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Breaking Down Barriers: A Team Leader's Guide to Ensuring Everyone Works Well Together
Breaking Down Barriers: A Team Leader's Guide to Ensuring Everyone Works Well Together

The challenges of managing distributed teams are real, but so are the benefits. When done right, managing distributed teams can lead to better collaboration, higher productivity, and improved work-life balance for team members. However, there are a few challenges team leaders often encounter when managing distributed teams, including inevitable team friction and personality differences, issues with collaboration, and not meeting goals. With the right tools and strategies in place, you can break down the barriers preventing your team from reaching its goals. So, if you’re a manager of distributed teams, read on for strategies on how to manage distributed teams more effectively.  The Rise of Distributed Teams According to a 2020 study by Buffer, 52% of companies had at least one remote employee. This number has obviously grown, as more and more companies realize the benefits of having a distributed workforce. To save money on office space. To attract and retain top talent. To increase employee productivity. To improve work-life balance. To be more environmentally sustainable.There are also a number of challenges associated with managing a distributed team. Some of the most common challenges include:Cultural and personality differences Communication and collaboration Lack of connection Trust and accountabilityHowever, the benefits of having a distributed team often outweigh the challenges. Companies that are successful in managing a distributed team can reap a number of rewards, including:Increased productivity Reduced costs Improved employee satisfaction Increased innovation A more globalized workforceIf you're considering managing a distributed team, it's important to carefully consider the pros and cons. With careful planning and execution, a distributed team can be a powerful tool for driving business success.A study by Global Workplace Analytics found that the number of people working remotely in the United States has increased by 44% since 2010. A study by Upwork found that 57% of freelancers work remotely. A study by FlexJobs found that 71% of companies offer remote work options. A study by Buffer found that 52% of companies have at least one remote employee. A study by PwC found that 83% of CEOs believe that remote work will be the norm in the future.As you can see, the trend toward distributed teams is only going to continue. If you're not already thinking about how to manage a distributed team, now is the time to start and to get ahead of some of the key challenges that often hinder distributed teams. Problem 1: Managing Different Personalities It’s no great secret that everyone works in different ways and that diverse working styles or work energizers can often clash and lead to conflict. Nothing hurts productivity and growth like a team that doesn’t know how to work together. All employees have different styles of working that draw on their strengths and weaknesses. And these different styles or work energizers make up a team culture. For teams to work together effectively, they should be aware of each other's ways of working, and leaders need to be able to manage different work styles to their advantage. A well-balanced team that draws on the strength of each member’s work styles can lead to increased productivity, innovation, and efficiency in the workplace. Not doing so can translate into lost time and productivity, workplace stress, financial costs, and employee departure. The right balance of work styles within distributed teams As team leaders, we must understand and manage a variety of work styles every day to be effective. So let’s start with a quick little assessment. This test might sound a bit like you are at the eye doctor, but I promise it will be painless. Simply pick Option 1 or Option 2 for each of the following questions:When it comes to solving problems, do you tend to be more (1) Deliberate or (2) Decisive?  When it comes to relating to people, do you tend to be more (1) Reflective or (2) Outgoing?  When it comes to your work pace or level of urgency, do you tend to be more (1) Steady or (2) Spontaneous?  When it comes to processes and procedures, do you tend to be more (1) Cautious or (2) Freeform?Now count up your ONEs and TWOs. If you ended up with 3 or 4 ONEs, your overall work style is oriented toward stability. If you ended up with 3 or 4 TWOs, your overall work style is oriented toward change. If you ended up with 2 ONEs and 2 TWOs, you bring a balance between stability and change orientation. On any given team and depending on size, you may want at least two different types of work styles present. There’s a popular decision-making practice where employees assume different thinking hats. For example, one employee may be tasked with coming up with new ideas. They’re encouraged to bring unpredictable or possibly outlandish ideas to a meeting. Another employee is then tasked with being more discerning. They ask questions and assess the risks of different ideas.  By assigning team members a specific hat, at different times, for different projects it opens up for more inclusive discussions where a variety of ideas and perspectives can have a seat at the table. It’s a great way to bust dreaded group-think that often stifles innovation. This approach shows that every work style is a strength when expressed in the right situations.  So let’s walk through some key tips to keep in mind when managing people and teams with a mix of work styles. How to manage different work styles Set a clear vision for the team. Managing challenging behaviors – such as steamrolling or overanalyzing – takes planning and communication on your part. It’s important to play to your people’s strengths and direct their energy toward common goals. The tone of your workplace has a lot to do with setting expectations – and that’s your job. When beginning a project, gather the right team members together to talk about objectives and goals. How does the project support the company’s values and vision? How does each person’s role support the goals? Everyone should be on the same page, working toward the same outcome. How the team arrives at the final goal may look different to each person because of their individual work style or energizer. So, it’s up to you to focus or redirect their strengths, make sure they understand their roles, give feedback along the way, and give them the support or independence they need to do great things. Be aware of your own work style as the team leader. As leaders, we set the tone for our team. Every one of our team members can probably rattle off our behavioral traits without hesitation. When we are aware of our own tendencies and preferences, we have more opportunity to observe our own blind spots and change course when necessary. Not sure what your own behavior tendencies, motivators, and work energizers are? Use an assessment like this. Harness the power of diversity of thought and inclusion. When a team can see and understand how each person brings unique work-style strengths to the team, their capacity for better collaboration increases. Measure your team’s unique culture and determine the shared strengths of the team, as well as each individual team member. Talk about how different work styles have benefited the team. Be intentional with your team meetings. Put your knowledge of each team member’s work styles to use during team meetings. Ensure you actively bring in your more reflective team members, as they may not readily volunteer what they are thinking. Tap into people who are wired for a specific topic. For instance, ask your freeform team members to come prepared with some new ideas. Leading team meetings with intention makes the meeting outcome more productive, and it allows you to draw on different team members’ strengths.  It’s also important to meet people where they are. So, when you’re working with someone who relies on facts to make decisions, you should provide information that supports why something needs to be done. And you should expect that person will do her own research to verify your information. It’s simply how she works.  However, to adapt your management style to meet a real go-getter, you’ll want to be very direct with this team member. Tell him where he stands, what needs to be done, then get out of his way and let him do it. He’s all about getting it done. This team member will appreciate knowing where he stands with you. On the other hand, when you have a very social person on your team, you can expect to spend the first 5-10 minutes talking about family, current events, or other happenings before getting down to business.  Meeting each employee where they are when you interact with them in meetings will go a long way toward fostering the trust you need to execute on the vision you have set.  Problem 2: Communication & Collaboration Breakdowns in Distributed Teams Distributed teams need intentional communication because they lack the face-to-face interactions that are common in co-located teams. This can lead to misunderstandings, missed deadlines, and a lack of cohesion. In fact, research has shown that distributed workers waste upwards of 17 hours wasted each week on issues related to miscommunication. There are a number of things that distributed teams can do to improve their communication. First, they should establish clear communication channels and protocols. This means agreeing on which tools will be used for communication, how often team members will check in, and what the expectations are for response times. Second, they should be mindful of the tone of their communication. When you can't see someone's facial expressions or body language, it's easy to misinterpret their tone. Be sure to use clear and concise language, and if you want to be safe, avoid using sarcasm or humor that could be easily misinterpreted. Here are some additional manager’s tips for intentional communication in distributed teams:Demonstrate empathy any time the team member expresses a problem or frustration.Use The Empathy Formula to acknowledge the team member’s feelings based on facts. Here’s the formula: “It sounds like you’re (feeling) because/about (fact).” Here’s a real-life example: “It sounds like you’re feeling overwhelmed (feeling) because of the reduced number of people on the team (fact).”Establish a new one-on-one meeting routine.Have a scheduled meeting at least twice per week over video conference. If these meetings are currently less frequent, use the same amount of overall time divided up over more meetings. Always have your camera on and ask that the employee does the same -- it’s a way to build connection and drive resonance.Talk to your team members every single day.If a meeting is not scheduled, call them on the phone and talk to them. Sometimes just a quick check-in call is all it takes for some days. One of the most important elements of being an effective manager is keeping lines of communication open with your team members, especially when it has nothing to do with assignments or project statuses.  Do note that talking to a team member in a team meeting doesn’t count here, nor does exchanging texts or leaving voicemails. We have to put in the work!Demonstrate your availability.End your meetings with your team member by encouraging the team member to contact you by phone or to request an unscheduled meeting. Always answer the call when possible.Establish line of sight and continue to reinforce it.Ensure work assignments, expectations, and deadlines are perfectly clear. Break down current goals into smaller chunks that are measured on a more frequent basis. Find opportunities during your one-on-ones to talk about how the specific work they do contributes to a specific team or company objective. This is not as obvious to them as it might be to you.Do not hold hybrid meetings.Being a good manager entails leveling the meeting playing field so all team members can contribute equally. This is a best practice in general, and particularly important for any struggling team members. If some of the team members are in the same location and some are remote, have the onsite team members split up and join from their own computers. It equals the playing field, and makes remote employees feel less on the outside.Leverage a Culture PlaybookUse Humantelligence at least once a week with your teams. The first step is deepening your understanding of the team member’s motivators and behavioral preferences to best know how to help them. Once you have a deeper understanding of his/her psychometric-based Talent Profile, use the one-on-one comparison tool to go over your and the team member’s similarities and differences, which will help the team member feel “seen.” Uncover how the team member’s unique strengths shown on their Talent Profile can be better put to work for the benefit of the team, and then tell them.       From here, you can then leverage the team culture playbook. Being a good manager entails taking stock of your team’s dynamics, monitoring it, seeking feedback on it, and then shifting, building, or sustaining it. The Playbook enables you to align culture to strategy so you can improve your team’s performance. It’s a simple three-step process to help guide you through driving better collaboration, inclusion, and team effectiveness more quickly. With ongoing and frequent assessment of your team’s culture, you’ll be well on your way to better engaging team members and ensuring optimal effectiveness.  Problem 3: Lack of Meaningful Connection within Distributed Teams Connection at work matters. Would you be surprised to learn that people with friendly connections at work perform better in their job? According to research, people who have a good friend at work are not only more likely to be happier and healthier, but they are also seven times as likely to be engaged in their job. In addition, employees who report having friends at work have higher levels of productivity, retention and job satisfaction than those who don’t. The feelings of belonging and purpose that friendship and connection foster are among the top benefits people are looking to get from their work. These feelings are so profound and powerful that some employees would even trade some compensation for more meaningful relationships – at least that’s what over half of the employees surveyed by BetterUp Labs found. And when connection improves, collaboration and productivity has shown to improve by nearly 25%. How to encourage meaningful connection among your distributed team A recent study from Accenture found that on-site workers were the most likely to say they felt disconnected at work. The study challenges the assumption that working only on-site makes people feel more connected. People who work on-site, in comparison with those who work in hybrid or remote workplaces, feel the least connected of the three groups studied — 42 percent of on-site workers say they feel “not connected” versus 36 percent hybrid and 22 percent fully remote.  While in-person time is vital, physical proximity that lacks leadership support, flexibility, technology or sense of purpose doesn’t necessarily translate into people feeling deeper connections to their work and to each other. It’s not about the building, the site, the campus. As with most things in this life, it’s about what’s going on inside that counts. Accenture’s Organizational culture: From always connected to omni-connected report outlines how companies can strengthen culture and connection by delivering what they refer to as “omni-connected experiences,” which level the playing field, enabling people to participate fully and have an equitable experience — growing their careers, building relationships, and creating both personal and business value and impact — regardless of where they physically work. The key to deeper connection and strong engagement is to simply enable and activate the everyday interactions between coworkers. Make sure your employees are making the most of their in-office days and that there are adequate spaces and reasons for in-person interactions. Encourage spontaneous check-ins. With fewer people around us, it’s easy just to immerse ourselves in work, but regular check-ins with others are crucial for everyone, in particular leaders who may not otherwise notice if their team is struggling.  Make sure your remote employees aren’t being overlooked for team and company events. Be mindful to create opportunities for genuine human connection. Support informal mentorships. Facilitate communication across departments and employees of different ages and experience levels so team members can learn more about each other and their areas of work, while sparking new ideas and interests.Embracing Collaboration Technology that Drives Connection For any work arrangement, whether in-office, hybrid, or remote, keeping your employees connected through technology is a must. Beyond using email, Slack, Teams, Zoom, or other collaboration software, consider squeezing more from your investment in those tools by integrating a quick add-on that gives each team member the insights needed to establish stronger relationships with another – all before they even start communicating.  When drafting an email, chatting with a colleague, or joining a meeting, this add-on automatically surfaces useful, customized tips for more effective communication that ends up helping you improve your relationships at work. Consider the use case of one-on-one check-ins. One of the most powerful and simple steps a manager can take to help an employee feel more connected and productive is to check in with the employee regularly. Learning how to check-in effectively means inviting the conversations that really matter with the employee and providing the support and encouragement they need. Now, add in a layer of knowing how best to approach that employee based on their communication, collaboration, and work styles, and your one-on-ones will be more productive than ever – and your employee will feel more seen and connected than ever. It’s a game changer for managers. Human connection builds and compounds when people have ongoing shared experiences and a mutual familiarity with one another. Anytime you create time and space for that – and enable it with technology – you’re creating just the right conditions for connection to blossom. If you're looking to improve your team's  connection, collaboration and productivity, we can help.

