all the information you need to do your job.
  • Again, you’re going down a very uncertain path if you’re waiting for someone else to ask the question you have. What if they do it when you’re not there and now you don’t have the answer?
  • Maybe you will figure it out eventually but wouldn’t it be nice to get the answer and figure it out now?

I instill this in my team and in all the employees I work with every single day. The ones who ask a lot of questions have become the go-to people in the organization. They always seem to have the answers because they always ask the questions.

So, let me ask you a question: are you going to start asking questions?

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Plan a fun but productive in-service day

I feel like I’ve planned hundreds of in-service days but the truth is that it never gets any easier. It only gets harder every time especially if it’s with the same team. I don’t want them to be bored so I need to make sure that every time I plan one, it is going to add value to their work, their careers or their lives.

Let’s take a step back. What do I even mean by an in-service day? This could mean a lot of things. When I talk about an in-service day, I’m referring to a day set aside at least a few times per year where a team gets together, preferably off-site (not at work), to reflect, reenergize and strategize. There are so many reasons why having in-service days is so important:

  1. It’s time to do team building, for us to get to know each other better and for us to work better together.
  2. It’s time to recharge and get excited about our work again, or maybe more excited than we were before.
  3. It’s time to engage in some reflection, remember why we do what we do (mission and vision) and get refocused on our core values.
  4. It’s time to plan for the future (strategy) without interruptions from our day-to-day work in the office.
  5. It’s time to learn and grow as individuals and as a team, to gain new knowledge and skills and to make improvements to products, services or processes.
  6. It’s a time to clarify expectations and get everyone on the same page.

So, how do I plan a fun and productive in-service day? It’s just like planning any event. It takes committing time to it and depending on the goal, some resources.

Venue and Food

It’s important to pick a venue away from work. If an organization has a big budget, these in-service days could be more extravagant but it can also be done for a very low cost. I plan most of mine at free venues like the local library, park district or village hall.

Be sure to serve breakfast, lunch and snacks. Depending on the agenda, these days can feel very long. If budget is tight, do it potluck style and have everyone bring in their favorite things to share.

Agenda and Presenters

Prepare an agenda and communicate it ahead of time. Determine estimated times for each topic as well as presenters or facilitators. Give the presenters and facilitators ample time to prepare their content and return it to be organized appropriately.

Be sure the agenda includes a good mix of fun activities and productive discussions and that these are alternating on the agenda throughout the day. If all the fun happens in the morning, the audience will be bored by lunch time.

Technology

Of course, ensure that all technology works appropriately. Confirm that a laptop, projector and all cords are available for use.

Be sure to incorporate technology into the day too, when possible. This can be in the form of polls, quizzes or games on a mobile phone, videos or interactive iPad activities. Don’t set “no cell phone” rules, please! It’s almost 2017! Use their phones to your advantage to engage them!

Learning and Activities

Plan learning opportunities and activities into the day. There should always be some sort of professional development to help the team gain new insights, knowledge, skills or experiences.

Be sure that learning opportunities are interactive, not one-way. Don’t lecture!

Celebrate

Don’t forget to celebrate! Not only is it a long day but if it is productive as planned, the team deserves some down time. Take them out for a happy hour. Informal team building is just as good as formal team building!

Be sure to thank the team for their participation and engagement throughout the day.

It’s planning time! Dive in and plan a first or next in-service day to increase employee engagement and team building.

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Starstruck – #ASHHRA16 Recap

Well, it has certainly been quite the experience as it is every year at the #ASHHRA16 conference in Grapevine, Texas. What a beautiful destination it was for our conference!

Every year, I’m asked by attendees, asked in an interview and asked when I go back to the office, “Why do you keep going back to the ASHHRA conference every year?” My answer is simple: the people. The learning sessions are great but I think the most authentic and meaningful learning comes from talking with real people about their experiences, lessons learned, advice and stories.

I had the great opportunity to reunite with some of my favorite people in the world and connect with some new peers. However, this year is even more memorable for me because I have been overwhelmed with some very special connections that I was able to make at the conference. They’re not Hollywood celebrities but to me, they are even better than that!

