The Four Cs Mini-series: Community

Community, building a team that people actually want to belong to. This is what we'll be talking about today on how to lead the podcast for CEOs, founders, and leaders who want the perfect balance of authority and empathy. My name is Kate Waterfall Hill, and I'll be sharing with you some ideas from over 30 years of working in business and leadership development.

This is the final episode in our miniseries on the four Cs, the key ingredients, I believe every team needs to feel engaged.

If you miss the other episodes, they are available on my website and wherever you get your podcast or even YouTube. So far we've looked at clarity, knowing what's expected and how your work fits in.

Episode two was about challenge being stretched in a way that helps you grow. And episode three was about control, having autonomy with the right level of support. Today, we're closing with something that ties them all together. Community

Before we start, a quick reminder, my new Leadership Accelerator Premium program is now open. It's a 24-week plan combining on demand video lessons, weekly group coaching, live workshops with me and other experts. DISC profiling and Institute of Leadership certification, all within a supportive community of leaders.

Just like you, places are limited. So book now for yourself or one or more of your team members. You can find out more at www.waterfallhill.co.uk.

Let's kick off with Linda, the bad manager, my alter ego on social media and her attempt at building a great team.

“People always say that you need to build a sense of community, don't you? To have a great team, and I think building team spirit is all about doing things together. So when we're about to miss a deadline, I let the rest of the team stay in the office until midnight working on it so they can pull together and do some real bonding.

I mean, I don't wanna interfere with the team dynamics, so I always go home, but the next day they're very bonded over the experience. It seems like having a common enemy is quite a good way of bringing everyone together, that real sense of community that we're looking for.”

Let's talk about what community actually means and why your team needs it more than ever.

So what do I mean by community? Well, community at work isn't about forced fun or mandatory happiness in meetings. and it's not just about getting on with people either. It's about belonging because true community means your team really feels that sense of belonging. They feel seen and valued.

There's a sense of human connection. They're safe to be themselves and then they're invested in the collective success. So if you've ever been on a team where people had each other's backs, shared ideas freely and celebrated each other's wins, you've probably felt it. And if you've ever been on a team where everyone kept their head down, avoided eye contact, and looked busy at all costs, you felt the absence of it too.

So why does a strong sense of community at work really matter? Well, because it leads to better collaboration, higher psychological safety. So people take risks and innovate, ask good questions, admit mistakes. It means you've got more trust within the team.

There tends to be lower turnover of staff and you tend to have an increased performance. It's not just a nice to have, it's the difference between people showing up and switching off.

This is especially true in remote or hybrid teams where it's all too easy just to feel invisible behind a screen. Sometimes you can feel like just another name in a sea of teams or slack messages. So without community, people can disengage, but with community, they can thrive.

There are five key ingredients of community. When I work with teams, I look at these five core elements that really build a sense of belonging.

Firstly, connection, consistent human interaction that isn't just transactional. Secondly, recognition, people feeling seen and truly appreciated. Three, that psychological safety, again, the free to speak up without fear. Fourthly, a shared purpose, knowing how your work contributes to something meaningful. and lastly, number five, feeling accepted for who you are, not who you are pretending to be.

So in more detail then, connection, relationships don't build themselves, especially not at work. As a leader, it's your job to create time and space for your team to connect beyond project deadlines and task updates.

So you might start meetings with a quick check-in question, what's one win from your week so far? Encourage people to talk about how they work best. Create opportunities for peer support, not just top-down updates.

You don't need to host quizzes or happy hours unless of course that's your thing. But you do need to care about the human, not just the role, the job, the project, the task

In terms of recognition, it's really valuable for people to feel seen, not just for the big wins, but for their effort, their growth, their consistency, maybe even their patience. If your feedback always focuses on what went wrong, or if praise is saved only for performance reviews, people will start to assume that they're doing badly or worse that you don't notice.

And the funny thing is that recognition is actually free, easy, and really powerful. You could just say something like, I noticed how calmly you handle that tricky client call. It really made a big difference, or, I've noticed you really stepped up this month. I wanted you to know that I can see that and thanks for helping so-and-so prep for that meeting.