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To Improve Team Performance Try Faster Trust-Building
To Improve Team Performance Try Faster Trust-Building

Remote work became the new norm in 2020. Since then, employers around the world have embraced flexible schedules for their teams, leading to new remote work trends and more remote work options. What many companies failed to notice was the impact on team performance. In this post, we’ll discuss how to improve team performance through trust building. We'll explore why it’s important and how you can accelerate building trust in a remote environment. The Power of Trust-Building to Improve Team Performance “Trust gives you the permission to give people direction, get everyone aligned, and give them the energy to go get the job done…” – Douglas Conant We all know how important trust is – especially when someone betrays it -- and how much we need it. But it can be elusive. And there’s plenty of evidence to support the need to experience it professionally. Many U.S. studies report high-trust organizations are 2.5X more likely to be high-performing revenue companies than their low-trust counterparts. In 2016, Bart de Jong and colleagues conducted 112 studies with nearly 8,000 teams, finding a positive relationship between intra-team trust And achieving shared goals.   Further, the people analytics firm Great Place to Work®, partnering with Fortune, produces the 100 Best Companies to Work For. In 2021, Great Place to Work surveyed over half a million employees on issues around trust, caring, and how fair the company is in times of crises; employees’ physical, emotional, and financial health; and the company’s broader community impact.  Analysis revealed strong links between positive employee opinions and how employees witnessed their senior leaders and direct managers during the crisis. Seventy-one percent of winning workplaces scored better than in pre-pandemic times, increasing employees’ experiences of workplace trust by an average of three percentage points. It’s not surprising that the trust between managers and employees is one of the primary defining characteristics of the very best workplaces -- and improved team performance.  The 3 Most Important Trust Contributors to Improve Team Performance Trust is not absolute.  It takes these three things: PREDICTABILITY, DEPENDABILITY and CONFIDENCE. There are 3 states within which we feel we can trust. When we:Expect that a person will behave predictably. Expectations could be implicit or explicit. Can let go of the need/desire to control what another person will do — there is dependability.  Are willing to be vulnerable, like when we open ourselves up to someone in good faith – confident that we’re safe to share.A willingness to be vulnerable depends on a few things too. Mayer, Davis and Schoorman, in their development of a Trust Model, discussed three elements that must be in place before we allow ourselves to be vulnerable, taking the risk to trust. We allow ourselves to be vulnerable when we believe someone:Shows Ability – knowledge, skills, competencies that allow someone to have influence in a specific area.  Has Integrity – is on same page with us about the principles we uphold—often implicitly assumed.   Is Benevolent – the extent to which we believe that a person wants to do good for us.  It’s about caring about the other person, not having a vested interest, and not benefiting from the relationship.As you might guess, building trust typically takes time because it's based on experiences. However, in today’s remote work reality where things happen quickly and there is less and less chance of organic interactions, it’s becoming imperative that we expedite the process if we want our teams to perform better and to achieve results. How to Accelerate Trust-Building for Your Teams In some ways, technology has facilitated our ability to stay connected. At the same time, it has made it more challenging to build trust.   Plus, with the sharp increase in working remotely, relying on Zoom, Teams, Lifesize,  and WebEx for our communication, means we lose so much – especially when you consider studies show that 70-90% of all communication is non-verbal. Those non-verbal cues are valuable for reading each other, and can often get lost through a small screen. Further, we’re going through a time of renewal – new ways of thinking about who we are and what we’re about. Some have called it the Great Resignation, but it seems to be more about taking a step back to “see the forest for the trees,” paying closer attention to how we connect and behave. Technology has made it possible to learn about one another more quickly and easily. There are so many tools on the market for better team performance, different in their presentation, similar in their derivation of types. Many are highly prescriptive, leaving little room for discussion, situational influence or self-discovery.  And when it comes to building trust, self-discovery is crucial. That’s why a psychometric assessment works best to accelerate trust-building to improve team performance. Invest in Trust-Building Technology for Team Engagement In the coming year, companies will continue to rely on software solutions to improve engagement and company culture. The key is understanding your employees’ personas so you can leverage that data to improve self-awareness, enhance team collaboration, elevate emotional intelligence, and actively manage culture. In practical application, an employee persona derives from this thinking and is the sum of one’s psychometric self-assessment. This sum is called a talent profile and details a team member’s behaviors, motivators or values, work energizers and life priorities — using three primary business archetypes or personas. Self-Awareness Once reserved for the executive level and requiring extensive consultation, deep insight into how you prefer to think, engage, and apply oneself is available for all employees. It’s that kind of self-awareness — when people better understand their success factors — that helps them leverage their strengths and more easily identify the kinds of opportunities that align with their professional goals. Accurate self-knowledge is the key to getting what you want out of life. And with a talent profile that goes deep into your behaviors, motivators, work energizers, and life priorities, employees can see their tendencies in real-life action. Improved Collaboration & Emotional Intelligence So you’ve helped your team members become more aware of their tendencies. Great!  Now, it’s time to leverage these predominant behavioral themes for your team to achieve better communication and collaboration. That starts with elevating emotional intelligence across your team.  Imagine being able to take emotional intelligence insights from your team members’ profiles and put them right where employees communicate most often — think meetings, chat, and email. You’re probably already using communication technology like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, and more! But you’re probably not optimizing your use of those tools by integrating emotional intelligence for your team. With a simple integrated plug-in, you can give your staff the kind of information needed to better communicate and collaborate with one another — based on their talent profiles & personas — taking all of the guesswork out of it and allowing them to spend time on the work that matters. This then leads to better team performance. You just click on meeting participants or email recipients and see real-time tips and recommendations for communicating, motivating, and influencing. Imagine knowing who best from your team to tap on for pre- or post-meeting action items, for helping leading certain initiatives while identifying those better suited to document or support, and who might benefit from a heads up on particular messages. This is EQ in action, using your your team members’ behaviors, motivators, and work styles. Culture Management Now, take this data for each of your team members and roll it up. When you’re able to aggregate this data, you’ll find yourself with actionable insights into team dynamics for comparative analysis.  You can gain insights into the makeup of your team in order to better understand your culture. You’ll see your team’s similarities and complements on a continuum with team strengths highlighted and potential gaps identified. This kind of information can help you finally manage culture in a way to drives team effectiveness:Map current vs. target cultures for teams or the entire organization  Pinpoint strengths and gaps to identify necessary shifts -- what do we need more of or less of Understand what work motivators contribute most to your team’s cultureIn addition to leveraging technology to better and more quickly understand employees so you can build trust with your team, here are some other strategies to keep in mind. Lead with Empathy to Improve Team Performance As a leader of remote employees or distributed teams, you set the example. In any team, remote or not, it is crucial to be mindful and considerate of your colleagues as whole people. While this may sound simple, we’re often not great at considering things outside our immediate range of experience.  Here’s what you can do foster this in your team: Opportunities for improving your empathy muscles: Create regular virtual opportunities for your team to meet, both formally and informally, and encourage them to share more about themselves, their families and personal interests. As a team, create and nurture an environment where it is encouraged to express a more personal side of yourself. More social communication of this kind is related to higher levels of trust in remote teams.Ask questions. Demonstrate that you have listened and that you care by asking questions because you want to learn more. In addition to asking the other person questions, ask yourself questions like, “How would I feel or what would I do in this situation? Assume positive intent. Remote work and the endless flood of information and online communication can easily lead to misunderstandings, turning what was supposed to be fast and easy communication into a source of frustration. Assuming negative intentions where there are none will soon crush a team’s dynamic. Developing your empathy skills will help you escape these negative emotions and work towards better collaboration. Listen more. Encourage open communication between yourself and your remote team and its members, and focus on listening to what your employees are saying -- not just waiting to speak. To be empathetic, you have to key in on what the other person is saying, both nonverbally and verbally. Emotions can be seen and heard. You can pick up on feelings based on what the other person says and how they say it, including their tone.  Identify and challenge your biases. We are all biased. People tend to approach situations with preconceived notions. It helps people feel prepared for situations. It helps people to feel in control and more comfortable. But preconceived notions, assumptions. or biases make it difficult to listen fully. Work on identifying them and challenging these biases to improve empathy and become more inclusive of different perspectives. Develop a safe space. The highest-performing teams have one thing in common: psychological safety — the belief that you won’t be punished when you make a mistake. Studies show that psychological safety allows for moderate risk-taking, speaking your mind, creativity, and sticking your neck out without fear of having it cut off — just the types of behavior that lead to breakthroughs or innovations.Trust & Culture Hand-in-Hand In the end, one of the easiest ways to practice empathy is to offer your support and tangible help. Sometimes, it is not enough to say, “I’m sorry to hear this.” Instead, say, “I’d like to help.” Or, “How can I support you?” Or, “What can I take off your plate?” Showing that you are willing to take time and energy to do something for someone else can go a long way to demonstrate you’re an empathetic leader. It shows that you are willing to invest your time in them.  Empathy and EQ in the workplace allows employees to better understand each other. When employees understand each other, they can better trust one another, and teams can be more effective and productive. Leaders have the ability to empathize, and by empathizing they inspire others to be caring, and that trickles down. The result: healthier, more inclusive cultures and better team performance.

