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The One Word That Kills Innovation(And How Leaders unintentionally Break It) 

Why Belonging Is a Leadership Skill, Not a Program

 

Organizations often treat belonging as a program, a workshop, a training, a statement.

Something HR launches or a DEI/B&I team manages.
But belonging doesn’t live in programs.
It lives in people.

It lives in the space between two people. And that space is held together by just one word: Trust.
And people take their cues from leaders.

Belonging isn’t something you launch.
It’s something you practice.

 

A Leadership Lesson

While consulting with an organization, someone shared why they stopped speaking up at work.

The employee had a one-to-one meeting with their manager that lasted an hour. As is common in these conversations, the employee shared not only current work, but early-stage thinking—ideas still forming. Plans, not progress.

One idea in particular was explicitly framed as future-oriented. The employee clearly stated they would develop it into slides and present it for approval at a meeting already scheduled a month later.

The next morning, everything shifted.

The manager sent an instant message asking who had approved the plan. They added that their own manager was unaware of this “approval.”

The employee paused. They explained—again—that no approval had happened. What had been shared was future work, exactly as stated in the one-to-one.

The response came back:
“That’s not what you told me yesterday.”

The employee calmly clarified once more.
Still, the reply repeated:
“That’s not what you told me yesterday.”

From a leadership perspective, this is a pivotal moment.

Saying “that’s not what you said” is not neutral and does not signal confusion. It implicitly positions the other person as unreliable.

In a power-imbalanced relationship, it can land as an accusation: you are not telling the truth.

Whether or not that was the manager’s intent is irrelevant.
In leadership, impact always outweighs intent.

Unwilling to argue over chat and aware of the power dynamic, the employee ended the exchange with:
“Sorry, I must have misspoken.”

The conversation stopped.
But so did trust.

From that point on, the employee stopped sharing early thinking. They shared only what was complete, approved, and safe.

What leaders sometimes describe as a quiet exit often begins exactly here. Not with disengagement or defiance, but with self-protection. People stay in their roles, meet expectations, and stop offering what feels unsafe, stop sharing ideas, stop giving honest feedback, or  taking calculated or creative risk.

When belonging erodes, so does innovation, candor, and early problem-solving; often without leaders realizing why.

 

This is how we get to the numbers that keep CEOs awake at night.

Gallup’s 2024 findings show that only 32% of U.S. employees feel engaged at work, and globally that number falls to 21%. Millions of people are moving through workplaces where they don’t feel seen, supported, or inspired.

 

The Pivot - Leadership Lesson

Miscommunication is inevitable.

Leaders who practice belonging respond with curiosity, not certainty:

• “I may have misunderstood.”
• “Walk me through where we are on this.”
• “I think I  jumped ahead too quickly, let's revisist this.”

These moments preserve dignity.
And they build trust.

 

Programs Don’t Create Belonging. Leaders Do.

Programs can introduce language and tools.
But they cannot:

• Repair harm
• Build trust
• Share power
• Model accountability
• Create psychological safety

Only leaders can do that.

In most cases at work, Belonging is shaped by who leaders listen to, believe, promote, interrupt, and invest in.

This is how we incorporate belonging into the business.
Not as a project with a start date and an end date, but as a leadership practice embedded in how decisions are made, how conversations happen, and how power is used every day.

Belonging is not an initiative to complete.
It is a responsibility leaders carry continuously.

 

The Good News: Belonging Is a Skill We Can All Build

Belonging isn’t a personality trait.
It’s a practice built through:

• Awareness — noticing who’s included
• Intention — choosing trust-building behaviors
• Consistency — especially when things are hard
• Repair — restoring dignity
• Courage — addressing inequity

These behaviors create cultures where people contribute fully, not selectively.

 

Call To Action: Take the 60 Second Belonging Check-In

Before you log off for the week, Ask yourself:

• Who felt included because of me?
• Who may have felt excluded?
• What built trust?
• What eroded it?
• What can I repair or clarify next week?

 

Always remember, Belonging becomes a habit through practice. not programs.

As Maya Angelou said: "People will forget what you said, but they will always remember how you made them feel".

Belonging is the work. And it begins with you.