The first “star” is actually a person I’ve known for years now but I got to hear him speak again and I got the same goosebumps I get every single time. Chip Madera talked about culture-critical components of a highly engaged workforce. With humor, as his true style represents, Chip walked us through the importance of coaching people in three directions: up, over or out. He encouraged leaders to carefully evaluate and understand each team member and what type of coaching would be appropriate. The main takeaway? Culture eats strategy for breakfast! Check out his site at www.chipmadera.com and follow him on Twitter at @leadershiplion.

I also had the privilege of meeting the wonderful Cy Wakeman, famous keynote speaker on reality-based accountability. She spoke to us about changing our mindsets so that we become personally accountable. In one of her reality-check spiels, she discusses the importance of commitment which is the willingness to do whatever it takes to get results, resilience which is the ability to stay the course in the face of obstacles and setbacks, ownership which is the acceptance of consequences for our actions and continuous learning which is the ability to see success and failure as learning experiences to fuel success in the future. What was the key takeaway? If we want to change our culture, we need to hard-wire accountability in our organizations but most importantly in ourselves. Check out Cy’s site at www.realitybasedleadership.com and follow her on Twitter at @cywakeman.

My next star-struck moment is meeting the legendary #HealthcareHR leader and #social media great, Jay Kuhns. I’ve been trying to get him involved in ASHHRA for some time now so as you can imagine, it was quite the honorary surprise when I found out he would be at the conference. I got to personally hang out with Jay for a couple hours and geek out on everything leadership, healthcare, social media, HR, talent, pet peeves and well, life. I learned more in those couple hours than I could ever learn sitting in a session. Again, the sessions were great but nothing beats real conversations with real people (I don’t mean real as in that they exist but real as in authentic).

Everything we talked about led back to one thing: stop making excuses. If we can do this as professionals and as leaders, we won’t just find more success, but we’ll find our passion and a way to live out that passion. So my greatest takeaway? There isn’t one. There were many! I already talked about not making excuses but another takeaway was to be intentional and thoughtful about every decision and move we make. This advice really helped me make an important decision I’ve been struggling with making recently. Oh, and, just get things done! Just go for it! This was hands down the best part of the conference for me. Check out Jay’s blog, No Excuses HR at www.noexcuseshr.com and follow him on Twitter at @jrkuhns.

Lastly, my conference ended with a fantastic closing ceremony motivational speech by Kevin Carroll, author of the Rules of the Red Rubber Ball. I LOVE this book! I have his first version on my desk as a way to give my team members or coworkers a motivational pick-me-up when they need it. It’s helped all three people I’ve provided it to so far. It’s an interactive, short read and it makes the reader want to stop making excuses (hey, look, it’s a theme!) and go BE their dreams.

Kevin talked about the importance of incorporating play into our daily lives and into our organizations. For those of you who have read my blog, you may remember my post, Work life balance is so last year! where I talk about transitioning our mindset from an endless search for work-life balance to a concept of work-life integration. Kevin’s concept of play and work is similar: integrate play with work and work with life. It makes us more whole and allows us to live one full life, rather than two separate lives. He encouraged us to have grit and don’t let anything or anyone stop us.

So here’s why I’m so star-struck. I didn’t get a chance to have my book signed at Kevin’s book signing but I was sitting in the hotel lobby talking to a friend when I saw Kevin walking by out of the corner of my eye. I naturally live his philosophy everyday so without so much as a thought or hesitation, I scared my friend and probably everyone in the lobby by screaming out, “KEVIN!!!” He came over, we laughed and we chatted for a good chunk of time. He told his story about getting denied from publishing companies and then publishing his book himself which has been a catalyst for his success. What’s the main takeaway? Stop talking about hopes and dreams and start living them! Check out Kevin’s site at www.kevincarrollkatalyst.com and follow him on Twitter at @kckatalyst.

I was certainly star-struck but not your normal star-struck. Immediately upon identifying an opportunity to connect with these amazing humans, I lived out their words and took the opportunity. I use the word “connect” intentionally because for me, it’s not about meeting people. It’s about really connecting with them and building a genuine relationship that will last the test of time. We’ll call it star-struck Lotus-style!

So why am I so enamored with making these connections? These are four people that I relate to for many reasons. They are all no-nonsense, no-excuses leaders who live a life they love simply because they choose to do so. Their personal accountability has led them to successful careers but they genuinely enjoy what they do. As Chip would say, “I’m going to work, if that’s what you want to call it.”