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How to Prioritize Employee Mental Health
How to Prioritize Employee Mental Health

The workplace can be a stressful environment. Employees are under constant pressure to perform at their best and meet deadlines. Add to this the near constant state of uncertainty -- more than 165,000 people have been laid off in 2023 along, according to TechCrunch -- workers feel more anxious, depressed, and burnt out than ever before. Employee mental health impacts everyone. Mental health problems can have a negative impact on employees’ job performance, as well as their physical health. They may also lead to absenteeism and high turnover rates. Mental health problems are a major issue in the workplace, but they are often overlooked. Employers need to prioritize employee mental health and well-being in order to create a healthy and productive workplace. The Importance of Prioritizing Employee Mental Health & Wellbeing Mental health issues in the workplace can be draining, both financially and emotionally. Employees can become disengaged from their work and suffer from burnout, which can lead to decreased productivity. This can have a negative impact on the bottom line of a business.$20mn of additional lost opportunity for every 10,000 workers due to struggling or suffering employees 75% of medical costs accrued mostly due to preventable conditions $322 billion of turnover and lost productivity cost globally due to employee burnout 15% to 20% of total payroll in voluntary turnover costs, on average, due to burnoutIn order to combat these issues, employers must prioritize employee mental health and well-being. This means implementing policies that protect and promote mental health. Some of these include having regular team meetings to discuss employee mental health, offering mental health resources to employees, and providing mental health education to managers and employees. In addition, employers should strive to create an environment of openness and trust. This means that there should be a safe space for employees to discuss their mental health with managers and colleagues. Managers should also strive to create a work environment that promotes engagement and healthy work-life balance. By recognizing the importance of mental health and well-being in the workplace, employers can create a happier, healthier, and more productive environment for their employees. This will ultimately lead to increased productivity and a healthier bottom line. How to Create a Mentally Healthy Workplace And though we all probably knew this before, the pandemic has really driven home the point. Feeling happy and content at work is crucial to feeling happiness in life. It would benefit all of us to continue to find ways to help coworkers, employees, and leaders feel good. To start closing the disconnect between what employers say and what employees experience, here are seven ways to support the mental health of your employees right now. Survey your own employees about mental health in the workplace. First things first...you don't know what you don't know. Many companies implement stress management programs — and that’s a good start. But reach out to employees about what stresses they are managing while at work. When you start to see patterns, you'll be able to better gauge the energy and dynamic of your team and identify interventions that can have a collective positive impact. Help employees reduce — not just manage — stress. Once you’ve evaluated the main stressors of your population, make it a priority to address mental health at work. Consider implementing flexible hours or permanently hybrid or virtual work arrangements to help people juggle work and life. If resources are an issue, staff up, contract out, add budget, reprioritize, and put some projects on hold -- because nothing is more important than the health and well-being of your employees. Take care of your employees by watching their hours. While burning the midnight oil seems noble and can get results in the short term, the long-term result is burnout. People need to rest, recharge and connect with loved ones to stay mentally sound, so make sure long hours aren’t a regular occurrence. Make time for fun and empower meaningful connection. Whether it’s playing a game or just connecting over chat, having fun with coworkers increases productivity and builds trust. It also relieves stress by forcing a cognitive shift in how stressors are viewed and creates a positive emotional response.  When it comes to work, we can also do better to enable more meaningful connection. Whether working one-on-one or within and across departments or divisions, teams can have a deeper understanding of one another, and as a result, work together more effectively than ever before.  To do this easily and quickly, some organizations are leveraging add-ons to the communication tools they're already using every day -- think, email, chat, video meetings. These add-ons surface surface actionable communication, collaboration and inclusion tips so people can connect more meaningfully. It also surfaces key insights around influencing, motivating, and collaborating. Keep an eye out for depression. According to the Partnership for Workplace Mental Health, 70 percent of people with depression are in the workforce — and not all of them are aware of their condition. Nevertheless, only 15 percent of employers train managers on how to recognize depression and intervene to help with employee care. Considering that treating depression can save companies $2,000 annually per employee through improved health and productivity, learning to take care of your employees is well worth it — not just from a cost perspective, but to help employees stay healthy and happy.  Provide support and employee care. Make sure your company provides adequate benefit coverage for mental health services — from individual and couples counseling to group therapy. Offer an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) that provides access to qualified mental health therapists and a variety of services to help employees manage their lives. If you cannot implement an EAP, consider compiling a resource center of apps and services for your employees to use. Bring it all together.  Consider implementing a written mental health philosophy and policy for all employees. Some organizations are creating a documented mental health policy for team members, as a way to open up the conversation and show them the support they deserve to receive from their employers. Major elements of any communication policy around mental health should include: Acknowledgment. Let the team know that it is okay to disclose (or not disclose) a mental illness at work and to ask for help. Offerings. Provide a clear and comprehensive explanation of benefits to ensure that employees know what resources are available to them. Accommodations. The policy should also detail how employees can ask for reasonable accommodations for a mental health condition and explains that their information will be kept confidential. The Benefits of a Mentally Healthy Workplace A mentally healthy workplace has many benefits for both employers and employees. It is an important factor in promoting employee wellbeing and driving productivity. Employers who prioritize employee mental health will see an improvement in staff engagement, retention and job performance. The positive effects of a mentally healthy workplace go beyond the individual employee. By providing support and resources to maintain employees’ mental health, businesses can create a more collaborative and stress-free work environment. This will boost morale, productivity and creativity throughout the entire organization. Mental health initiatives can also help businesses save costs by lowering the risk of burnout among staff, avoiding workplace accidents and reducing the potential for absenteeism. Employers who prioritize employee mental health and wellbeing can also benefit from an enhanced reputation and better staff recruitment and retention rates. Ultimately, good mental health is integral to helping businesses succeed. By creating a mentally healthy workplace, employers can ensure that their employees have the resources and support they need to reach their full potential. If you're interested in building a healthy team toolkit for your organization, we encourage to talk to one of our solutions experts.

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5 Tips for Building Human Connection on Your Team
5 Tips for Building Human Connection on Your Team

