Build Your Organisational Culture on Emotional Connection

In the past, a lack of company cohesiveness and understanding was able to be partially masked by physical proximity and sporadic office perks. Today, historic upheaval has exposed what people really need at work, and emboldened us to stick to it. Far from being a temporary symptom of the pandemic, employee expectations and their relationship with work has been permanently redefined. 

Organisational culture can feel both elusive and inconclusive. What does it look like? Does it matter? How does it really impact the people on the ground feeling the heat?

Whether remote, in-office or hybrid, the task for companies remains the same: to create a future-proof culture which authentically reflects changing employee expectations, without foregoing the results the business needs.

Read on to explore the business case for emotional connection, and how leadership create an organisational culture where people, teams and great ideas thrive.

How do you define organisational culture?

Organisational culture is the collective behaviour of your people. It’s what the majority of people do the majority of the time, the nature of the language and relationships within the organisation, and the spoken/unspoken norms, values and systems operating at work.

At FranklinCovey, we have always defined a stand-out culture as one where every individual is able to say „I’m a valued member of a winning team, doing meaningful work in an environment of trust“.

In other words, the strength of your culture depends on how emotionally connected your employees‘ feel to each other, their leader, and their contribution. The future of work is people-centric, understanding and embracing the fact that human drivers determine business outcomes.  That is why organisational culture is your greatest competitive advantage; it is the one thing that can’t be copied. 

Our relationship with work is at breaking point

You probably pay great attention to your financial bank accounts, the withdrawals and deposits made, but what we call at FranklinCovey the Emotional Bank Account (EBA), is just as important. When the EBA balance is high, so is trust- both people and work thrive. When the balance is low, trust, engagement and loyalty plummet. Your organisational culture is the sum of all these individual EBA’s, and research shows you might be overdrawn. 

According to Hewlett-Packard’s 2023 Work Relationship Index, which surveyed 15,600 employees globally, the majority of people worldwide have an unhealthy relationship with work.  The results of the study are eye-opening:

• Only 29% knowledge workers consistently experience purpose, fulfilment and genuine connection to their work.
• Just 1 in 5 workers feel leaders have evolved their leadership style to meet the demands of new ways of working
• 25% knowledge workers receive the respect and value they feel they deserve
• 55% report struggling with issues around low self-worth and self-esteem

This level of emotional disengagement is exactly where the ongoing ‚Quiet Quitting‘ movement stemmed from, and what continues to fuel it. The EBA is the answer: 74% respondents in Germany „are willing to earn less if it means loving work more“.  

Now is the time to do a vitals check on the connections which underpin every aspect of your business- peer to peer, leader to team member and employee to employer- and make sure you’re doing everything to foster them in a healthy, meaningful way. 

What does ‘connection’ at work mean?

Connection is not simply talking frequently or forging friendships- though they both play a part. Holistically speaking, connection is a sense of belonging, of feeling seen, heard and valued . It’s that feeling that we matter to other people, as a member of the team and as a vital role in achieving the organisational goal. It’s being able to sincerely say you understand, accept or stand by the choices your employer makes.

Another way of summarising connection is the manifestation of what our co-founder Stephen R. Covey described as the four basic needs of the Whole Person:

Body (how we live, physical wellbeing, energy, self-care)

Mind (our ability to learn, personal vision and aspiration)

Heart (our unique passion, strength of relationships, compassion)

Spirit (the overall guiding force which seeks meaning, contribution and purpose)

Connection then is a simultaneously grounding and unleashing force central to the success of everything we do. Sound powerful? It is.

Four ways a culture of connection connects to the success of your business:

Connection drives inclusion

We instinctively connect with people who are like us- and when that connection doesn’t come naturally, leaders prioritise efficiency, depending on unconscious biases to form flawed opinions and make limiting decisions. With an increasingly diverse workforce, it has never been more important to intentionally create an inclusive environment which invites people to embrace differences and bring their authentic selves to work. They’ll bring their best efforts with them too; According to the World Economic Forum, organisations that lead in DEI have innovation rates up to 20% higher. 

Connection creates collaborative teams

Synergy, the sixth habit of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People–  FranklinCovey’s world-renowned solution- is the highest form of collaboration and unlocked potential. It requires accepting that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Synergistic teams reach new and exciting ideas that couldn’t be created alone, solve more problems and think more creatively by having an openness to others and new ways of seeing things. When teams are this connected, the trust they share makes it both safe to take risks and get work done faster.

