Dream, Believe, Achieve
I love watching the Rose Parade every New Year’s Day. Growing up in Northeastern Ohio, I dreamed of someday being there in person, and that dream came true when I lived in Los Angeles, many years later.
There is always an inspirational theme for the parade, and in 2022 it was Dream, Believe, Achieve. I imagine that when these words were selected, no one thought we’d be in the middle of another variant of Covid-19 and wondering when we’d have control of our lives again.
The idea of being able to dream, believe, and achieve is a powerful one and fits into a topic we’ve been writing about lately—how important it is to meet the emotional needs of our employees.
We’ve talked about how important respect, personal growth, and progress are to employees, but what about belonging? People who feel as if they belong to their organizations tend to be more productive and more engaged in their work.
Belonging is a critical part of emotional compensation. I think of the thousands of volunteers who work on the Rose Parade floats and what it must feel like for them to contribute to something so beautiful. And then there are the thousands of (mostly) high school band members who raise money to get the opportunity to march in the parade and represent their school. Now that’s belonging.
Belonging is strongly linked to the idea of connectedness we’ve talked about before. When people feel connected to their manager, to their co-workers, or to their work, they feel as if they belong to your organization.
Unfortunately, a high percentage of employees feel left out or isolated at work. Managers can have a great impact on helping people feel as if they belong, and it starts in the onboarding process. Think about how you introduce new hires to your current staff. Do you encourage current staff to warmly welcome new hires? Do you take the necessary time to make the new hire glad they joined your firm so that they quickly become part of the team and feel they belong?
When people belong, they have a positive effect on your growth and your future. When employees belong to your organization, they can Dream, Believe, and Achieve great things. Who knows where they can go from there?