Leadership - Building Community in the Workplace

The desire to belong and be a part of a group is a basic, yet very powerful emotional need of mankind. When a leader take that extra step and fosters a sense of community within their organization, they help ensure the company’s success. It allows people to connect. Not only does this help an organization to succeed, it enables them to thrive.

One of the most important things necessary to build community in the work place is a shared vision of the organization and its goals. This is a descriptive snapshot of the future potential of the organization and it should be built from the collective ideas of all players. The synergy this creates motivates and inspires the team and can even elevate these ideas to a higher moral level. It unites the group behind a common and shared purpose (Pielstick, n.d.). It has been demonstrated through my personal experiences that when a vision strikes a chord within the group, we became united and worked harder. When one of my former leaders shared plans with us for a completely new direction for our department, at first we were very apprehensive. However, after much sharing and discussing, the team came to realize that while this change was an intimidating task, it would be extremely beneficial to both our organization as well as to our customers. This energized our team and helped us sustain our efforts as we put the new system into place. Together we were able to accomplish the task both on time and under budget.

“Trust is the glue that binds organizations and communities’ together” (Barnes & Haynes, 2006). A healthy community is one in which members demonstrate both care and trust towards its members. They value the contributions that individuals make to the community as a whole. Confidence as well as a sense of fairness is developed and shared within the organization. Having experienced this situation firsthand has taught me that when there is trust within a team, it is empowering. You can count on your teammate and leadership...