#408: Closing the Belonging Gap

Summary

Episode Summary: Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast #408

Title: Closing the Belonging Gap
Date: August 6, 2026
Host: Perry Holley, Chris Cody
Theme: Exploring the importance of belonging in the workplace—drawing lessons from Horst Schulze (co-founder of Ritz-Carlton)—and actionable steps leaders can take to close the belonging gap in their teams.

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Episode Overview

This episode centers on the critical organizational and leadership issue of "belonging"—how leaders and organizations can intentionally create environments where every team member feels truly included, valued, and able to contribute authentically. Perry Holley and Chris Cody draw wisdom from a recent session spent with Horst Schulze, co-founder of Ritz-Carlton, linking his principles to modern leadership practices. The hosts break down four organizational “levers” for fostering belonging, as well as key personal skills leaders must develop. A practical, actionable, and candid conversation packed with real stories, insights, and memorable quotes.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Power of Belonging in the Workplace

• Statistical Impact:
  Ritz-Carlton achieved a stunningly low turnover rate—18% compared to the industry average of 122%—by intentionally creating a sense of belonging (04:00).
• Human Need:
  Survey of 3 million workers: the top workplace desire is belonging—not pay, not perks, but to “feel like an insider, not an outsider” (03:30).
• Schulze's Principle:
  “We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”—a service culture centered on mutual respect and status at all levels (02:10).

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2. Four Organizational Levers for Creating Belonging

a. Daily Communication (06:33)

• Not just big all-hands or quarterly meetings, but routine, daily touchpoints—small groups or one-on-ones—where vision, values, and stories are shared.
• Storytelling: Stories about team members’ career progressions (e.g., bellman to front desk) inspire possibility and reinforce belonging (07:11).
• Quote:
  “You cannot expect people to be a part of something that they were never truly invited into.” – Chris Cody (05:29)

b. Clear Vision (08:08)

• Constantly repeat and clarify the vision—“You can't say it enough.”
• Illustrate each person’s unique contribution to the vision.
• Quote:
  “I personally asked 3,000 different people … Not one of the 3,000 people could state the vision.” – Perry Holley (10:21)
• Exercise: Ask your team, “What is our vision, and what’s your role in it?”

c. Career Path vs. Just a Job (11:29)

• Team members must see a future—and be regularly developed.
• Regular feedback and collective mini-coaching sessions for improvement.
• Quote:
  “He never missed an opportunity to develop the entire team…he brought the whole team together.” – Chris Cody (12:39)

d. Cross-Certification (14:51)

• Let team members train for additional roles, broadening their “footprint” and sense of belonging across the organization.
• Mechanism: Cross-certification fosters connections between functions, making people feel they belong to the whole, not just a siloed role.
• Quote:
  “Even if they're just cross certified, they're not officially in that team, they still feel like they belong because that team developed them.” – Chris Cody (15:22)

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3. Leadership Skills to Close the Belonging Gap

a. Empathy (17:12)

• Leaders must feel “a pang, a hurt in your heart” if someone feels excluded.
• Practical advice:
  “Being curious and trying to understand—not just making assumptions—has helped me develop that empathy.” – Chris Cody (19:14)
• Growth in empathy comes from being others-oriented and asking more questions.

b. Intentional Micro-Communication (20:24)

• Frequent “micro moments” of communication build trust and transparency.
• “Don’t wait for the right environment or a big meeting to communicate—do it in real time, individually.” – Chris Cody (21:44)
• Reference to Andy Stanley: during crisis, people want to hear from the leader—frequency trumps content.

c. Psychological Safety (22:06)

• Environments require safety for honesty, disagreement, and participation.
• Different team members may require different settings (small vs. large groups) to feel secure and included.

d. Honest Feedback (22:40)

• Direct, earned feedback makes people feel valued and “seen.”
• “If you’ve earned the right to give feedback, people know you want the best for them—it makes them feel like they belong.” – Chris Cody (22:49)

e. Coaching for Growth (23:28)

