What does a "sense of belonging" in the workplace mean to you?

What does a "sense of belonging" in the workplace really mean to you? It can vary whether everyone in your team feels genuinely welcomed in the workplace or workspace.

Not everyone gets to be themselves in their working environment.

Many of us know that when we step into certain work spaces, our difference will be the first thing people see or pay attention to.

How do we know this? We read communication signals from others whether this is how people look at us, how people speak to us, how people don't communicate with us, the questions people may ask us or how people behave towards us.

Over the years, I've redefined the meaning of a "sense of belonging" to focus on

✔️ I belong in workspaces because of the skills, expertise and experience I bring.

✔️ I belong in a team, or in my client teams because of the impact I can make to benefit everyone.

✔️ I belong in workplaces because I'm proud of my difference, whether this is regarding my gender as a woman, my ethnicity as a Mauritian British-born, my education, my mental health and IVF journeys.

✔️ I belong in workspaces as I have had to navigate my own share of setbacks and challenges so bring empathy for others who are working through their own experiences.

✔️ I belong in the working environments because I genuinely enjoy connecting with others who could share similar differences and experiences to me.

✔️ I belong in the working environments because I genuinely enjoy connecting with others who I have absolutely nothing in common with when it comes to our heritages, backgrounds, identities or lifestyles.

I will always be proud of being different and will create my own belonging in every workplace or workspace I contribute to.

When delivering a number of keynote speaker talks throughout the year, whether it's for International Women's Day, Race Equality Week, Mental Health Awareness Week, Fertility Awareness Week or South Asian Heritage Month, my audiences find my story and practical tips for navigating work-life intriguing, interesting and inspiring.

Get in touch via sunita@collectiveinsight.co.uk if you’d like to book me to deliver a bespoke talk, workshop or webinar for your organisation.

How can we deal better with failure?

Failure is a strange thing. Many of us have been taught to avoid failure during our careers as well as during our education years. However, moments of failure will pop up during our careers. Sometimes we can’t avoid it. Failure can even help us out, if you master how to view it as a learning experience and move forward with the development actions. It’s important to know how we can work with failure, especially if we care about our own professional impact and how our teams are performing. What, if anything, is going to make us feel better about it? Here’s seven top tips on how to deal better with failure.

1. Is it personal?…Yes, it’s good to acknowledge if you could have approached something a bit differently. It's also courageous to accept responsibility for when things go wrong. Many of us will know of colleagues or ex-colleagues who aren't comfortable in accepting this responsibility. Just because something went wrong or didn’t turn out as you’d hoped doesn’t mean this is solely down to you. There could be all kinds of reasons. Sometimes we’re too hard on ourselves and assume failure is all about us. Identify what caused the failure or mistake so these failures can be avoided in the future. Share your honest learnings with others in your team.

2. Speak to someone you trust…At times when things feel things are going upside down, it’s good to chat it through with a friend, trusted colleague, coach or mentor. Sometimes you need to share how you felt about failure; it could be anger, disappointment, regret or just frustration. Discussing this situation can also provide you with another perspective and help you to assess the impact.

3. Accept that success can take a while to grow…We all want to be successful in our own roles and careers. Success takes time and it’s important to accept that failures are part of any success journey. As a business coach with over 20 years of experience in my field, I know first hand how success is rarely a smooth ride. People who are successful often have to experience failures, rejection, challenges or pitfalls along the way.

4. Don’t let past failures stop you from giving things a go…The failure feeling can really hold you back. It can really dent our professional confidence levels, so don’t assume things will turn out the same way next time.

5. Ask others about how they have dealt with failures before…Learn from others’ experiences. Ask why something didn’t feel smooth-running for them? What did they learn from it? How do they pick themselves up after any mistakes or bad decisions? Having coached senior leadership teams, directors and CEOs over the last 12 months, many of my amazing clients agree that strong leaders are those who are happy to speak about their own failures.

6. Stay away from failure shame…Remember that everyone, yes everyone, experiences failure at some point. You don’t need to keep any failures a secret. It is normal and people may even respect you more for being open and sharing the positives from a situation or experience. Over the last 10 years, I have seen leaders of organisations being more open to discussing how things could be better or they can learn from difficult economic challenges.

7. Your mistakes may surprise you as they can even inspire you…When something doesn’t go to plan, it might even provide some innovation, inspiration or ideas. Things that have not gone as well as planned may teach you about what’s important to you. Failures are here to stay, in whatever shape or form they appear in our careers or businesses.

If you would like me to write an intranet or website article for your organisation, get in touch via sunita@collectiveinsight.co.uk

Sunita is currently working with a diverse range of corporate companies, law firms and organisations when providing:

• Tailored coaching programmes for talent and new joiners across your business

• Practical and engaging online skills development workshops / lunch and learns

• Inclusion strategy development, roll-out of diversity and inclusion workshops and equipping leaders and teams with inclusive leadership skills

• Panellist and speaker appearances for a number of professional growth, inclusion, mental health, flexible working, women in business and career management topics.

How to stay productive when working from home

Did you already work from home in your professional role or business? Or is this something you rarely did due to your own preferences or the way your organisation works? Many of us are currently finding ourselves working from home due to the COVID-19 working precautions and the UK Government guidelines. So, it is important we identify how we can stay productive when working from home.

1. Priorities come first - Identify the 2 or 3 main things you need to work on or have to deliver in the morning and afternoon. These are tasks which have to happen or may have the greatest impact on your colleagues' work or your clients' needs. Although the working environment may feel different, time doesn't slow down for us when we're working from home so be clear about WHAT you need to do and by WHEN.

2. Stay connected - Email is one of the easiest ways to communicate whether you're in the office or working remotely. If you usually work in a team environment, identify opportunities to speak or video-catch up with colleagues or clients during each working from home day. Working with a mix of communications can bring more variety to your working from home day. If you're feeling conscious of others' busy schedules, book in a brief phone call or video-chat. A quick phone call may also be a quicker way to clarify some information or obtain an update about what's going on with a project. You may also have direct messenger facilities to stay in touch with colleagues outside of email.

3. Break it up - Identify the best time of the day for you to take a break. Some home workers may be tempted to plan more breaks than planning their work for the day. Plan your allocated break at the start of your working day and stick to this slot in your diary. Some working from days you may be able to take 20 minutes, others an hour depending on which priorities you need to focus on.

Sunita Harley is a Coach, CIPD HR and professional development consultant who has worked closely with corporate legal, media and public sector organisations over the last 20 years. If you would to hear more about coaching programmes or online professional development workshops which can be tailored for your career or organisation, please email sunita@collectiveinsight.co.uk