🌈 Teams perform better when members feel included

This piece was originally sent to the Officevibe community via our newsletter on June 20, 2019.

In honour of LGBTQ+ Pride Month, we want to reiterate that creating a culture of belonging — where people can show up to work as their true selves — is vital to the success of your team. However, 46% of LGBTQ workers say they are closeted at work.

And, according to our Officevibe data, over 20% of employees worldwide do not feel confident that their personal identities are respected by everyone in their organization.

If people don’t feel safe or proud to be themselves in the workplace, they also might not feel safe to ask questions, share ideas, raise flags, make mistakes, or take risks. But when you do create a safe space, fueled by vulnerability and authenticity, you draw out people’s courage. In fact…

Teams operating in an inclusive culture outperform their peers by a staggering 80 percent.

3 tips to build inclusion and belonging on your team:

1. Get to know your colleagues as people:
   Encourage your team to get to know one another beyond their work roles. This helps build empathy and create lines of trust.
2. Define inclusive values:
   Create a set of guiding Team Principles to establish a baseline for how you work and treat one another, and revisit them often so they evolve alongside your team’s subculture.
3. Be curious & empathetic:
   Show your colleagues that you care by asking questions like: What can I do to help? What are you up against? What concerns do you have?

Take your inclusion efforts to the next level with these 5 Game-Changing Inclusion Activities for teams!

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