• Development and growth plans, once an afterthought, are now key criteria for talent retention and attraction.
• “When we’re coaching people, when we’re giving them growth opportunities, they feel like they belong to that tribe you're creating.” – Chris Cody (23:36)

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4. The Distinction: Fit In vs. Belong

• Perry Holley (24:10):
  “If I have to act like I fit in…I have to be what I think you want me to be. Belonging says I can just be me.”
• Authenticity is key: Teams must want people’s real selves, not a “fit-in” façade.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• “Leaders hire people for a function like a chair, but then wonder why they don’t act like an engaged partner in the business.”
  – Horst Schulze (recalled by Chris Cody, 04:59)
• "Belonging is communicated with them. And it was reinforced daily. And it was never assumed."
  – Chris Cody (05:29)
• "I have a relentless focus on helping people feel they belong to something."
  – Horst Schulze (quoted by Perry Holley, 03:51)
• "If you’re more me-oriented, you’re less empathetic. You have to be others-oriented."
  – Perry Holley (19:36)
• "Belonging says I can just be me."
  – Perry Holley (24:24)

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Practical Leadership Takeaways (from Chris Cody, 25:56)

• Audit your communication: Evaluate rhythm, timing, clarity, and simplicity.
• Check your delegation habits: Are you empowering a variety of team members or always the same ones?
• Ask who's missing: In meetings and decisions, continually question, “Who’s not in the room who should be here?”
• Voice the vision often: Tie individual roles directly to the vision in every possible context.

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Key Timestamps

• 02:10 – The Ritz-Carlton philosophy: “Ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen.”
• 04:00 – Belonging-led retention: Ritz turnover vs. industry norm.
• 06:33 – Lever #1: Daily communication and storytelling.
• 08:08 – Lever #2: Clear, persistent vision casting.
• 11:29 – Lever #3: Career path and daily development.
• 14:51 – Lever #4: Cross-certification builds wider belonging.
• 17:12 – Empathy as the foundational leadership skill.
• 20:24 – The necessity of frequent, micro communication.
• 22:06 – Creating psychological safety to foster belonging.
• 22:49 – Role of honest feedback in making people feel included.
• 23:28 – Growth coaching as a belonging driver.
• 24:10 – The difference between “fit in” and “belong.”
• 25:56 – Practical steps leaders can implement immediately.

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Tone & Style

The conversation is warm, candid, and practical. Both hosts share personal struggles and real-world examples. There’s a consistent tone of encouragement, humility, and a sense that belonging is both urgent and achievable.

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Conclusion

Belonging is not automatic; it must be relentlessly prioritized and operationalized. Perry and Chris urge leaders to audit how they communicate, develop, and include their people. The episode offers a blueprint—backed by real-world Ritz-Carlton success—on how daily habits, clear communication, empathy, and authentic leadership close the belonging gap and transform teams for the better.

Transcript

[Chris Cody]

Foreign.

[Perry Holley]

To the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast, where our goal is to help you increase your reputation as a leader, increase your ability to influence others, and increase your ability to fully engage your team to deliver remarkable results. Hi, I'm Perry Holley, a Maxwell Leadership facilitator and coach.

[Chris Cody]

And I'm Chris Cody, executive vice president with Maxwell Leadership. Welcome and thank you for joining us. Today we're going to talk about closing the belonging gap.

[Perry Holley]

How do you like that?

[Chris Cody]

And I, I love that. I think everybody wants to belong to, to something, to it, to a team, and we're going to dive into that. Before we get started, though, I want to encourage you use this as a development tool. We have so many organizations and leaders that listen to our podcast. They send it to their team, they get back together. The first five to ten minutes of their team meeting is just unpacking. What'd you hear and how can you apply it? We would love for you to be able to do that. Also, if you're looking for some training or coaching for your team, I would encourage you to go to maxwellleadership.com executive podcast. You can fill out a form right there and our team will follow back up with you. Well, recently Perry and I had the opportunity and this is, this is a highlight for you and I. About three times a year we get to be with John and we're on the road and John brings some friends of his into the room to introduce them to other executives.

[Perry Holley]

Smaller group than normal.