We spend half our waking weekday hours working. So it's no surprise that so many of us place a high value on our work friendships and close working relationships with colleagues. And if you think about it, those relationships exist because the conditions were just right for creating connection at work. A warm team environment can make or break the employee experience. But with the rise of remote work and flexible scheduling, it’s harder than ever to form those tight-knit bonds with co-workers. In fact, according to Gallup, 9 in 10 remote-capable employees prefer remote flexibility, and 6 in 10 prefer hybrid work. Of those preferring hybrid work, one of the top reasons for it was a desire to feel more connected to team members and to the organization. And there are major benefits to enabling connection among team members. So in our more remote, work-from-anywhere world, establishing human connection isn’t impossible. It just takes some more effort and focus. Employers increasingly need to play an active role in fostering these connections and ensuring employees feel engaged and motivated at work. But why? Creating Connection at Work Improves Employee Retention What secured your new hire is not going to keep them. Employers are attracting employees through flexible work, competitive salary and benefits, and claims of work-life balance. Employees will choose to stay when they feel connected to their peers, manager, organization, and work. Employee retention about getting the basics right. Building connection means ensuring new employees feel a tie to their work. They understand how they are contributing meaningfully to the mission of the organization, and have a sense of belonging. People must feel these connections immediately. In the virtual workplace, employers must work even harder to make and keep connections. Often this means entirely revamping onboarding for greater effectiveness.  Below are some tips to help you start creating connection at work for your employees. Tip 1: Start connecting with employees at recruitment & onboarding First, show candidates how your organization is one that is worth their investment even before they accept a new job. In a world where many HR processes are automated, organizations that take a personalized approach to hiring will make a strong impression. For example, automating tax form completion is efficient, but having a personal conversation about an employee’s start date elevates the experience of connection.  Handwritten notes, phone calls to check in, and introductions to fellow employees are ways to draw employees in before they get started -- and plant seeds for creating connection. Figure out how your new hires learn and communicate best, and then tailor the onboarding and training to those tendencies. It’s easy to figure that out when you use a psychometric assessment that shows an employee's common behaviors, motivators, values, and work energizers. This is the kind of information that you often only get after months or even years of working with someone, but with just a quick 12-minute personality survey, you can get at this info quickly – and start leveraging it to build connection during onboarding. Your new-hire will feel the difference! Tip 2: Make appreciation a part of work An act of appreciation or recognition is a key factor in feeling connected. When someone takes the time to acknowledge or appreciate your efforts, it has a powerful effect. It says “I see you.” An employee recognition program can be formal or as simple as increasing and normalizing appreciation. In fact, when employees are thanked 12 times, attrition falls to just 2%. Workers recognized in the last month are half as likely to be looking for a new job (26% vs 49%). And you can even institute compelling recognition programs even if you have a small team or limited budget. No matter where you land on this spectrum, here are some ideas to get started. Spotlighting strong performance can transform a content employee into a fully engaged one who actively pushes for greater things. Drives Excellence – Employee recognition is the foundation for creating a high-performing team. It strengthens relationships and provides a clear purpose aligned to achievable goals. Recognizing performance allows business leaders to drive toward key goals like retention by connecting people and culture to shared purpose. Increases Engagement – Eighty-four percent of those surveyed in this SHRM/Workhuman Employee Recognition Survey said that social recognition measurably and positively impacted engagement. Reinforces Company Values – Because employee recognition should be designed with rewards that map back specifically to each value, it integrates those ideals into employees’ everyday thoughts and actions. Nurtures Trust – According to a 2017 study, nearly 90% of employees who received recognition from their boss indicated high levels of trust in that relationship vs. just 48% for those who received no recognition. Research shows that workers who trust senior leaders are nearly 2x as likely to be engaged. Impacts Bottom Line - Organizations with formal recognition programs have 31% less voluntary turnover than organizations that don't have any program at all.Start simple…add an agenda item to your meeting to go around the group and let people “shout out” appreciation to anyone who’s helped them or done something noteworthy since the last meeting. It’s simple but powerful, and helps people bond. Tip 3: Make meetings more personal and less transactional to create connection at work We all still spend a lot of time in meetings, and while they can feel like a necessary evil at work, they can be an incredible opportunity to build overlap with others when approached with that intention. The key is to invite people to share more about themselves in the meeting. One effective way teams do this is by adding a “question of the day” to the agenda. The question might be something as simple as “where did you grow up?” to something more fun like “what’s your favorite movie of all time and why?” The goal is simply to invite people to share more about themselves in a safe, nonthreatening way. The magic of doing this is in the potential for a spark of connection. When two people realize that they grew up in the same place or share a common interest, they take a step or two away from just being co-workers in the direction of becoming friends. Tip 4: Creating connection at work through communities of practice A community of practice (CoP) is a group of people who share a common concern, a set of problems, or an interest in a topic and who come together to fulfill both individual and group goals. Communities of practice exist to take advantage of the expertise within the company. They give employees and teams opportunities to share their knowledge, brainstorm, and collaborate across multiple locations – of which builds connections among employees who might not otherwise have to interact. Employees involved in communities of practice have opportunities to develop their current areas of expertise and grow their knowledge by solving problems with their colleagues. They also gain the advantage of feedback and support from experts. Documents related to the communities of practice are stored in a library accessible to employees. The work performed by these key players benefits others later. Tip 5: Use integrations within your existing communication tools For any work arrangement, whether in-office, hybrid, or remote, keeping your employees connected through technology is a must. Beyond using email, Slack, Teams, Zoom, or other collaboration software, consider squeezing more from your investment in those tools by integrating a quick add-on that gives each team member the insights needed to establish stronger relationships with another – all before they even start communicating.  When drafting an email, chatting with a colleague, or joining a meeting, this add-on automatically surfaces useful, customized tips for more effective communication that ends up helping you improve your relationships at work. Consider the use case of one-on-one check-ins. One of the most powerful and simple steps a manager can take to help an employee feel more connected and productive is to check in with the employee regularly. Learning how to check-in effectively means inviting the conversations that really matter with the employee and providing the support and encouragement they need. Now, add in a layer of knowing how best to approach that employee based on their communication, collaboration, and work styles, and your one-on-ones will be more productive than ever – and your employee will feel more seen and connected than ever. It's a way to start creating connection at work before you even meet, and it’s a total game changer for managers.

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The Power of Connection at Work
The Power of Connection at Work

The way we work has changed. Distributed teams along with generational differences and diverse personalities make collaboration, communication, and connection at work more difficult than ever. Miscommunications that could be easily rectified with a quick face-to-face chat now are left to fester at our keyboards. At the same time, the world of flexible remote and hybrid work has opened up many opportunities for employees around the world.  Unfortunately, some of those opportunities lead to other companies. That doesn’t mean remote work isn’t working. It just means we need to do a better job of encouraging interpersonal connection at work. In this article, see how you can harness the awesome power of human connection to improve employee engagement and increase retention. The High Cost of Losing Connection at Work The sudden shift to remote work over the past couple of years gave our people an opportunity to do more than just spruce up their home offices – it also gave them a chance to think and reevaluate bigger topics, like just how work fits into their lives. And this has undoubtedly contributed to trends like the Great Resignation and quiet quitting, as many employees realized that personal needs, such as connection, family, happiness, and health mattered more to them than promotions, career paths, and other work-related objectives. In fact, according to Gallup, U.S. employee engagement took a giant step backward during the second quarter of 2022, with the proportion of engaged workers remaining at 32 percent while the proportion of actively disengaged increasing to 18 percent. This put the ratio of engaged to actively disengaged employees at 1.8 to 1, the lowest in almost a decade. We don’t have to tell you, this turnover can leave your organization in a bind. Estimates show that every time a business replaces a salaried employee, it costs 6 to 9 months’ salary on average. For a manager making $60,000 a year, that's $30,000 to $45,000 in recruiting and training expenses. This doesn’t even account for all of the soft costs required to onboard a new employee, the impacts on morale and culture, loss of knowledge and productivity, or the ways that whole teams can be affected when it’s a team leader who leaves. Not to scare you further, but research out of LinkedIn also shows that 70 percent of the global workforce is passive talent, and more than half would consider leaving for the right opportunity. So basically, everyone is a flight risk! The good news is that one of the most important and impactful solutions takes into account the fact that work life and personal contentment aren’t mutually exclusive. In fact, everything – including employee engagement and retention – improves when we bring the two into alignment through deeper connection. The Importance of Connection at Work Connection at work matters. Would you be surprised to learn that people with friendly connections at work perform better in their job? According to research, people who have a good friend at work are not only more likely to be happier and healthier, but they are also seven times as likely to be engaged in their job. In addition, employees who report having friends at work have higher levels of productivity, retention and job satisfaction than those who don’t. The feelings of belonging and purpose that friendship and connection foster are among the top benefits people are looking to get from their work. These feelings are so profound and powerful that some employees would even trade some compensation for more meaningful relationships – at least that’s what over half of the employees surveyed by BetterUp Labs found. Feeling more connected at work doesn’t only make employees happier. It has several other clear effects on employee and organizational performance. For example, 94 percent of employees agreed that they’re more productive when they feel connected to their colleagues, and, when compared to employees who didn’t feel actively connected to their workplace, connected employees were:More than 3 in 5 employees with high social connectivity report being highly engaged, whereas just over 1 in 10 employees with low social connectivity consider themselves highly engaged at work. Employees who have strong social bonds with their coworkers are more motivated to perform.  Individuals who report having connection at work are 7x more likely to exhibit better engagement, customer relations, work quality, and wellbeing, as well as a lower risk of injury. Highly engaged teams show 21% greater profitability.Employee engagement consists of concrete behavior, not an abstract feeling. Organizations that view engagement as a feeling often conduct employee surveys and provide offer perks to improve the results. Gallup reports that the most successful organizations make employee engagement central to their business strategy. They give employees clear expectations and provide them with the tools and support to do their best work.  Why are engaged teams more profitable? Those teams who score in the top 20 percent in engagement realize a 41 percent reduction in absenteeism, and 59 percent less turnover. Engaged employees show up with passion, purpose, presence, and energy. So, let’s turn our focus toward increasing connection – and that doesn’t mean forcing everyone back into the office. Return-to-Office Doesn’t Always Make for Better Connection A recent study from Accenture found that on-site workers were the most likely to say they felt disconnected at work. The study challenges the assumption that working only on-site makes people feel more connected. People who work on-site, in comparison with those who work in hybrid or remote workplaces, feel the least connected of the three groups studied — 42 percent of on-site workers say they feel “not connected” versus 36 percent hybrid and 22 percent fully remote.  While in-person time is vital, physical proximity that lacks leadership support, flexibility, technology or sense of purpose doesn’t necessarily translate into people feeling deeper connections to their work and to each other. It’s not about the building, the site, the campus. As with most things in this life, it’s about what’s going on inside that counts. Accenture’s Organizational culture: From always connected to omni-connected report outlines how companies can strengthen culture and connection by delivering what they refer to as “omni-connected experiences,” which level the playing field, enabling people to participate fully and have an equitable experience — growing their careers, building relationships, and creating both personal and business value and impact — regardless of where they physically work. In Enboarder’s research of building connection at work, survey findings showed that the things that made the biggest impact on employees' feelings of connectedness, and hence, their retention rates were things you’re probably already doing: team meetings (49%), skills sharing with coworkers and peers (29%), spontaneous interactions with colleagues (28%), and all-company meetings (26%). Now What? Just because you're already doing it doesn’t mean it’s working well. Consider optimizing these efforts and employing technology that supports them.  The key to deeper connection and strong engagement is to simply enable and activate the everyday interactions between coworkers. Make sure your employees are making the most of their in-office days and that there are adequate spaces and reasons for in-person interactions. Encourage spontaneous check-ins. With fewer people around us, it’s easy just to immerse ourselves in work, but regular check-ins with others are crucial for everyone, in particular leaders who may not otherwise notice if their team is struggling.  Make sure your remote employees aren’t being overlooked for team and company events. Be mindful to create opportunities for genuine human connection. Support informal mentorships. Facilitate communication across departments and employees of different ages and experience levels so team members can learn more about each other and their areas of work, while sparking new ideas and interests.If anything good came out of our rapid, pandemic-induced shift to remote work, it was that we finally had the unique opportunity to meet many of our colleagues’ families and pets over Zoom. This helped us see them as the human beings they are, which fueled a sense of connection when we needed it most. Now, we have the opportunity to take that sense of connection and amplify it. Remember, increasing employee retention doesn’t just help your company; it helps your people. An employee who feels connection at work, is an employee who can engage fully. And an employee who can fully engage is an employee who feels compelled to stay. Need help getting your employees connected and on the same page, talk to one of our solutions experts!

