Making Personal Connections with Your Team

Bring people together to create a sense of community for your team... and you

“Developing strategies to connect with the workforce, especially and creatively during the pandemic” is a common goal for many of us. Some stories and actions that support this include:

• 1. Establish regular Monday morning sync sessions – just to check in and/or to synchronize and connect the team together.
• 2. If co-located, implement walk-abouts for casual conversations and to get to know the workforce. If virtual, find respectful ways to create the same sense of informality – a daily block of time for anyone to pop-in to a virtual meeting.


• 3. Schedule monthly one-to-one sessions with direct reports.


• 4. Engage in conversation with open ended questions “What are you focused on?” “What are you looking to improve?” “What’s really important to you, now?” Or simply, “What’s up?”


• 5. Increase quality of time with folks. Determine what “quality” means to you as the leader as well as individual employees.


• 6. Have a virtual lunch together with any member of the workforce who wants to join.


• 7. Establish daily walks with the team to bring together movement, focus, and mindfulness. Whether you are together, in-person walking, or you have an audio call being in nature is known to open up possibilities and give you time to think.


• 8. Make casual connections by including “ice breakers” routinely in various meetings. Ideas include:


•           * What are you actively working to learn?


•           * What is something you aspire to achieve?


•           * What is something nobody on the team knows about you?


•           * Share one lie and two truths, and have the team guess which ones are which.


• 9. Host a virtual game night. There are several online resources that include trivia, Pictionary-like drawings, Name-that-Tune, scavenger hunts, etc.


• 10. Host a virtual book club [or watch a TED Talk, Netflix documentary, educational YouTube video, PodCast, etc.]. Team members can take turns selecting a book, finding appropriate questions, and hosting the book club event. You can identify themes for the books to align with your organization’s values, such as leadership, coaching, team cohesion, self-improvement, agility, vision, accountability, etc.


• 11. Walk cross country together. As a way to encourage physical activity, the team can tally their respective miles, whether walked, ran, biked, swam, paddled, or any other means an individual chooses to contribute. With each subsequent cross-country trek celebrate progress and challenge each other to set more ambitious shared goals – let us beat our best time by 3 days, make it a round trip, circle the globe – whatever motivates teamwork.


• 12. Celebrate holidays together. Whether a well-known holiday or a daily fun-day, the group can come together. Folks enjoy dressing up, decorating their workspace, preparing/eating party themed food, and sharing traditions. There are many days based on professions, foods, exercise, and charitable causes – depending on your team’s values and culture, you can ignite shared passions. Here are just a few examples from https://nationaltoday.com/national-day-calendar/:


•           * National Receptionists Day (May 12), National Armed Forces Day (May 15), Peace Officers Memorial Day (May 15), Memorial Day (May 31), National IT Professionals Day (September 21).


•           * National Eat What You Want Day (May 11), National Pizza Party Day (May 21), National Eat Your Vegetables Day (June 17), National Hot Fudge Sundae Day (July 25), National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day (August 4), National Cooking Day (September 25), Better Breakfast Day (September 26).


•           * Global Running Day (June 2), World Bicycle Day (June 3), National Gardening Exercise Day (June 6), National Hydration Day (June 23), National Dance Day (September 18), Family Health & Fitness Day USA (September 26).


•           * World Environment Day (June 5), DOGust 1st: Universal Birthday for Shelter Dogs (August 1), International Youth Day (August 12), International Day of Charity (September 5), World Suicide Prevention Day (September 10).


•           * National Say Something Nice Day (June 1), Embrace Your Geekness Day (July 13), National Give Something Away Day (July 15), Happiness Happens Day (August 8), National Read a Book Day (September 6), National Ask a Stupid Question Day (September 28).

As always, it is a best practice to seek feedback from the team and confidants to help inform/guide your approaches and adjustments.

“Giving connects two people, the giver and the receiver, and this connection gives birth to a new sense of belonging.”
- Deepak Chopra, medical doctor and writer