[Chris Cody]

Smaller group. And, and we really, man, we've been blessed to be able to do it. And just a couple weeks ago, we got to spend some time with Horst Schultze and a lot of you have heard that name that are in the hospitality industry. Obviously he's legendary in the hotel and the hos hospitality area in the business. And one of the founding fathers of kind of high level, modern luxury, luxury, luxury hospitality, which I haven't had a chance to stay in too many of them. But I do enjoy it when we're, when we do do that. And one of the things that he was talking about was his famous saying, and we're going to dive into this

[Perry Holley]

from the Ritz Carlton here.

[Chris Cody]

Zar. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you. When he was president, founder, president, CEO Ritz Carlton, through that process, he really revolutionized everything that they were doing for service. And his philosophy was, we are, ladies and gentlemen, serving ladies and gentlemen. And so we're going to dive in today because it was fascinating as he told stories and applied principles of really how it was about every team member at every level, had that belonging to what they were doing.

[Perry Holley]

Yeah, fascinating, too. He was 86 years old, had just gone in from Asia. Well, he got an award, did an hour of presentation and an hour of Q and A with John, and then had to go catch a plane for Europe. I thought, my goodness, he's still on fire for what he's doing. And it was really a great session. And we've all known and heard about, even if we don't get to stay there. I've heard about how great Ritz Carlton is. But why I like this and why I grabbed this as a message was he gave some statistics. He said, in the average of the industry, hotels and hospitality turnover is 122%. But at Ritz Carlton it was 18%. And so that makes you go, wow, they're really retaining the people that they have. And you'll hear more about why he does that. He also talked about a massive research study that surveyed over 3 million workers in different industries. And when it was all sorted out, what do they really want from work? And what do they really. When you go to work, what do you want? And what the survey came out was that they want to feel that they belong. They want a sense of belonging. You know anything about human nature and the hierarchy of needs and things that every human has a natural inbred desire to belong, to be an insider, not an outsider, that I belong here. And what Schulze said and what he really got into the lesson was, I'm going to read it because he said, I have a relentless focus on helping people feel they belong to something. And that relentless focus on belonging is where this lesson coming from about what are the organizational things you need to do and what are the personal things as a leader you need to do?

[Chris Cody]

Yeah, and this is just one way. It's an important way to drive increased buy in, increased engagement, lower your turnover. Those things that Perry and I spend a lot of time. Matter of fact, this whole belonging thing is a big part of a course you created for us around the inclusive leadership that we deliver to organizations to help them with their. Their team dynamics. And so what I love about how he unpacked this for us was he really prioritized and operationalized belonging, which helps people like me.

[Perry Holley]

Right.

[Chris Cody]

Where I sometimes would just fly right by it and not have. That's really a system for it. And so he kept repeating this statement. He says, leaders hire people for a function like a chair, but they wonder why they don't act like an engaged partner in the business.

[Perry Holley]

Right. He kept saying it because the chair has a function. It holds you up. We're sitting in chairs right now.

[Chris Cody]

That's right.

[Perry Holley]

It holds you up. He said, but you hire people for a function. He got like a chair that's right back and forth.

[Chris Cody]

And so you cannot expect people to be a part of something that they were really never truly invited into in the first place. So it's important. Belonging is communicated with them. And it was reinforced daily. And it was never assumed in their culture, in their team environment of what he created.

[Perry Holley]

Yeah, well, I want to spend the rest of time talking about what did he. How did he do it? And so he identifies four levers that I think we can apply to the. How the organization operates and then a handful of skills. I think you and I, all leaders, need to. And I really appreciate your camp. Meander on that. I kind of fly by this, too.

[Chris Cody]

Is that I do.

[Perry Holley]

Oh, come on. You belong here. I wouldn't have hired you if you didn't belong here. No. There's something inside that we do as leaders that make people either feel like they're insiders or outsiders. And if you're listening to us now, because I'm going to ask Chris, probably, is there a time in your life you ever felt like I was not included? I didn't belong. I felt like an outsider. They did something. I want you to remember how that felt. We're going to come back to that. So we'll just talk through these. But I liked what he told the story. The first lever was daily communication. Do you remember him talking about that? Not a quarterly, all hands or, you know, but every single day he met with either small groups, individuals, or even larger groups in the hotels. And he built this into their culture. I wonder how you see that around. That's a tough one.