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How to Improve Communication for Better Work Relationships
How to Improve Communication for Better Work Relationships

Just like any good friendship, marriage, or courtship, when things are good, they’re good because the communication is there. The communication is open communication – meaning each person has a chance to share opinions, ideas, complaints, questions, or feedback and is treated respectfully after doing so. You problem solve together and work through an issue. It’s no different at work. Open communication is one of the easiest ways to build strong relationships in the workplace. The key is to make frequent, robust, personalized communication simply a part of the way you do business. The problem is, when things get stressful, overwhelming, or hard, we tend to retreat into defensive, one-way, transactional, or no communication at all. Here, we’re sharing the 7 most important tips for improving communication at work so you can build quality relationships that can lead to better collaboration, problem solving, and workplace performance – for everyone!  1. Resist the Urge to Avoid Did you know, a whopping 70 percent of employees avoid difficult conversations in the workplace? Further, according to Officevibe, an online platform that helps managers cultivate stronger, healthier relationships, “nearly 1 in 4 employees do not feel that their manager is aware of employee pain points.” Bravely calls it the conversation gap, and it can lower morale and often forms the foundation for a toxic work environment.  Biting your tongue and dodging long-deferred, important conversations may hurt more than just company relationships; it may adversely impact productivity and profits.  According to Forbes, avoiding difficult conversations can actually lead to dysfunction and lack of performance. A major study found that employees spend an average of 2.8 hours a week dealing with conflict, which amounts to roughly $359 billion in workforce costs. Even if it’s uncomfortable, open conversations addressing difficult situations are important for our well-being and mental health, as well as for fostering stronger relationships and teams at work. 2. Improving Communication at Work by Assuming Nothing You know what they say about assuming things! So as hard as this may be, come into the conversation with a clear head and an open mind. Giving the conversation’s participants the benefit of the doubt will help prevent them from getting defensive, which of course, will make the conversation even more difficult. This is an opportunity to practice compassion. Ask questions about people’s experiences and listen to what they say. Important things will be said and the better you listen, the better the people having the conversation will listen to each other. We all want to be heard and recognized, and this approach will put you in the right mindset to more effectively listen to your colleagues, even when it’s things that are hard to hear. 3. Focus on Facts & Behaviors It’s easy to point fingers and place blame based on your perceptions and implications. Try to confront behavior, not your assessment of their behavior. Using inferences like “irresponsible” or “not a team player” causes defensiveness and makes success less likely.  You must ask yourself, “What is the evidence for my inference?” Use the following kind of language conventions to stick to behaviors: “When you do X, it causes me to think you are Y.” Plan before and maybe even practice so you keep your composure.  In the process, take responsibility for anything you can directly — helping to mitigate against any backlash or intense feelings by letting the other person know you understand your part in the problem. 4. Use GRIT for Improving Communication at Work No, not grit…but GRIT: Generosity, Respect, Integrity and Truth. According to Laurie Sudbrink of Unlimited Coaching Solutions, “No one likes to be confronted. Most appreciate being helped. When engaging in a conversation to help, our intent will come from a better place. We won’t feel like we’re confronting the person, and our disposition aligns more naturally. I find it helpful to have an opening statement that portrays my intent. And then commit to being fully present and helpful throughout the dialogue.” 5. Focus on Value & Impact Confrontation suggests meeting someone face-to-face with hostile intent. Examine what your true intent is, and ask yourself, how can this conversation create value for me, for the other person, and for the organization? To prevent them from getting defensive, try using the framework of: Situation, Behavior, Impact. For example, you were in a meeting (the situation; your manager yelled at you and pounded her fist on the table (behavior); and it made you question your ability to do your job (the impact.) When you talk to them, put it in the construct of “when you do this, this is how it affects me.” It doesn’t necessarily have to be how it made you feel. Some of the impacts can be “I didn’t understand where you were coming from,” or “I didn’t fully understand the point you were trying to drive home.”  6. Bring Solutions Not More Problems Move the conversation in a positive direction by bringing suggestions of how to remedy the situation, bringing forth options for how to achieve that. By doing that, you won’t be looked at as complaining but rather, problem solving. It also demonstrates that you respect their time since they probably have limited bandwidth to address this.  7. Prepare, Plan, and Make Tech Your Friend Role play, or at minimum, putting yourself in the other’s shoes is an effective way to prepare for and practice tough or potentially uncomfortable conversations. Write down what you want to say and be clear on the goal of the conversation — what do you want someone to leave with? as an “a-ha” or action item? Rehearsing what and how you want to say something will help you keep the conversation direct and on track — avoiding distraction and saying hurtful things that may cause further issues or conflict. Further, this is where technology can come in to help. The basis for many interpersonal conflicts at work is poor communication; and poor communication often results from misunderstanding or a lack of truly understanding your conversation counterpart.  If you had personality insights for the person with whom you’re communicating, you’d be able to take a more custom approach to the conversation. Whether it be in video meetings, on the phone, via email, or chat, you could have the kind of information needed to better communicate and collaborate with one another right at your fingertips – taking all of the guesswork out of it. Here’s how it works. Every team member takes a scientifically validated, 12-minute personality assessment. The plug-in then delivers those insights through the tools you use everyday: think tools like Microsoft Teams, Outlook, Gmail, calendars, Zoom, Slack, Webex, and more. When drafting an email, chatting with a colleague, or joining a meeting, this plug-in automatically surfaces useful, customized tips for more effective communication with peers. Imagine being able to click on meeting participants and see real-time tips and recommendations for communicating, motivating, and influencing. Imagine seeing this same information in aggregate for your meeting group. Imagine knowing who best to tap for helping leading certain initiatives while identifying those better suited to support, and who might benefit from a heads up on particular messages — all of which take into account your team members’ behaviors, motivators, and work energizers in an easy-to-understand way. As a team leader, you’re able to lay a strong foundation for more inclusive and efficient communication and for team members, along with:Creating more balanced, diverse & agile teams Optimizing team members’ impact by tapping into the unique behaviors, motivators & work energizers of each person. Experiencing the increased productivity that comes from improved team effectiveness.As a team member, you’re able to:Gain deeper understanding of one another, allowing better connection and ability to work through conflict Create deeper, more meaningful connection that translates into more effective collaborations and higher quality relationships at work Feel more engaged in your daily workWhen you know others’ behaviors, motivators, and work energizers, along with preferences and tendencies related to communication, learning, and influencing, you can better craft your delivery — taking their style into consideration before you engage – customizing that difficult conversation in ways that increase your chances of a positive outcome.  The Benefits of Improving Communication at Work Thankfully, improving communication at work, while an effort, is entirely possible, and the result is positive relationships. Building great work relationships can do wonders for your career and daily work life. Here are just a few benefits: Increased job satisfaction. People often quit jobs or leave entire industries due to bad colleagues or managers. But when you build strong relationships, you can find purpose in your work all over again. Less discomfort and uncertainty during meetings. In an unhealthy workplace, people are afraid to speak up. But, with the help of good work relationships, you’ll feel empowered to share your ideas. More support from your colleagues. Work can be stressful. You’ll need moral and practical support when times get tough. Good work colleagues will step up for you when you ask, and you’ll do the same for them.If these benefits don’t convince you to start improving communication at work, then not much else will!  Improving communication at work and building good work relationships can take hard work. It requires time, patience, and self-awareness. But putting in the effort and leveraging technology to help will help you feel more connected to your colleagues and increase your overall job satisfaction. Learning how to build rapport is often the first step to building strong relationships.  Humantelligence can help do this for you and your teams. Let's get started.

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How Human Connection in the Workplace Drives Inclusion & Belonging
How Human Connection in the Workplace Drives Inclusion & Belonging

