If you want to make organizations fit for the future, there’s one thing you can’t avoid: people want to feel like they belong. Not superficially, but deeply. Not as a mood, but as an attitude – tangible in everyday life, tangible in leadership.
Belonging determines whether people stay, get involved and support change. And whether they give their best, especially when the going gets tough. In figures, it sounds like this: according to the Gallup study, teams with a high level of emotional attachment are more productive, sick less often, make fewer mistakes and deliver better quality. So belonging is no longer a warm gesture – it’s a hard currency.
And yet it remains a side issue in many organizations. A great project for internal communication. A topic for feel-good managers. The main thing is that there is coffee, table football and a summer party. What is often missing: substance. Because belonging needs more than good intentions. It needs culture, structure – and leadership that doesn’t shy away from closeness.
Culture is not reflected in the mission statement – but in the meeting
Values alone are not enough. They have to have an effect in everyday life, in decisions, conversations and conflicts. Trust is not something that stands above the entrance, but in the room, when contradiction is not only allowed, but desired. Culture is created where behavior meets conviction – and becomes visible.
A living culture can be seen in small gestures: when quiet voices are given space in meetings. When teams openly discuss what went well in terms of their values – and what didn’t. When feedback is not a compulsory exercise, but an invitation. When leadership does not rely on control, but on clarity and resonance.
But culture is more than just values. It is also created through language, rituals and symbols. Those who take it seriously anchor it in routines: with clear moments of reflection, with recurring questions, with formats that make attitudes visible. Not as a show, but as a mirror.
Tips for everyday life
- Break down values into everyday situations in team workshops:
What does “respect” mean in e-mail criticism? What does “responsibility” look like in a project? - Reserve 5 minutes in meetings for: “What went according to our values this week – and what didn’t?”
- Introduce peer feedback that explicitly refers to practiced values.
- Regularly invite managers to short “values reflections”: Where am I a role model today?
Structure needs more than space – it needs friction
Belonging does not grow in a vacuum. It needs structure. This doesn’t just mean creating space and time for it. It also means clarifying processes, defining roles and allowing friction. Because connection is not created through consensus – but through conflict.
Good structure provides support without suffocating. It facilitates encounters without forcing them. It ensures that people meet who would otherwise pass each other by: Sales meets IT, production meets strategy. If you want to promote belonging, you build formats that open up perspectives: Tandems, listening sessions, open retrospectives.
Structure is also a question of repetition. Listening once is not enough. Giving feedback once doesn’t change anything. It’s about reliability. Routines that enable connection – week after week, conversation after conversation.
Tips for everyday life
- Cross-functional tandems (e.g. sales meets IT): exchange on roles, challenges, perspectives.
- Listening formats with leadership: e.g. “Ask me anything” rounds or “Silent retrospectives” in which teams set topics anonymously.
- Random coffee or “slack lunch”: 15-minute calls across the organization.
- Start-of-week question in the team chat: “What gives me energy this week – what drains it?”
- Check-in rituals: e.g. “I am X% present today – why?” or “My focus today: …”
Leadership means shaping relationships
And in the end, it all leads to one thing: leadership. Belonging is not created in HR concepts – but in day-to-day management. Where closeness is created. Where people feel seen. Where differences are not ironed out, but made productive.
Leadership that enables belonging is not nice. It is clear. It takes diversity seriously. Asks questions instead of judging. And knows that relationships are not a product of chance. It needs time. Attention. And courage.
Good leadership regularly asks itself: Who have I seen today – and who not? Where did I allow closeness – and where did I perhaps avoid it? Those who lead shape relationships. And those who shape relationships create loyalty. Not as a soft factor – but as a strategic force.
Tips for everyday life
- Manage 1:1s regularly – not just when needed.
- Recognize relationship logics: Closeness or distance type? Duration or change? Do not evaluate, but consider.
- Actively name differences: “I’m more like this – you’re more like that. How do we deal with this productively?”
- Clarity before niceness: make decisions transparent – even when it gets uncomfortable.
- Leadership diary: reflect for 10 minutes once a week: Who did I see? Who perhaps not?
There is no patent remedy. There is no measure that “creates” a sense of belonging. What there is, is attitude. And consistency. Because belonging is created where people experience it: I am meant. I am seen. I can make an impact.