[Chris Cody]

But it's tough. But what I loved about it was. And we have another client of ours, partner of ours, that does the same thing. They have daily standups. And it's interesting that more organizations don't do that just for those that are either on virtual. You do it or in person. In order to make sure that everyone is on the same page. They're hearing that communication. They feel like they belong. And the other thing I loved about what he talked about was they told stories. And they told a story about someone, even if it was international, it doesn't matter across the board. This is a story that they were going to read or tell about someone who joined the team that may have started as a bellman but then moved to the front desk. And he wanted everybody to know that those things were possible. That happened in that daily communication.

[Perry Holley]

And part of the daily communication was reviewing some of their core values. It was reviewing the what does excellence mean? What does it look like? And just really letting people know. And go back to where ladies and gentlemen. Serving ladies and gentlemen. So how do you like a ladies and gentlemen. How do you treat people like ladies and gentlemen? So just reviewing, constantly letting people know. And that's what you think about the value of communication when it comes to inclusion or exclusion is. I feel like I don't know any. You're never, you never tell me anything. I don't know where we're going. I don't know what we're doing. I feel like an outsider versus my boss is always talking to me. We're always in. We're having team talks. We're having individual talks. I feel like they're transparent. I know what's going on here. I feel included on that. So those types of things can be easily overlooked to let people know that they belong here. Number two, this was interesting about part of the communication though, but about having a clear vision that people know where the organization's going. They know what the organization's doing. What are your thoughts on how often. I think I'll just tell. When I was leading a senior, as a senior exec, I would television at the January kickoff. Think you got it? Think you got it.

[Chris Cody]

I don't. I'm laughing but not laughing with all of you leaders right here. Okay. We recently did a culture survey.

[Perry Holley]

That's right.

[Chris Cody]

Of which we have a incredible diagnostic tool that we used with organizations. We'd love to. To help you with it. We did it internally at Maxwell Leadership Culture Diagnostic. And so the very last question was we left it open ended was what's the. What's the vision here? Max Solution. Man. I thought for sure I was like our team's gonna kill it. Like they're. I mean and we repeat it often. Don't we do once a week. I mean in the meetings, at our team meetings. Did our Perry.

[Perry Holley]

Did our team get it?

[Chris Cody]

Perry. Okay. If you could just see some, some of that. But I love what he said. Right. He's like, man, you can't say it enough. And, and the other thing that I think you got, you got to think about around this is the role that they play in where the organization is going. Right. Like the importance of. And, and Horst was awesome about really, really underlining every single role is important in what we do. And, and that just was fascinating to take that industry and his thought process to be able to do that and set a clear vision for that.

[Perry Holley]

He told a story about he personally asked 3,000 different people over a time period and over different properties and everything to what is the vision? What are we trying to accomplish? He said not One of the 3,000 people could state to your point about the culture quiz. Not one person could state the vision. So he took it upon himself to make that part of the daily communication. And you added a really important part. It's not just where we're going. What is your role in where we're going and what is your purpose and how we get there. And he involved, I think it was very important. In our world, we tend to talk to our. Our own group. He was talking to the bus boys that was cleaning the tables. He was the valet out front. Obviously the front desk was always interfacing with customers, housekeeping. Everybody was in these communications. Nobody was left out. And I just thought that's really a really. That's why I call it a lever. It's a big one. To do that. It's really a kind of a personal challenge. You should think about asking five people on your team like we did. We asked a lot of people.

[Chris Cody]

Yeah, yeah. And keep asking, keep asking and keep repeating. Yeah.

[Perry Holley]

A third lever that you mentioned was having a career path, not just a job. And you just mentioned that about the example of the was a busboy made it made his or her way through the organization. But I don't find a lot of people, they tend to think they just have a job. But think about how it makes you feel whether you belong or not. Is that, do I have a future here?