They are true to themselves and they don’t let fears, people or circumstances stop them from reaching their greatest potential and from living their passion. They continuously change workplaces for the better, they take risks and they never stop improving themselves or others. They are the best possible examples I can think of on how to impact meaningful change and live a truly extraordinary life.

Live.
Authentically.

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Four requirements of internal branding and why it all matters

There’s a reason that every business degree requires a Marketing class. It doesn’t matter what your job is anymore, you better be a marketer too. In Daniel Pink’s book, To Sell is Human, he discusses the importance of being able to sell in every profession. He argues that we all need to be sales people in order to be successful. I would argue the same thing about marketing. We have to be able to market everything that we do even when our customers are internal to the organization. Examples include support departments such as Human Resources, Finance and IT.

I believe that branding is of the utmost importance when it comes to internal marketing. It’s where everything starts. If you don’t have a good brand, you can’t sell your product, service or value. There are four key requirements to achieving this brand.

Consistency

A strong internal brand requires consistency. My team jokes that consistency is my favorite word in the dictionary. They get it though. Consistency in branding says so many things to our customers, end users or stakeholders.

  1. It says we’re credible. Consistency allows people to actually understand our brand and if they can understand it, they can buy into it. They can appreciate it and believe in it. They can trust it.
  2. It says we’re predictable. Customers want to know what they can expect. Consistency gives them comfort in knowing that there is quality in everything we offer, regardless of the day or time or who on our team or in our organization they encounter when they have a need.
  3. It says we’re confident and if we’re confident, everyone who comes in contact with us and our product or service will be confident too. Consistency means we know what we’re doing, we know what we’re offering is exceptional and we’ll produce the same high quality time after time.

Sophistication and Simplicity

A strong brand must be sophisticated, yet simple. Wait what? I’m contradicting myself, right? How can we be both at the same time? I’m not going to say this is easy. It’s actually extremely difficult to find the right balance between sophistication and simplicity when it comes to our brand.

Our brand has to be smart. It has to meet every criteria our stakeholders are looking for – personalization, versatility, relevancy, wit and much more! Yet, it also has to be simple – consistent (check!), understandable, quick and to the point.

The best way I have found to do this is to keep simplicity at the core throughout the planning process while considering options for incorporating the sophistication. Apple is a great example of this. The company’s brand is always simple, an apple. Yet, they add flares of sophistication and complication by offering different color options for user personalization. They keep it consistent in that every computer operates the exact same way with a dock of icons and every iPhone works by clicking on any icon to open an application. It’s smart and innovative but it’s so simple that users will be able to use Apple products for years and decades (maybe their entire lives) without learning new ways to operate the products.

This is very different than Windows products which requires a slightly more tech-savvy user to be able to operate it without instruction. As a trainer, I’ve witnessed this thousands of times. It used to be a start button with a menu. Then, with Windows 8, there was an entire start screen, not just a button. Now, Windows 10 is a combination of the two. My mother cannot operate her Windows computers if her life depended on it but she’s had three different iPhones and she used all of them like a pro. She asked me just the other day if I knew that she could do everything on an iPhone and there’s really no reason she needs a computer anymore.

Yes, how customers interact with a product or service is part of branding.

Appearance

I hate to say it but looks matter…a lot! Our brand can be consistent and we can win the sophistication/simplicity balance but if our brand is not appealing, neither is our product, in the eyes of our stakeholders at least. We must consider all design elements such as contrasting colors, white space and appropriate font sizes when designing any outward facing elements of an actual product or when designing promotional (or other) materials.

Impression

A strong brand leaves a lasting impression. It elicits emotion and retention. This requires all of the previous three requirements. It’s the wow factor when all is said and done. Do all of the elements of our brand come together cohesively?

It’s important to do a check, a double check and a triple check test before we launch our brand. It is also necessary to pilot our brand, ask for feedback, whatever it takes to make sure it will hit home for our audiences.

Our business, our value and our reputation rely on a strong internal brand and the four requirements of that brand. That should be reason enough to pay more attention to our internal brand!

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Create a Sense of Place for Your Team

A sense of place is actually a fairly common phrase used in geography, landscape design and interior design. It refers to the idea of creating something special and unique where people feel that they belong, perhaps to something greater than themselves. I think of really well planned parks where the design really took into consideration the people who would visit them – meeting places, comfortable spaces to sit, greenery and gardens, convenient walking paths, options for activities and other necessary concepts to create a feeling for visitors that they belong there.