Connection aligns goals and values between employees and the business

It is people who make the productivity wheel go round, and people need purpose and fulfilment to do their very best work. Connecting employees to the wider mission, vision and goal creates a galvanising sense of ownership and accountability for employees. They feel like they are part of something bigger than themselves, which increases their motivation and commitment.

Connection influences employee retention

A connected company is a ‘sticky’ company. The better you can get people to connect with you as a leader and your business, the more engaged they’ll be – and the more likely they are to stay in their job. According to a report by Blueboard, 80% of employees want to work at an organisation where they feel connected to the purpose and the people – and 3 in 5 would consider walking if they didn’t feel connected at work.

Building a culture for the future: Leaders must go first

Leaders at all levels have the greatest influence on the overall mood of your company. They are the point of alignment between externally-published values and your internal ones. If employees notice a disconnect between the culture an organisation promotes and the one its formal leadership practices, they will quickly disengage.

There will always be micro-communities within the macro-organisational culture, groups of people who have different preferences, boundaries or gripes, but a thriving culture doesn’t require everyone to be or think the same. It requires empathetic leadership to create a psychologically safe environment which allows for open communication and models the imperative of mutual respect.

Nothing reinforces this better than when a leader shows up authentically, makes mistakes, learns and then alters their behaviour.

Eight steps to increase connection and strengthen organisational culture

What behaviours can you model and opportunities can you create which empower your people to feel more emotionally connected and committed at work?

Embrace emotional intelligence

Emotional intelligence (EQ) is the ability to recognise, understand, and manage emotion in yourself and others. Characterised by empathy, self-awareness, honesty and humility, emotional intelligence is a ’soft‘ skill which provides immense power in the workplace. Whilst technical knowledge is transient, soft skills are based on principles of human effectiveness which are timeless but difficult to obtain. That is why whilst emotional intelligence seems like common sense, it’s not necessarily common practice.

That is also why knowledge workers would taken an 11% pay cut to work somewhere with emotionally intelligent leadership. These are leaders who navigate adversity with composure, inspire confidence, actively listen. Emotionally intelligent leaders „communicate to people their worth and potential so clearly that they come to see it in themselves“.

Be deliberate about inclusivity

Creating an inclusive organisational culture isn’t about doing more, it’s about doing what you’re already doing more inclusively. This requires the skills and courage identify biases in themselves and others, and then take steps to maintain fairness in all leadership tasks. This includes hiring, delegating, giving feedback, celebrating achievements and creating equal opportunity for all. 

Make giving recognition routine

Research shows companies that use recognition as a tool for workplace connection are nearly twice (2x) as likely to report that they’ve adequately addressed employee connection challenges than the average organisation. 

Peer-to-peer recognition can be even more profound. It encourages self-reflection, promotes interdepartmental understanding and makes giving credit a habit. Simple moments of gratitude have the power to create a workplace people feel they belong to- both personally and professionally.

Pay attention to signs of overwork

When the sole reason co-workers interact is to do with a task or under pressure, empathy suffers at the hand of efficiency. Work begins to feel like a chore, terse words become the norm and trust plummets. Burnout is a real risk every organisation needs to take seriously, with leaders attuned to signs of overwork and then equipped to effectively provide tailored support. This requires the ability to be discerning in the capacity of employees, which can only happen when they’re seen and led as ‘whole people’.

Keep investing in people as people

Invest in employees as people with lives outside of work and motivating factors that go beyond toeing the company line. Listening is investing – take note of what your employees actually want and need, rather than presuming. Once leaders understand what makes team members tick, they’re positioned to offer individualised opportunities for growth.

Involve employees in creating solutions

One of surest ways increase employee connection to your organisation’s mission, increase collective understanding and confidence in the future is to ask for their feedback. Ask them how to fix things, how to improve, what they need from you to better do their job and feel happier whilst doing it.

Define your working model

‘We’ve gone hybrid’ is not definitive. It’s important to clearly define what aspects of work are better done in the office, and what’s best reserved for home. To avoid the issue of team members who are like proverbial passing ships, try establishing core days in the office, having routine in person meetings or becoming more intentional about external team building events, so that all employees have the chance to build relationships face to face. Rapport, laughter, camaraderie all serve to build trust and improve wellbeing.

Don’t risk disconnection

Competitive, forward-thinking companies can’t afford to not take the time to understand, identify gaps and empower grounding connection in an overwhelming world. It doesn’t require grand gestures, just emotionally intelligent leaders who behave with daily intentionality, create psychological safety and care for workers as whole people. 

With the FranklinCovey All Access Pass®, current and future leaders gain access to invaluable resources, a team of experts, and cutting-edge technology that facilitate and drive leadership development within their organisation. Are you ready to start the journey?