[Chris Cody]

Yeah.

[Perry Holley]

And I don't think how would you encourage leaders.

[Chris Cody]

Yeah. Something he said when he was talking about this. So they in these daily communication and stands ups, they do use stories and he does to this third point, want them to know that there is an opportunity here. They do belong here. If you were hired and you brought onto this team, like there is a future for you here. The other thing that I wrote down that I remember is he never missed an opportunity to develop the entire team. So he'd be walking through and he would see something with a team member that didn't go the right way. And in order to become better at what the every single person did in that role, he brought the whole team together.

[Perry Holley]

Yeah.

[Chris Cody]

And he said, hey, when you do this, let's do it this way. And he was developing them. And that's so big what we hear about all time right now in the culture and organizations is people want to be developed and they want to learn and they want to grow in addition to the career path. And he just combined both of them telling stories. You belong here. This could be you. Oh, and by the way, we're going to, if we see something, we're going to, I'm going to develop you and, and we're just going to pick one thing every day to get a little bit better. He didn't miss a beat like he was on every little detail of it.

[Perry Holley]

And he tied back to the vision. His vision was that of excellence, excellence and everything. But he said he walked through the lobby or something and there'd be a spot on the carpet. And instead of what most of us would do would, you know, yell and scream or get, get this heat cleaned up, he would go bring everybody over. Your point? Look at this. Is this what he would. And he pointed to the carpet about. Tell me about how this speaks toward evidence and our vision. He would reiterate the vision. He would really whose job is our job? Clean this up. Then he would help clean the SP and make sure that they, that they saw that.

[Podcast Narrator]

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[Perry Holley]

The fourth lever that he used was he called it cross certification. But again it kind of feeds to do I have a future here is can I learn another role while I do in my role? I'm not sure how many organizations have opportunities to do this today but I know you've done it here where we have someone that might have been working on outside or you know inside sales call. They want to be a sales on the sales team. You might let them start training or mirroring or doing something. Can't do it. You got to watch the hours and things. But can they learn another role while they're here? What do you think about what I

[Chris Cody]

love about it is I think around this belonging thing. I think if you expand their footprint of what is possible or even think about this, when you place people into an environment where they're cross certifying and doing a different role, it's interesting because even if they're just cross certified, they're not a part of that team. Maybe officially they still feel like they belong to that team because that team developed them and certified them. And so it just is kind of this web that kept crossing different functions of the business, but also made people feel like they belong there at the property as a whole. Not just, I'm coming in, I'm going to do my job, punch in, I'm going to punch out and go home. Right. Like they belong to the entire property.

[Perry Holley]

All right, I want to shift gears to what do you need as leaders? What do we need to do to be more help people feel like belonging, be more inclusive in our leadership? But I thought he was going to ask you the question. So has there been a time in your life where you felt like you didn't belong today?

[Chris Cody]

You know, like, it's so funny. I mean, it could be personally, it could be professionally. When you ask that question, my mind went so many different places. I'm not asking for another meeting, but sometimes there are meetings and I go,

[Perry Holley]

what should I have been there?

[Chris Cody]

Did I miss the email? Or maybe, maybe we're at church and, and the group goes out to lunch and you're just like, babe, what, what did you do to like, you know, like in, in deflecting. But man, I think that's human nature. And, and it happens all the time. And so I, I absolutely feel that way. Yeah.

[Perry Holley]

I've been asking this on some coaching calls lately. Just give people. Because the very first skill, by the way, is empathy.

[Chris Cody]

Yeah.

[Perry Holley]

And the reason I want you to think about this is that do you know what it feels like so that you and I was doing this on a coaching call yesterday, I said, if you're not a leader, that. And it doesn't have a pang, a hurt in your heart to think that someone on my team might possibly feel like they don't belong here, that's awful. But I want you to think, what does it feel like to not belong? And when I did this, church situations came up. Somebody seeing their team out, they saw a picture on LinkedIn about the team beat out for lunch and they weren't in the picture because they got.