In today's fast-paced work environment, it can be easy to get lost in the day-to-day tasks and deadlines. However, as humans, we are social creatures who crave connection and a sense of belonging. This is why fostering human connection in the workplace is essential for promoting inclusion and a positive work environment. In this article, we will explore the importance of human connection at work and how it can improve inclusion and belonging within teams. The Importance of Human Connection at Work Human connection in the workplace refers to the relationships and interactions between colleagues, managers, and employees. It is about creating a sense of community and fostering a positive work culture where everyone feels valued and supported. When individuals feel connected to their colleagues, they are more likely to feel motivated and engaged at work. This can lead to increased productivity, job satisfaction, and overall well-being. Research has shown that positive relationships at work can improve both mental and physical health. A study published in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology found that employees who reported higher levels of social support from colleagues and supervisors had lower levels of stress and burnout (Halbesleben & Buckley, 2004). Additionally, a meta-analysis of over 200 studies found that employees who felt supported by their colleagues and managers had better mental health outcomes, including decreased anxiety and depression (Holt-Lunstad, Smith, & Layton, 2010). A sense of connection at work can improve job satisfaction and employee retention rates. According to the 2021 Workplace Friendship & Happiness Survey by Wildgoose, 57% of people say having a best friend in the workplace makes work more enjoyable, 22% feel more productive with friends, and 21% say friendship makes them more creative.  These numbers are understandable. Work is often a means to an end, and jobs come with stressors and unexpected events that are out of your control. It can be the relationships we have at work that make the hours spent at work happier and more purposeful. This is because having a connection with colleagues can create a sense of loyalty and commitment to the company. How Connection Improves Inclusion & Belonging Inclusion and belonging are essential components of a positive work environment. Inclusion refers to the extent to which individuals feel valued, respected, and supported in the workplace regardless of their background or identity. Belonging refers to the sense of community and connection that individuals feel with their colleagues and the organization as a whole. When employees feel included and a sense of belonging at work, they are more likely to be motivated, engaged, and productive. Human connection in the workplace can improve inclusion and belonging in several ways. Firstly, when colleagues have positive relationships with each other, they are more likely to understand and appreciate each other's unique perspectives and backgrounds. This can lead to increased empathy and respect for diversity, which is essential for creating an inclusive work environment. Secondly, having a sense of connection with colleagues can increase trust and psychological safety in the workplace. When individuals feel comfortable expressing themselves and sharing their ideas, they are more likely to contribute to the team's success. A study conducted by Google found that teams with high levels of psychological safety had higher levels of productivity, innovation, and overall performance (Edmondson, 2012). Lastly, human connection in the workplace can promote a culture of collaboration and teamwork. When individuals feel connected to their colleagues, they are more likely to work together and support each other's success. This can lead to increased creativity and problem solving, as well as a stronger sense of community within the organization. Ways to Foster Human Connection Creating a sense of human connection in the workplace takes effort and intentionality. Here are some ways to foster human connection within teams:Prioritize Social Activities: Encourage colleagues to get to know each other outside of work by organizing social events such as happy hours, team lunches, virtual coffee or trivia sessions, or volunteering activities. Show Appreciation Regularly: Expressing gratitude and appreciation for colleagues can create a positive work culture and foster a sense of connection. Encourage team members to recognize and celebrate each other's accomplishments. Encourage Open Communication: Encouraging open communication among employees is a great way to foster human connection in the workplace. This can be done by providing opportunities for employees to share their thoughts and ideas with each other, such as regular team meetings, brainstorming sessions, and open-door policies for managers. Promote Collaboration: Collaboration is another effective way to foster human connection in the workplace. By promoting teamwork and collaboration, employees can build relationships with each other and work together towards common goals. This can be done through group projects, team-building exercises, and cross-functional training programs. Recognize Achievements: Recognizing achievements and celebrating milestones is a great way to foster human connection in the workplace. By acknowledging the contributions of individual employees and teams, you can help create a sense of community and foster a culture of appreciation and gratitude. This can be done through public recognition ceremonies, awards programs, and other forms of recognition and celebration.Benefits of Human Connection at Work The benefits of human connection in the workplace are not limited to employees' mental and emotional well-being -- in which both inclusion and belonging play key roles. Research has also shown that employees with strong social connections tend to perform better at work. According to a study by the University of Warwick, happy employees are up to 20% more productive than their unhappy colleagues. Happy employees are more engaged, motivated, and creative -- leading to better performance and higher levels of job satisfaction. Organizations that prioritize human connection can also see significant improvements in their bottom line. A study by McKinsey & Company found that companies with diverse workforces are 35% more likely to have financial returns above their industry median. This is because a diverse workforce leads to better decision-making, improved innovation, and increased creativity. Creating human connection in the workplace can take many forms. For example, team-building activities, such as group outings or volunteer work, can help to build relationships and promote inclusivity. Regular team meetings and one-on-one check-ins can also help to foster connection and provide opportunities for feedback and collaboration. Social events, such as happy hours or team lunches, can be an excellent way to create a sense of community and help team members get to know one another on a more personal level. But creating human connection is not a one-size-fits-all approach. Different individuals will have different needs and preferences when it comes to social interaction. Some may prefer more structured activities, while others may prefer more informal gatherings. Organizations must be mindful of individual differences and tailor their approach accordingly to ensure that everyone feels included. Further, this approach to increasing human connect takes one of our most valuable resources -- time. So the question becomes, how can we accelerate this process? Technology that Makes Work Feel More Human Funny enough, the answer lies in technology -- technology that makes work more human! Consider optimizing all of your efforts by employing technology that supports them. For example, if you consider all the points of interaction among your employees -- emails, chats, meetings, etc. -- these are opportunities for building connection. There's no need to wait until the happy hour or the team meeting. When drafting an email, chatting with a colleague, or joining a meeting, you team members could automatically have useful, customized tips for more effective communication and collaboration right at their fingertips. These are personality and communication insights surfaced right there in the tools your organization uses every day: Microsoft Teams®, Outlook®, Gmail®, Zoom®, Webex®, Slack® and calendars. With this tool, leaders can reduce friction between team members, create stronger human connection more quickly, build a foundation for inclusion and belonging, and improve the productivity of the team.  Human connection in the workplace is essential for creating a sense of belonging and inclusivity within teams. Establishing meaningful relationships between team members can lead to improved engagement, higher levels of job satisfaction, and increased productivity.

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How to Maximize Team Collaboration to Boost Productivity & Engagement
How to Maximize Team Collaboration to Boost Productivity & Engagement

Surveying 1,000 employees and managers across the United States to explore their most pressing workplace concerns in the current environment, Lucid research revealed a need for better tools to support virtual team collaboration and productivity in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. While over 90% of C-suite executives rated productivity as their biggest concern, a staggering 75% of employees responded that collaboration is actually what’s suffered the most since transitioning to working from home.  In truth, productivity and collaboration are directly linked. Increase your team’s collaborative potential, and you’ll increase their productivity. The key to doing both is adopting agile workflows and processes that allow for iteration, exploration, and meaningful collaboration. One thing is clear: businesses should adopt new solutions and a different approach to ensure employees can ideate together to efficiently produce better work than ever before. So let’s talk about the power of collaborative pairs at work. This can take the form of workplace mentoring or coaching and is a cost-effective way for existing, well-trained or experienced employees to provide guidance and knowledge to less-experienced employees or to employees who differ from them. The mentor is typically not the direct manager or supervisor of the mentee, and the outcomes differ, depending on the goals of the pairing. Serving as an example, the mentor helps the mentee develop new skills, become better problem-solvers, build new ways of interacting and behaving, and get acclimated to the work environment. For the mentor, it is a way to practice leadership and development skills and may help them advance within the organization. It’s also an opportunity for mentors or coaches to learn from those who are different from themselves. And as employees settle into remote and hybrid work arrangements, collaborative pairing/coaching/mentoring is an opportunity to connect socially, deepened workplace relationships, and formulate creative, innovative or new ideas.  For the company, a mentor/coaching program is also a great way to strengthen employee engagement, reduce turnover, and see productivity increase. There are five common ways companies use mentorship in the workplace. Career Mentoring for Improved Employee Career Development High-Potential Mentoring for Leadership Development Diversity Mentoring for an Inclusive Workplace Reverse Mentoring for Efficient Knowledge Sharing Mentoring Circles for Collaborative LearningWhy Team Collaboration Is Important Collaboration is when two or more people work together through idea sharing and thinking to accomplish a common goal. It doesn’t matter if you are collaborating with someone right next to your cubicle or someone across the country or world; you can now collaborate effectively through technology. Team or peer collaboration can provide solutions, give individuals a strong sense of purpose, and also reinforce that you are all on the same team. If that isn’t enough, here are some other benefits of collaborating: Increased Job Satisfaction & Employee Retention You can’t disagree that when you figure out an answer to a problem, you feel a sense of reward. The same goes for pairs working on a problem and finding a solution to that problem.  As managers and owners, we have to acknowledge when these collaborations succeed and give them credit for the job well done. When employees feel like they are a part of a team, they are more likely to stay at their job. Specifically, the mentor-like collaboration experience has shown to positively influence job satisfaction among employees. According to Forbes, retention rates were significantly higher for mentees (72%) and for mentors (69%) than for employees who did not participate (49%) in a mentor/mentee collaborative pairing. It’s been proven that it is more costly to acquire new talent than it is to retain employees, and mentorship programs can help reduce these costs. Faster Problem Solving We all have those problems or issues that come up, and we need help figuring out what to do. Many times we try to figure out a solution ourselves. If we put together a pair, chances are you will arrive at a solution a lot faster than trying to figure it out yourself. The concept goes back to elementary school and getting someone else to proofread or what they call peer review your school paper. That other person always has new eyes and can see something we missed; the paper always came out better after that peer review. Discover Employee Skills/New Expertise During team collaboration, you may discover a skill or expertise from an employee that you would have otherwise never known. When you allow employees to work together in a team you are taking them out of their normal work environment and allowing them to be creative. When you make space for this kind of work, you will see different strengths from those employees.  While it’s expected that the mentors are improving the skills of the mentees, what professionals may not realize is that the mentors are also improving their skills through knowledge sharing. For example, employees of differing generations paired together could discuss topics like technological changes or how to efficiently structure one’s workday. There is a give and take in collaborative pairings like this. Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging Diversity and inclusion are significant challenges for organizations. Mentoring and team collaboration can help promote diversity in leadership by encouraging the sharing of opinions, knowledge, and ideas throughout an organization. A successful mentor program can serve to better attract and retain employees from all different backgrounds and walks of life, while helping current employees become more comfortable with ideas, backgrounds, and experiences other than their own. Creating Power Pairs for Team Collaboration When you first set out to create collaborative mentor/mentee pairs, you will need to decide what your objectives are and how you will measure them, using KPIs like satisfaction scores, learning targets, engagement activity, retention rate, or project goals just to name a few. Once you’ve done the hard work of designing the program and onboarding lots of eager participants, it’s time to match them. The details the participants were required to enter upon sign up – such as background, skills, experience, interests and so on – can be used to match mentees with mentors who can best help them reach their goals. Most of the time, matching mentees with mentors who can best help them reach their goals is done manually by program organizers, and while they often have great knowledge of the objectives and participants this manual matching is naturally subject to human bias and blind spots. As a result, you might not get the most effective pairings, and as a result, productivity between the two will suffer. To maximize team collaboration, use tools designed to support better collaboration. For example, psychometric tools can give you a multi-dimensional snapshot of a person, rather than just a bulleted list of facts from a resume or accomplishments list. It includes comprehensive data on an employee’s critical behaviors, motivators, and work styles, as well as sought-after skills like communication, creativity and adaptability. When you assess this kind of data right alongside cognitive abilities, you’ll find yourself removing unconscious biases and engaging in a more inclusive approach to identifying teaching & learning opportunities for all of your employees.  With a matching tool designed to boost collaboration and that leverages this kind of data, you can easily perform a many-to-many comparison of employee segments or teams so you can see who might be best to match up. This technology uses a similarity score so you can see who’s most similar or drastically different. By clicking on the similarity score, you then reveal a side-by-side comparison of potential coach/mentor and coachee/mentee. When you have your pairs in place – and they set off to learn more about each other, help in each other’s work, or work on a specific project together – you can also equip them with this kind of data so they work with one another more effectively. Imagine being able to click on your mentor or mentee’s name in email, chats, or video meetings, and see real-time tips for communicating, motivating, and learning. Based on their behaviors, motivators, and work energizers, this tool takes the guesswork out of how to best collaborate with one another – freeing up your time to come up with creative, new ideas or solve problems together. Most organizations are striving for increased engagement and long-term retention. Those rates tend to increase when the company prioritizes employee relationship building, mentorship and coaching, team collaboration, as well as learning and growth opportunities. Collaborative mentoring programs are just one of many strategic ways to develop employees and improve retention. We can help you do that.

