Belonging at Work: The Leadership Skill That Protects Performance

    Belonging at work is one of the most underestimated drivers of performance, especially under pressure. One of my executive coaching clients a CFO at a Fortune 100 manufacturing company said something to me that I hear more often than most executives want to admit: “My people are talented, but we’re losing traction. I’m spending more time managing friction than driving results.” That’s not a personality problem. It’s a performance problem. When teams don’t experience belonging, when they don’t feel safe to speak up, challenge assumptions, or raise risks, productivity gets slower, more expensive, and less reliable. And here is the data that backs that up.

Belonging at Work The Engagement Data Leaders Can’t Ignore

Gallup’s annual U.S. update (published January 14, 2025) reported that employee engagement in the U.S. fell to 31% in 2024, with 17% actively disengaged—a 10-year low. Then, Gallup’s midyear readout (published August 6, 2025) showed engagement still sitting at 32%—stagnant, and still far from where leaders need it to be to drive consistent performance. On the global stage, Gallup’s State of the Global Workplace (2025 reporting) indicates 21% of employees globally are engaged, and it estimates the global engagement decline in 2024 cost the world economy $438 billion in lost productivity. That’s why belonging isn’t a culture conversation, instead It’s a business strategy.

Belonging at Work Is a Business Strategy

Belonging is not lowering standards, it’s not avoiding conflict and it’s not for leadership to do therapy on the job. When belonging is built into the culture of an organization:

• Team members can share their input effectively
• Individuals understand how their work connects to something meaningful
• Employees know they can raise concerns early without punishment
• There is a solutions-oriented system for handling problems without blame

When those conditions exist, teams move faster and function at a high level.

Workplace Belonging: The Hidden Costs of Disengagement

  When engagement drops, leaders don’t just lose energy they lose speed and quality:

• Decisions take longer to make and get implemented
• Teams play it safe and don’t take risks
• Silos start to strengthen and communication diminishes
• There is a lack of accountability which turns into blame and finger-pointing

And when people leave, the economics get painful fast. SHRM notes that replacing an employee can cost between 50% and 200% of that employee’s salary, depending on role and complexity. So, the leadership question becomes: What behaviors create belonging in a way that increases productivity and engagement while creating a happy work environment?

Case Study: Purple Heart Homes

Mission-driven organizations don’t get a pass on problems. In fact, when the mission matters deeply, breakdowns in communication and trust can become even more costly, because delays don’t just hit metrics; they hit people. My client Purple Heart Homes has built an organization through community and engagement: a national organization dedicated to helping veterans with safe, accessible housing. Their Co-Founder and CEO, John Gallina, leads in an environment where execution must be consistent across partners, volunteers, staff, donors, and time-sensitive projects.   Even in elite organizations like this, the warning signs were evident:      

• Team meetings were dominated by a few strong voices
• Watercooler discussions voiced concerns after the meeting
• Ricks and concerns were raised at the last minute with little time to respond
• There was a lack of accountability, and the blame game began

The problem was we didn’t run a “culture initiative.”. Then we installed a leadership operating system, repeatable behaviors that made truth-telling normal and problem-solving faster.            

Three changes that made a difference

 

1) The Outcome–Constraint–Decision reset

Every critical meeting began with three questions:

• What outcome are we focused on today?
• What’s the real constraint and what’s holding us back?
• What decisions do we need to make and what is our deadline?

 

2) Reward the red flag

Leaders reinforced early risk identification as a performance behavior not an inconvenience, so issues surfaced sooner, while there was still time to solve them.  

3) Accountability without attack

We replaced “Who messed this up?” with “What broke in the process and how do we prevent it next time?” It was solutions-oriented thinking. The result was better execution: clearer decisions, fewer preventable escalations, and stronger follow-through because people stopped spending energy protecting themselves and started spending it delivering on the mission.  

Belonging at Work Four Leadership Behaviors That Scale 

  In my experience there are four leadership behaviors that consistently drive belonging and performance:

Make expectations and communications explicit, don’t leave anything to chance

Most conflict is not personal, it’s unclear communication. Solutions oriented leaders define what the vison looks like and communicates it consistently.  

Focus on language that builds communication and trust

Teams need a safe script and communication tools for disagreement. Here are some phrases that enhance communication without making people feel defensive:

• “Here’s what I’m seeing…”
• “Here’s what I might be missing…”
• “Here’s my concern if we proceed…”

Culture of Belonging Create and communicate your decisions with clarity

Belonging collapses when decisions feel political. Define who recommends, who decides, and how input is gathered and then stick to it.

Invest in management training at all levels

Strategy doesn’t fail at the top; it fails in the handoffs. When managers aren’t trained to coach, clarify expectations, and communicate important information disengagement spreads quickly.  

Bottom Line: Belonging at Work Protects Execution Under Pressure

When engagement is hovering in the low 30s in the U.S. and around one-fifth globally, leaders don’t have the luxury of treating belonging as “nice to have.” Belonging is a performance system that will lead to success because:

• Employees speak up earlier and retention increases
• Teams become solutions oriented and more motivated
• Leaders stop becoming fire fighters and become coaches and mentors
• Productivity and execution become more consistent under pressure

The next era of leadership won’t reward the loudest leader in the room. It will reward the solutions-oriented leaders who build cultures where people tell the truth early, take ownership, and deliver results together.