[Chris Cody]

Don't you think social media probably has increased that feeling in all of us? Yeah.

[Perry Holley]

So I don't Want it to happen. But so let me. The question I get would be empathy. I've been floating this content on a couple of coaching calls and one guy said, I'm just not naturally empathetic. I don't really care. I go, okay, you need to care.

[Chris Cody]

You do need to care.

[Perry Holley]

How do you. How would you encourage someone if you're not naturally empathetic? Some people are more than others. I get that. How would you help someone be more empathetic? Can you grow into empathy?

[Chris Cody]

Did my wife set you up this question? Yeah. This is, I think, interesting. Yeah. Perry Holly. Here's his address. Right. Check 100. This is the. We. We do a lot of studies around this Right. Around emotional intelligence. And this is part of the emotional. Emotional intelligence side of things. And for me, I'm very logical and it is hard for me at times to beat empathetic because it's. It's pretty color dry for me and logical. What I've learned is, I've learned through some coaching is to say how do you put yourself in that environment? And can you imagine how that would feel? The other way for me is. Is really about asking questions in a way that gets that opened through curiosity. That opens my eyes to how you feel about that. Even though I may not feel like that. Right.

[Perry Holley]

That's good.

[Chris Cody]

And. And so being curious and trying to understand and not make an assumption. What's like, why would you feel that way? It's like there's the problem. Right. Marriage has helped me a ton in that and I still don't get it. Right. Because we see things completely, completely different. But it has helped me in developing that. That empathy.

[Perry Holley]

Yeah. And you're. I think you're on exactly the right point is that you have to increase your others orientation because most of the lack of empathy. Because I'm more me oriented.

[Chris Cody]

Yeah.

[Perry Holley]

And if I can become others oriented and then being curious stops me from telling and starts me asking and it stops me from judging. And it huggered me to have more open on that. So I think you should really have a hurt if anybody in your team does not feel like they belong. That would hurt me. Number two was communication. We hit this a little bit on the front end there, but he talks a bit about it being the. The happening in the micro moments. But when you think about your communication. We talk a lot about being more intentional in your communication. But what comes to mind when you think about if I'm specifically want to make sure that people on my team know they belong.

[Chris Cody]

Yeah.

[Perry Holley]

What is my what has to change

[Chris Cody]

in my communication as a leader, sometimes I, I want to wait until everybody's together. I want to wait for the right environment to communicate everything out. Now, there are certain situations where you have to do that for timing of certain things. But for me, what I've learned is in the moment. To communicate those micro moments on an individual level has helped me allow the team members that I've had the privilege of leading at times feel like they belong to this team greater than if I would have held any communication to a bigger meeting. So I love the micro moments. And so it is back in. I remember back during the COVID days, Andy Stanley made a statement where he said that the team doesn't necessarily care what you have to say. They just want to hear your voice and they want to hear it often. And I think that's what this is saying right here is like people will feel belonging in the team if you're communicating to them in microdoses but doing it more often, then, oh, we're going to hear from Chris this month, you know, and, and so that's how I've tried to approach it was that it is happening in real time versus waiting to communicate it.

[Perry Holley]

I love it. Yeah. You also talk about the term. We talk about a lot here. Psychological safety. Probably don't need to say a ton here, but if it. Yeah, if people don't feel. They feel like they have to salute and stay mute. They can't say what they think. They can't tell you hard things. They can't disagree with you. They is not safe to say because you're going to blow up. I'm not going to feel like I really belong.

[Chris Cody]

Yeah, that's. You have to have this to have the belonging. So they. And, and here's the thing. It's different, okay. For different. We say all the time you have to lead people the way they need to be led. It's the same thing here. Your team members are going to need different types of safe environments to be able to feel like they belong. And some of them will be in smaller meetings. Some of them are okay with it being in bigger meetings. But you got to understand and learn that level. Two skill set and five levels of what drives that for their, for your people in order for them to feel belonging.

[Perry Holley]

Another key thing he mentioned was giving honest feedback. And I thought it's something we've been on a lot lately. Why would honest feedback make me feel like I belong here?