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2023 Better Meeting Guide: How to Make Them More Inclusive & Productive
2023 Better Meeting Guide: How to Make Them More Inclusive & Productive

During the thick of COVID, a Gartner poll indicated that 48 percent of employees expect to work remotely at least part-time after the pandemic subsides. That’s up from 30 percent before COVID-19. And now, those numbers have only gone up. Future-thinking organizations have become increasingly determined to embed remote work into workforce planning for both the short term and as part of more transformative hybrid-workforce models. But to begin doing this, it's important to start with at intersection of where all employees -- remote or in office -- communicate, and figure out how to hold more inclusive meetings.  Two of the largest challenges employers note when considering remote and hybrid workforce models are culture and communication. While not impossible to nurture culture when employees are remote, many find maintaining cultural alignment and figuring out that uniquely defining way of how the company operates become more difficult without in-person collaboration - especially for new hires.  And then there’s communication -- whether in person or not -- it’s always a complicated matter. It’s a long held belief that meetings tend to function most efficiently when everyone is together, but that certainly no longer means we all have to be in the same physical room, does it? What compounds both of these challenges in our new working reality is the issue of inclusiveness -- critical to culture and key to efficient communication. Different from diversity, inclusion is the degree to which employees feel valued, respected, accepted, and encouraged to fully participate in the organization. A company’s workforce may be diverse, but if employees do not feel safe, welcomed, and valued, that company is not inclusive and will not perform to its highest potential. So how do we create more inclusive remote or hybrid working environments? Let’s start with something we all do every single day -- meetings! Remote work is here to stay so part of the approach must lie in how we conduct meetings. What follows is a short but immediately impactful list of some of the most effective ways you can start fostering more inclusive meetings -- including tapping into one of the best-kept secrets of future workplaces.1. Inclusive meetings requiring planningPrep and send your agenda ahead of time: If you’re organizing a meeting, provide your meeting agenda one day ahead of time. By sending out an agenda in advance, you’re designing a more inclusive meeting.Why? By default, we as human beings are introspective, and it doesn’t matter if you're introverted or extraverted either. 87% of extraverts and 86% of introverts agree that they pay a lot of attention to the meaning of your own thoughts and actions. So while it may require more time to formalize an agenda, you’re also ensuring that your attendees have time to prepare and come to the meeting with more thoughtful inputs -- introverts and extraverts alike.Keep schedules in mind: In our new working normal, many of us have exchanged in-office colleagues for roommate-partner-coworker combos. Some of those new ‘coworkers’ are four-legged, non-humans and some are even mini versions of ourselves. Many parents are trying to keep their kids on track with virtual and hybrid learning while they work from home. And others might care for older family members. This could mean limited windows of quality meeting time during the day.If you’re a meeting organizer, you can try to account for these various situations. Check in with your colleagues about the best blocks for meetings and avoid times when parents on your team might need to be more hands-on with kids -- and you might find yourself with more engaged meeting attendees. 2. Welcoming one & all is at the heart of inclusive meetings Take scheduling considerations to the next level by clearly articulating an ‘All Are Welcome Here." Often, people feel the need to apologize when a child, animal, or parent interrupts or disrupts. In these situations, how you respond can make or break your meeting vibe. Based on the situation, you can foster a welcoming environment with one of the following: No need to apologize. X takes precedence.  I love having the opportunity to see X... I know that X needs your attention. Please feel free to jump off if needed or turn your camera/sound off -- whatever’s most convenient, and just rejoin when you can.Not responding in one of these ways will only make team members working from home feel less than, unwelcomed, or like they have to hide away important parts of their lives. Speaking of important parts of our lives...many video meeting tools allow users to change their display names, and as you might have seen, some people have added their personal pronouns. Begin with yourself and encourage team members to insert their pronouns, and you’ll start cultivating a culture that recognizes that you can’t assume someone’s gender, identity, or pronouns by looking at them.  When you start welcoming one and all, you’ll soon find a team that’s all for one and one for all. 3. Don’t just be open, be accessible If you’re in software or SaaS, you know how important Accessibility is for your products! Why should it be any different for how you operate internally and the tools you use with your own team? Look for video tech that can help everyone participate in meetings more meaningfully. Some video conferencing solutions offer live closed captions, which appear as someone speaks, for users who are deaf or hard of hearing. There is also video meeting software available for people who are blind/have low vision and use screen readers that turn text, images, and other elements into audio or braille. Google Meet, Microsoft Teams, and BlueJeans all offer live closed captions that are created by artificial intelligence. Zoom offers live closed captioning if you type them in yourself or use a third-party service. All of these programs are also screen reader accessible. The tools you or your company select to use are important. Advocate for more accessible platforms, and you’ll be demonstrating a commitment to inclusive meetings.4. Make feedback king You can take a number of steps to make your meetings more inclusive, but don’t forget that one of the best ways to improve everyone’s experiences is simple... feedback. Just as in the many other aspects of our work, be sure to get your team members’ feedback about what’s working and what’s not. If you’re a manager, start a conversation with your team about what they think could be improved on how video meetings are run -- and make sure you're inclusive of ways to submit that feedback! Why is this important? Studies show that the majority of women in the workforce feel excluded from decision making and uncomfortable expressing their opinions. In fact, a survey from Culture Amp showed two thirds of women feel they can voice a dissenting opinion without fear of repercussion (versus 80% of men), so be sure you’re practicing inclusion with this very activity! Encourage team members to write out a few simple suggestions. While organizations are creating settings in which people feel that they can speak up freely without fear of negative consequences, such environments take time to nurture. You could use a shared “whiteboard” like Padlet, which allows people to give feedback or make comments anonymously.  You could  also deploy a survey that covers video meeting inclusivity. Afterwards, disaggregate the data to look at race, gender, and other demographics, and you might find larger quantities of feedback from particular groups, such as women of color or those who identify as LGBTQ+,  common feedback themes or specific issues among particular identities on your team.Looking at the intersections of all of this feedback can help you identify if there are pockets of people who are not feeling included in how you’re conducting meetings, and importantly, they may have suggestions that will make all the difference.5. Don’t just hold but make space for more inclusive meetings Hello quiet meeting people and those who have trouble getting a word in edgewise...this one’s for you.  As the meeting organizer, pay attention to who is speaking the most—and who keeps getting interrupted. A few different studies have found that women are interrupted more frequently than men, and that men specifically interrupt women more than they do other men. Other studies have shown how men dominate meetings, calls, and other contexts. A July 2020 survey by the nonprofit Catalyst with Edelman Intelligence found that 45% of female leaders (and 42% of male leaders) agreed that “it’s difficult for women to speak up in virtual meetings, and that one in five women reports feeling overlooked by coworkers during video calls. To hold more inclusive meetings, at some point in every meeting, say something like: Okay, let’s pause here, and I’d like to invite anyone who hasn’t had a chance to talk yet to come off of mute and share their thoughts. Not only are you opening the floor to all (as opposed to calling on a specific person who might not be prepared at that moment), you’re also demonstrating consideration to those who maybe just had a child potentially disrupt their train of thought by climbing into their lap -- it’s happening more than you think! You can also break groups up so that people who have trouble speaking in larger settings have a chance to contribute ideas with just a few colleagues. For instance, if you’re having the team brainstorm for an upcoming project, you could split them up into smaller breakout groups for a set period of time, and then have a representative from each group report back to with the best ideas.6. Take cameras and hand-raising to the next level First and foremost, use the tools and functionality you have at your disposal. Consider including a note in the calendar invite for meetings that says turning your camera on is optional. By forcing people to turn on their camera, you get a peek into their personal life that they might not be willing to share. Maybe someone lives in a more crowded household, or they might have had a hectic morning that didn’t permit them to get ready in the way they’d like. Being able to turn cameras off without fear of rebuke allows all of these people to join without feeling self-conscious or anxious about their home lives.  Leverage all of the different features your video platform has to make it easier for everyone to contribute. For example, encourage the hand raise feature, allowing someone to signal when they have something to say, which can be useful for people who don’t like to interject. The private chat function is also helpful for managers to help people who have trouble thinking on the spot. Rather than calling on someone without warning, chat them and let them know you’d like them to share XYZ in a few minutes. This will help them prepare, and they can also alert you if they need more time. As a meeting attendee, you can also use the chat feature to encourage a fellow colleague to share an important idea. Finally, and arguably most importantly, if you want better quality, more inclusive meetings, you have to get emotional!That’s right, one of the most important tools in the virtual meeting toolkit is EQ or emotional intelligence, and as we settle into permanent remote and hybrid work, it’s going to be imperative to demonstrate and help your team members build emotional intelligence and deeper human connection if you want more inclusive meetings. Becoming an emotionally inclusive and intelligent organization begins with putting such insights at the fingertips of every employee, where they communicate most often -- and for most of us now, that’s in video meetings. Do you use Slack calls, Microsoft Teams, and calendar invitations to arrange your meetings? Obviously you said yes, but you’re probably not optimizing your use of those tools by integrating emotional intelligence for your team. With a simple and easily integrated plug-in, you (and the rest of your meeting team because we’re all about including everyone!) will have the kind of information needed to better communicate and collaborate with one another in meetings.  Imagine being able to click on meeting participants and see real-time tips and recommendations for communicating, motivating, and influencing them. Imagine seeing this same information in aggregate for your meeting group. Imagine knowing who best to tap on for pre- or post-meeting action items, for helping lead the meeting, and who might benefit from a heads up on certain agenda items — all of which takes into account your meeting participants’ behaviors, motivators, and work styles in an easy-to-understand way. Some have called it “a transformational tool for remote work that allows for informed collaboration and communication.” Some might even say it’s the best-kept future of work secret that will help you and your team members better prepare for and organize meetings, understand individual and collective communication insights, and figure out how to re-energize the collaborative juices for teams who have never met in person.