She told me how helpful you were. It's not just about empty flattery, it's about showing you're paying attention.

Psychological safety. Again, if your team is too scared to ask questions or to admit mistakes or challenge your ideas, then they're not operating at full capacity because psychological safety means that everybody can speak up without fear of humiliation.

They can be honest about their limitations and they can challenge something without it being personal. You can really build safety by admitting your own mistakes. Role modelling this well, thanking people when they challenge you and considering what they're saying really carefully, not just dismissing it and then staying calm when people speak up.

Even if you disagree. Be curious about that. Where's that thinking come from? And you might actually be enlightened and find that you made some assumptions and they had a really good point.

So you might, from time to time, want to ask questions in team meetings or individual one-to-ones and say, what are we not talking about that we should be? or what's something that you've been hesitant to bring up? And then listen, don't justify. Don't defend yourself. Don't rush to fix it.

Just listen.

In terms of purpose, people want to feel that they're part of something meaningful. Not everyone wants to save the world, but they do want to know why their work matters, who it helps, and how it fits into the bigger picture. Don't assume they know that, you know, connect the dots for them. Instead of saying we need to hit quarter three revenue, perhaps you could say Our work this quarter will really help build stability.

It'll help us be able to grow and invest in new and exciting bits of software, for instance, or it'll help us help more people. Instead of saying, we need to reduce churn, you could say keeping our clients means they trust us. And that trust builds your portfolio, our reputation and our long-term growth purpose fuels performance.

But only if people can see it.

You might want to go back to a previous episode of How to Lead, where I talk about team goals without the corporate buzzwords.

And then there's inclusion. You can't have community without inclusion. If only some people feel heard, if only certain voices are valued, or if people feel they have to act like everyone else to fit in, you won't get engagement. You'll just get compliance. So inclusion is about daily habits. Invite the quieter voices into the conversation.

Notice when somebody's being interrupted or talked over. Ask for feedback from people who don't usually offer it.

And recognize and address bias, including your own. So you don't need to have all the answers. You do need to be open, curious, and willing to change,

There are lots of things that might get in the way. I see some common traps that destroy community often unintentionally. So make sure that you are not rewarding just individual performance because great teams are built on collaboration.

Having a team goal is really useful. Don't assume that remote teams don't need a connection. They need more, if anything, not less. don't let toxic behaviour slide. Silence is seen as agreement. They might think that because you haven't said anything, that you condone their behaviour. Also, be careful about listening to just the loudest voices.

This can create a sort of ingroup, you know, a bit of a click, and it leaves others behind. and as is true for all leadership activity, be consistent. Nothing breaks trust, like favouritism or being unpredictable.

My belief is that community takes consistency, not just grand gestures. So what can you do as a leader? There are five things that you could do maybe even this month to build community in your team. First of all, hold a team ways of working session. Let everyone share how they prefer to collaborate, get feedback or communicate.

Start meetings with space for people to thank each other to say, thanks for that idea you had, or that help you gave me. And then share Team wins publicly. Frame success as a team effort, not just individual heroics. Check in one-to-one. Ask what makes you feel most connected to the team.

What would help build even more connection more often and then model community yourself. Show up, ask questions, listen well and give credit. It really sets a positive tone.

In summary, community is the final C for a reason. It's what holds everything else together. It's about human connection, collaboration, communication, celebration, all the Cs. People don't just want a job. They want to feel they belong. They matter, and they're part of something that reflects who they are.

So to build a community, you need to make space for that connection. Recognize effort and growth, create psychological safety, Share and reinforce purpose and practice daily inclusion. If your team feels connected, supported, and seen, everything else becomes so much easier and also far more enjoyable.

That's all for today's episode of How to Lead and brings a close to this miniseries of the four C's. I hope you've enjoyed it. Until next time, keep leading with Clarity, care, and Curiosity. If you've enjoyed this episode, do follow for more leadership insights. And if you'd like my personal support, take a look at my website, waterfall Hill.

Uk you'll get more information there about my coaching programs and my How to Lead book. There's never a better time to take your professional development seriously than right now.

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Until next time, thanks for listening.