Let’s apply this concept to the workplace. Creating a sense of place for your team does not have to be expensive. It can be but it does not have to be. There are so many ways to make employees feel like they are part of something when they’re at work, like they have a sense of belonging. They should feel meaning when they go to work every day. There is a lot that can play into a sense of place. You don’t have to have all of them to be successful but as many as you can incorporate into your workplace will be beneficial.

Efficiency

Efficiency in this sense is not about how fast you can get a task done. It’s about what makes sense for people at work. Are your workspaces designed so that employees can get to and from their offices with ease? Are they able to move within your organization in a manner that makes sense and does not require a lot of thought? For example, I think of an office space where on one level, there’s a food court in the middle and meetings spaces surrounding it. Then, on the second level, offices surround a community area with games and a patio out to a Zen garden. The two floors are open to each other and you can get to any single point easily and everything is placed logically. It’s easy to grab a bite to eat or a coffee right before or after a meeting when people usually need one of the two. It’s easy to take a break from office work by just stepping outside your door to play a game with a coworker or take a walk in a relaxing atmosphere, the garden.

Life

Workplaces often lack life, green life that is. Studies show that plants, flowers and vegetation can increase energy and focus and lead to a longer life. Purchase plants for your employees’ offices and build a garden together. There are so many benefits to a community garden:

  • It falls into our category of adding life into the workplace so it can increase productivity by helping your employees focus more.
  • It gives people something meaningful to do when they just need a break.
  • It builds on teamwork and can really bring people together for a common cause.
  • It is a great perk for employees to be able to take home food from the garden.
  • It encourages employees to cook for each other and share their recipes.
  • It allows for great conversation in a much safer and comfortable environment, rather than at the water cooler.

Options

People don’t like feeling stuck and if you’re trying to create a sense of belonging, you don’t want them to feel stuck. Build options into your workplace

  • for where people do their work – offices, open spaces, think pods, couches, etc.
  • for where people have their meetings – conference rooms, lunch meeting spaces, cafes and fun rooms (exercise balls, stress balls, basketball hoops).
  • for where people can take a break – gardens, food courts, coffee shops, game rooms or quiet rooms.
  • for where people can collaborate – training rooms, rooms with smartboards, computer labs and project rooms.

Connectedness

So, it’s great to have work spaces that make sense. What about the human side? Create a sense of place for employees by creating a culture of connectedness. Don’t just build a team; build a community. A community is a group of peers who trust each other, have found commonality despite their differences and feel a bond. They not only work well together but they do everything well together. A great recent example of this is the Chicago Cubs team. Whether you’re a fan or not, you can’t deny the sense of place that Joe Maddon has created for his team. They laugh together, play together, work together, win together and lose together. You never hear the players blame each other for losses or take all the credit for wins. If you watch them in the dugout during games, they are genuinely having fun at work. They’re never as serious as the other team. They goof around with their fans and with each other. They have become something larger, greater and better than themselves.

Celebration

Celebration is not just about throwing a party after a big accomplishment or telling people good job after they complete a project. Celebration is constant, genuine and 360-degrees. If celebration is truly a part of your culture, you sometimes celebrate for no particular reason. Don’t just do payday treats and birthday parties. Those are expected and can feel forced or disingenuous. Some things you can do include surprising your team with treats on totally random days, dropping off little anonymous gifts on their desks before or after they are at work and throwing a thank you party out of nowhere (not when anything important is going on). I’ve done these things for my team and it has paid off ten-fold as they now celebrate constantly. They have fun and do great work. It’s hard to believe sometimes that it’s possible to have both but when you do, it is quite amazing!

Purpose

Give people meaning, not just in the work that they do everyday but at work in general. If people don’t know why they go to work everyday or why they do what they do, you’ve lost the battle. Don’t be confused though. Meaning and purpose looks very different than reason. A good reason to go to work is to get paid. A good purpose for going to work is to serve your team and better the lives of your customers, patients or clients. To really have purpose, your team has to believe in everything: their work, their team, the values of the organization, the people they serve, the physical space they work in, the technology they work with, the product and service they are delivering and the leadership they have supporting them.

Remember these six pillars of creating a sense of place as you look to make positive changes to your teams, organizations and cultures. From my sense of place to yours!

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