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Angry & Overloaded? Read This Before Your Next Email
Angry & Overloaded? Read This Before Your Next Email

Overwhelmed with Internal work emails? Yes! Too aggressive, too many, not enough, no response, or maybe just too many of the dreaded reply-all — you name it, as senders and receivers of emails, we have made ourselves miserable. People get dozens, even hundreds, of emails a day, and it’s easy to miss a thread—or just plain ignore them — not that you would! And we’ve all been there before…the premature Send of a strongly worded email that might just not go over so well. Generally, experts agree that about 130 business emails are sent and received each day per person. And with more people suddenly finding themselves working from home or in distributed teams, not only have digital communication tools been pushed to the forefront as a primary means of communication, but it’s become all too easy to hide behind our keyboards. Where you might usually speak to someone in person to organize a meeting or find a quick answer, remote working means making do with digital substitutes -- email being the number one fallback. As more and more folks enter the job market -- and new kind of workforce -- email continues to get complicated. According to Gretchen McCulloch, internet linguist and author of Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, “I think it's a misconception that everyone in the modern workplace knows how to email, especially younger people.” She points out that people who got online after the rise of social media may never have emailed socially, instead becoming accustomed to the norms of other digital messaging formats, such as chat or social media posts. “People who have been online for 10 or even 15 years haven't been exposed to routine professional emails — routine emails for trying to accomplish tasks between people in a professional context." Further, in a recent study on the effects of email, a team led by researchers from the University of California-Irvine, hooked up forty office workers to wireless heart-rate monitors for twelve days. They recorded the subjects’ heart-rate variability, a common technique for measuring mental stress. They also monitored the employees’ computer use, which allowed them to correlate email checks with stress levels. What they found: The longer one spends on email in a given hour the higher is one’s stress for that hour. In another study, researchers placed thermal cameras below each subject’s computer monitor, allowing them to measure the tell-tale “heat blooms” on a person’s face that indicate psychological distress. They discovered that batching inbox checks—a commonly suggested “solution” to improving one’s experience with email—is not necessarily a panacea. For those people who scored highly in the trait of neuroticism, batching emails made them more stressed, perhaps because of worry about all of the urgent messages they were ignoring. The researchers also found that people answered emails more quickly when under stress but with less care—a text-analysis program called Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count revealed that these anxious emails were more likely to contain words that expressed anger.  So when the number of emails sent and received in a day continues to rise -- only to be further complicated by varying email user levels -- your job as a sender (and receiver) becomes more challenging. The truth is that some emails are more effective—and likely to get a response—than others. Your email will be noticed and get the attention it deserves when it is written appropriately and geared to your audience. No matter what field, industry, or user level, a better email experience is imperative -- both from productivity and mental health standpoints -- and knowing how to write effective emails that achieve your goals is more vital than ever. When you’re writing an email, you want to do everything in your power to ensure the recipient sees, opens, reads, and feels compelled to act on it the way you’re hoping. Here are the email basics, some refreshers for those more seasoned senders, and a couple superstar tips for everyone! The Anatomy for an Email No matter what your email is about, they can all be broken down into the same basic components. Depending on the situation, you might not need to use all of these elements, but consider each one carefully based on your goals. Subject Line NEVER send an email without a subject line! If you do, there's a high likelihood it will remain unopened, whether the reader skips over it or it lands in their junk folder. Ideally, you write the whole email, then you write the subject line by looking at the email and saying ‘what is the three to seven-word summary of this entire email?’ This means the recipient can easily see what the email is about, whether any action is required, and how urgent it is that they respond.  Protip! McCulloch emphasizes the need to think of the other person when you’re choosing your subject line. For external emails, including their company name may be helpful for you as a unique identifier, but the name of your company will likely do more to distinguish it from other emails in their inbox. “A lot of people use search these days rather than folders to find old emails, and for search, you want to have your keywords, especially in the subject line,” she says. When in doubt or strapped for time, just be sure to clearly state what your message is about and set the right expectations. Stay away from subject lines that just say “Hello” or “Please read” unless you know the person well. The only time you don’t need to write a subject line is if you’re responding to or forwarding someone else’s message: In this case, you can just leave the existing subject line—unless you want to highlight a specific deadline or action item. Greeting You probably wouldn’t walk up to someone at work and just start talking about the report that’s due without saying “Hi” or even their name. Right? And in the new age of remote work where it’s likely you might never meet colleagues face-to-face, you probably shouldn’t do it over email either, and you definitely shouldn’t do it if you’ve never communicated with the person before. Start your message with an appropriate salutation (most commonly “Hi,” “Hello,” or “Dear”) and the recipient’s name. In most workplace communications, a first name only is just fine, unless the person works for a more formal company where using their full name might be more appropriate. Including a first or full name (if formality is warranted) is always better than accidentally mis-gendering somebody with a “Ms.” or “Mr.” For formal communications, particularly with people who have earned doctorates, it’s always a nice touch to include Dr. Body This is where you actually write the information that you want to send the person you’re emailing. Every email has a body, whether it’s a single word (“Thanks!”) or paragraphs (and paragraphs, and more paragraphs)—but please don’t make it too long! For professional emails, make sure that you keep your language appropriate for the situation and clearly state why you’re sending the message and what (if any) action you’re hoping the recipient will take after reading.  Don’t be afraid to use formatting for emphasis — colors, underline, or bolding — to call out particularly points, actions, or important dates. As we all know, CAPS are NEVER good. Now if you really want to get a response from your recipient, tailor the email! Make sure you deliver information in a way that speaks to them, in ways they learn or take in info best. How? Well, you need to know their EQ — and with a simple email plug-in, it’s right at your email-writing fingertips. See more in our tips section! Closing & Signature Your email closing is the (usually single) line before your name and/or signature. Skipping this can come off as rude or abrupt, so be sure to include one unless you’re emailing with someone you know well or you’re several emails into a thread. The most common professional email closings are “Best” and “Thanks.” Boomerang has done some work on closings that get the most replies here. But you can definitely change it up based on your preferences and the circumstances. Also, if you know your recipient well and she/he knows you well, a comedic closing -- especially for those long-winded but ever necessary novel-length emails -- is always entertaining. My go-to for my most verbose messages is always a classic: “Anyway.” When it comes to the signature, you typically end with your name as sign-off followed by your block of contact information. As recent trends suggest, always feel free to include your pronouns as part of your email signature. This helps create a culture where people can bring their full selves to work and gives people transparency into how you should be addressed. Email Tips & Reminders Here are a few tips and recommendations to make sure your emails are effective. If you want tips and trick for internal work emails -- those 1:1 colleague communications or emails to managers, bosses, departments, or company-wide -- get our quick tips in this 5-minute video on writing better emails today! Keep It Concise If sifting through your inbox in the early morning or late evening -- in between all the other work! -- you’re probably more likely to respond in the moment to something that’s a few short paragraphs at most as opposed to something that’s much longer. Keep your emails short and to the point as much as possible with a clear ask. Add a Personal Touch & Get Emotional Because you want to be concise, and written messages can sometimes lack tone, email can feel abrupt, but this is easily fixable. Being professional doesn’t mean you need to be robotic. So before you jump into the meat of your message, provide a quick pleasantry or find a common interest on which to comment...think sports, arts, family, hobbies, etc. You should also take it a step farther and flex your emotional intelligence muscle. Before you click send, take one last precautionary step to make sure your email lands just right! One of the most important, yet overlooked, tools in the email writing toolkit is EQ, and as we move into more long-term remote and hybrid work models, it’s going to be imperative to infuse emotional intelligence into your communications to optimize likelihood of response and action. With a simple plug-in, you (and the rest of your colleagues) will have the kind of communication-rich information needed to not only write better emails but also collaborate more meaningfully with one another.  Imagine being able to click on a recipient's address and see real-time tips and recommendations for communicating, motivating, and influencing them. Imagine seeing this same information in aggregate for a group meeting. Imagine knowing who best to tap on for specific asks, for helping lead certain initiatives, and who might benefit from a heads up on certain items — all of which takes into account your recipients’ behaviors, motivators, and work energizers in an easy-to-understand way. Some have called it “a transformational tool for remote work that allows for informed collaboration and communication.” Some might even say it’s the best-kept future of work secret that will help you communicate and collaborate better, understand individual and collective communication insights, and figure out how to re-energize the collaborative juices for teams who may have never met in person — and for purposes of this article, get your emails opened and acted upon!  State Your Intent In all email messages, explicitly say why you’re emailing in the first couple lines. Don’t make the reader guess at your point. At the end of your email, you might also include a call to action such as “Can you get me feedback on this deck by X day?” or even a clear statement that ‘no action is needed, just keeping you in the loop’ is helpful. Be sure the recipient comes away with the right information. Duh, Proofread! If you’re sending multiple emails a day, it can be easy to overlook this step (guilty as charged!), but you should be re-reading all (okay, maybe just the most important!) emails for spelling and grammar. This probably isn’t necessary for notes to colleagues you email multiple items a day, but for particularly important or delicate emails, it might help you catch that embarrassing typo or mistake before you hit send. Also to note, technically correct grammar and punctuation may be essential for someone working in publishing, for example, whereas people in another industry may take a less formal, more chatty approach. Regardless, correct grammar never fails. Make Sure Email Is the Right Avenue Just as important as knowing how to email, is knowing when not to do it at all. Sometimes a phone or video call is better if the topic is complex or sensitive. While a well-written and concise email is effective and allows the reader to respond in their own time, a phone call can sometimes take the place of multiple emails while getting much more accomplished and building a stronger relationship. An immediate answer might also be necessary given the situation and, because email volumes are skyrocketing, consider a direct chat. And as a final tip, emailers should always bear in mind that their messages may well end up in front of a much larger audience than they anticipated, whether through legal discovery, a leak, hack, or the dreaded un-anticipated forward. 

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