The Power of Connection
Where do you feel connected in your life? I assume you might say family, friends, or, if you are lucky, maybe even your work. Engagement is how much we care about someone or something, and connection is one of its elemental agents. The question leaders need to ask: How do I create a place where employees will care about their work, co-workers, and the organization?
Let’s go back to something you are already connected to personally… let’s look at friends as our case study and then see what lessons we might apply in the workplace.
As you think about your “friends,” let’s put them in the three buckets: acquaintances, friends, and Best Friend Forever (BFF). What’s the difference in these three groups? Maybe a lot – let’s focus on just three things…
* Depth of knowledge – You know more about your BFF than friends and acquaintances.
* Unstructured time together – You spend more non-programmed time with your BFF than you do the other two groups.
* Discovered commonality – The more time you spend together, the more you “discover” about people. The more you have in common, the closer you are likely to become.
How might these attributes apply to helping people be more connected to their work, co-workers, and your organization? You can probably think of countless tactics to foster greater connection. Here are a few to consider.
How much do people know about your organization? History, place in your industry, values you want to drive daily behaviors, your vision for the future? You want people on your team to know these things and more. Some organizations begin this process in the interview process. Better to hire people who align with your values than to try to “fix them” after they are hired. If not in the interview, certainly in orientation you can tell the story of your company and brand.
Regarding time together, how often do you and other leaders talk with your people over the course of a typical week? Not a performance conversation – a human one! Do you encourage your teams to pursue genuine community as part of their regular routine? Unstructured time is available if we want to reclaim some of it; if we steward the opportunities thoughtfully, connections will strengthen.
Although we all know the power of diversity and want to celebrate it, you can fuel a sense of connection when you help people discover those things they have in common. Agreement on religion and politics may not be possible, and that’s okay; but do you like similar foods, movies, and books?
These examples are not the point – the point is connection matters and leaders can create more of it in your workplace. If you ask one of your employees to name a place where they feel genuine connection, wouldn’t it be great if they said, “My team at work!”
For more ideas on Smart Leadership, check out my book,Smart Leadership: Four Simple Choices to Scale Your Impact

Meet The Author, Mark Miller
Mark Miller’s passion is serving leaders. He has traveled to dozens of countries around the world in an effort to fulfill his calling. Whether speaking to global audiences or individual leaders, his message is consistent and pragmatic: Lead Every Day.
His career at Chick-fil-A began over 40 years ago as an hourly team member in one of the local
restaurants. Shortly after that, he became Chick-fil-A’s 16th corporate employee. Since that day, he
has worked all across the business but recently retired as the Vice President of High-Performance
Leadership, where he was a principal architect in building Chick-fil-A’s renowned high-performance
leadership culture
For the last twenty-five years, he focused much of his time on helping the organization grow its
leadership capacity. Mark and his team at Chick-fil-A invested a quarter century and tens of millions
of dollars searching for and validating ideas that work. Over the years, they focused on numerous
topics, including High-Performance Teams, High-Performance Organizations, Employee Engagement, Execution, Personal Leadership Effectiveness, and, most recently, Culture. These projects have each culminated in globally acclaimed books. Today, over one million copies of Mark’s books are available in 25+ translations, including national bestsellers and a Wall Street Journal Bestseller. His approach to writing and speaking has always been to find what is true in principle and apply it to the real world. Because of this, Mark is best known for his ability to unlock the full potential of executives and teams to create High-Performance leaders and organizations.
When not practicing or studying leadership, Mark is an avid photographer. His expeditions have taken him to some of the world’s most difficult-to-reach destinations. He has photographed silverback gorillas in the jungles of Rwanda, the icebergs of Antarctica, the Maasai warriors in East Africa, Nepalese culture at Everest Base Camp, and much more. More adventures are in the works.
Mark is married to Donna, his high school sweetheart. They recently celebrated their 40th wedding
anniversary. Mark and Donna have two sons, Justin and David. Justin is married to Lindsey and they have three children: Addie, Logan and Finn. If you are a follower of Mark on social media, you will likely see them make a debut on his Instagram feed.
Learn more about Mark: LeadEveryDay.com