[Chris Cody]

Well, think about this. If you really, if you've earned the right to give the feedback. We'll start there. Yeah. Okay. That's where it's got to start. If you. If you understand that principle, what's really happening is if Perry is giving me feedback, he wants the best for me. Right. And so just knowing that to make me better may be hard to hear. Sure. If he's earned the right to do it and he gives it to me, like, then, man, I feel like. Like he wants me to be better. Like I belong to that team. Like a rising tide raises all boats. And so we want to be able to do that for each other.

[Perry Holley]

The last one we mentioned was one you've already brought up, but about coaching them. Everybody for growth.

[Chris Cody]

Yeah.

[Perry Holley]

Everybody wants to get better. They want to have mastery in it. But why would you coaching me to help me grow make me feel like I belong here?

[Chris Cody]

Yeah. This is something that we've talked about, but it's so interesting to me about how many people right now that are staying at organizations or are choosing to pick an organization during the interview process based off their growth plan. And I. I lean in there because Perry and I, when we were going through the process and taking jobs, like, that's not even in the top 10. But, man, when we are coaching people, when we're giving them growth opportunities, like, they feel like again, they just feel like they're a part of and belong to that tribe that you're creating.

[Perry Holley]

Just one last thing. I'll let you. Let you wrap it up, but just want to remind folks that belonging to one this really affected me was the people feel like they fit in. If I have to act like I fit in, I have to be what I think you want to be.

[Chris Cody]

That's good.

[Perry Holley]

Belonging says I can just be me. So a lot of times, people, I don't feel like I fit in here. Well, if you're trying to fit in, if you feel like you have to, I didn't really get probably the opposite of belonging. I don't feel like I belong because I gotta try to be what you want me to be instead of just being me.

[Chris Cody]

I love that.

[Perry Holley]

Yeah. Can be a bit.

[Chris Cody]

We. We talk about authenticity, and that's what you're talking about. Right. Like, in our team, we don't want you to change who you are to feel like you belong to our team. We want you to be authentic. So, man, I love that this is an interesting topic. Right. Because there are people, and I love how Perry titled it. We're going to close this gap because leaders, I promise you, there is a gap. And not everybody feels like they belong on their team. You may not know it, but I think if you go through some of these, you will. Absolutely. It'll come aware to you. So, as we wrap up this week, we have to close this gap as leaders. So here's a couple of practical takeaways for you that I want you to think about in your leadership this week. Number one, let's audit your communication, not only in the rhythm and the timing of it, but the clarity of it and. And. And the simplicity of it. We've talked in the past, right. It's like, it sounded good up here before it came out. And did I create that? Right. The other thing is, what are your delegation habits? Are you. And I like to use the word empowering. Are we developing and empowering the same people over and over again, or are we really sitting back and looking at opportunities within the team and then saying, man, which team member does this align with the most and then allow them to run with it? I think that's another great opportunity for people to feel like they belong. I mentioned this in my example of if I ever felt left out. As you're having meetings, as you're making decisions, the question you should be asking is, maybe who's not in the room that should be here? Because there may be some people that you are missing. And maybe it's even asking, like, if Perry and I were going to a meeting, hey, Perry, man, who's not in this meeting? That should be. Maybe ask somebody with a different lens or a different bias. And then the last thing I'll say is, as we think about what Horse said about how do we prioritize and operationalize this belonging, Say your vision out loud as many times as you possibly can and tie what that individual is doing to the vision. I think that's one of the biggest ways to get them to feel like they belong and to feel like what they're doing matters and that they're a part of that whole entire movement. And they get. A lot of people can't connect the dots. And when you can do that for them as a leader, I think the gap begins to shrink around whether or not they feel like they belong.

[Perry Holley]

Fantastic. Well, thank you, Chris. And it's a reminder, if you'd like the learner guide for this episode, if you'd like to learn more about our offerings or podcast offerings, you can do all that at Maxwell Leadership. You can also leave us a question or a comment there. We love hearing from you. Very grateful you spend this time with us today. That's all from the Maxwell Leadership Executive Podcast.