Belonging Cues and High-Performance Culture

As a corporate leader, your job is to foster a working environment that encourages your team to perform. You need to find ways to encourage and empower your team members to make the most of the tools they have at their disposal and find ways to rise to the challenges put before them.

But how do you ensure that you’re doing what you can to provide your team with the grounding they need to perform at their best? And remember – the more work you put in here, the easier your job gets as your team develops its own culture of excellence.

Stability and performance go hand in hand

Key to it all is culture – and your workplace culture has more to do with what your teams do, rather than what they are. We say this because teams are really a set of living relationships oriented towards a common goal. They aren’t static, and they definitely aren’t the sort of set-and-forget arrangement you can leave to run on autopilot.

Author Dan Coyle spoke of ‘belonging cues’ in his book of The Culture Code. Belonging cues are subtle gestures that show your team that they’re safe in the dynamic of the team. This ‘psychological safety’ is a state of mind where the people you lead trust you, their teammates, and the future you share together.

What are some examples of belonging cues?

Belonging cues are regular small markers of positive reinforcement that encourage your teams to buy in and stay in. They’re simple and frequent reminders of the standards that you hold yourselves to as a team. Examples include regular acknowledgment and courtesies, clear and open communication, and any marker of respect that you exhibit through regular interactions.

As long as your team can see that you’re invested in the exchange, that you’re making the effort to treat them as unique and valuable, and that you believe you have a future together – you’re likely exhibiting a range of belonging cues to your team that they will pick up on.

Bring the belonging cues with Performance by Design

Safety is the foundation on which high performance cultures are built. We encourage you to ask yourself – what belonging cues are you exhibiting to your team? How can you build belonging cues into the way you interact with your team?

The team here at Performance by Design can help you find ways to incorporate learnings like this into the way you encourage your team to new heights. Reach out to us today to get started. Let’s Talk