The inclusion arm of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) strategies is often hard to measure. Diversity is a numerical fact about employees’ uniqueness. Equity is a body of strategic policy and procedure to benefit and protect employees. Inclusion necessitates leader and employee action to influence organisational culture. Even more abstract than inclusion, belonging is how individuals feel about the culture.

Let’s explore the difference between inclusion and belonging and how to emphasise inclusion and belonging in well-being initiatives.

The Difference Between Inclusion and Belonging

The difference between inclusion and belonging is straightforward. Inclusion is a behaviour, and belonging is a feeling or outcome of that behaviour.

So, inclusion might be catering a team lunch from a vegetarian restaurant. Belonging would be employees’ sense of appreciation about that decision. It’s easy to see why inclusion and belonging usually make it onto fewer spreadsheets and presentations than diversity and equity do.

In designing a healthy workplace, organisations need to consider inclusion and belonging. They influence both employee well-being and organisational performance. The presence of inclusion contributes to well-being and retention, whereas its absence contributes to stress and departures.^1,2

Inclusion and belonging relate to the three “master motives” that drive human behaviour. These include (1) getting along with others, (2) getting ahead of others, and (3) finding meaning. We humans have always lived in groups. In seeking to get along within our group, we pursue social acceptance and cooperation. When we vie for status within our group, we attempt to get ahead of others, sometimes excluding other group members. By trying to find meaning with respect to our group, we often identify our work as a significant component of our purpose in life. Altogether, these motives speak to why group acceptance matters so much to us.

More specifically, inclusion has to do with getting along with others, and belonging has to do with finding meaning. This socioanalytic view of personality explains why inclusion and belonging are so integral to well-being. They are deeply rooted in the origins of society itself.

Well-Being and Inclusion

When people perceive rejection by their group, they are not likely to perform at their peak. In an article for Forbes, Simi Rayat describes this state as a “neural seesaw,” tilting from high engagement and performance to high fear and anxiety.³

The absence of inclusion harms our well-being, but its presence improves our well-being. Experiencing workplace exclusion, such as being ignored, interrupted, or prevented from accessing the same resources as others, negatively influence mental health. On the other hand, acts of inclusion, such as respect and courtesy, seeking connection with others, and promoting the visibility of others, positively influence job satisfaction.³

An employee well-being initiative without inclusion as a significant component fails to account for the importance of getting along for team and organisational performance.

Well-Being and Belonging

Belonging at work speaks to our need for finding meaning in our lives. Like inclusion, belonging has positive effects on well-being. Social belongingness is related to identity, trust, participation, solidarity, and values within groups, teams, networks, and institutions.

As an emotion, belonging grows in the presence of inclusive actions. Feelings of social belonging contribute to well-being when fostered by “low stress, high role autonomy, social support, and quality leadership.”⁴ Data show that people tend to feel belonging when they are trusted and respected, when they feel safe to express their opinions, and when their contributions are valued.⁵ Conversely, feeling ignored, stressed, or lonely at work makes people feel as though they do not belong.

Nearly all these conditions that contribute to belonging fall within the influence of leaders. But how exactly can leaders establish inclusive practices to promote belonging in employees?

The Connection Between Inclusion, Belonging, and Well-Being

Well-being, inclusion, and belonging are inseparable. Organisations should integrate DEIB initiatives and well-being initiatives, particularly to ensure that employees have the same access to consistent well-being resources that meet their different needs.⁶ Passively providing resources alone does not address the need for inclusive actions and a sense of belonging. Achieving these relies on values, leaders, and employees.

Values

An inclusive culture starts at the top. Leaders’ values are likely to drive their decisions regarding organisational policies, programs, benefits, and culture. Likewise, values are likely to drive leaders’ behaviour, which can influence employee well-being directly and indirectly.

Organisational culture stems from leader values. A team led by someone who values recognition will have a different culture than a team with a leader who values aesthetics. One leader is likely to emphasise visibility and the other quality. What constitutes inclusive behaviour might differ somewhat based on the cultural context of these two teams.

Leaders

Organisations need to select and develop leaders who excel at promoting inclusive behaviour. Key leader competencies that foster inclusion and belonging include listening to others, inspiring others, building relationships, caring about people, developing people, integrity, accountability, and other socioemotional skills.

Hogan Assessments provide a reliable, valid way to select and develop such leaders. Someone with a lower score on the Hogan Personality Inventory’s Sociability scale would tend to listen before speaking, resist distraction, and communicate in a more formal, structured way. Someone with a higher Sociability score would tend to be socially proactive, be team oriented, and build relationships with a wide range of people. Each of these personalities can support a diversity climate and promote the well-being of individual team members. Both personalities can do so even more effectively with awareness, strategy, and intention.

Employees

What makes employees feel that they belong differs by the employee. Broad practices of inclusion are excellent, of course (“we don’t interrupt each other” or “we use each other’s preferred method of address”). Specific inclusive actions will also help specific individuals feel belonging (“Amira is observing Ramadan, so let’s meet at the office, not a restaurant”). A relationship of trust is necessary between leaders and followers and among team members to facilitate inclusion and belonging on the individual level.

Organisations that understand the nuance of personalities in their company will be best positioned to build inclusion and belonging into a well-being initiative. Employees with high scores on the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory’s Affiliation scale, for example, strongly value opportunities for collaboration and social contact. They might be more aware of or sensitive to exclusion at work. Similarly, employees with high MVPI Hedonism scores strongly value variety, excitement, and enjoyment in the workplace. They might become indifferent or discouraged without social relationships. On the other hand, leaders who invite meaningful connection help to ensure that people know their well-being matters at work.

Where to start? Personality assessment provides information about everyday personality characteristics, potential derailers, and the values, preferences, and biases of leaders and employees. This empowering knowledge is the first step in strategic intention to promote inclusivity and foster belonging as a cornerstone of any organisational well-being initiative.

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Well-being and development have always been close concepts, but organisations don’t seem to be drawing clear lines between development and well-being. Although 83% of US workers experience work-related stress,¹ only 24% of employees strongly agree that their organisation cares about their well-being.² Unlike the goal of life coaching, however, leadership development’s goal is to equip leaders to build and maintain high-performing teams of people who effectively balance work and well-being.

When a leader’s occupational well-being is in balance, they can create work environments that better support their employees’ occupational well-being too. Leader behaviour and relationships directly influence employee job satisfaction. Interpersonal relationships represent 39% of job satisfaction, and relationships with management represent 86% of satisfaction in work relationships.³ Employees experience more job satisfaction when their leaders prioritise, model, and actively support occupational well-being. After all, lack of support or recognition from leadership is the top driver of burnout.⁴

Read on to learn which Hogan scales have distinct bearing on well-being and how Hogan practitioners can incorporate well-being as a theme in leadership development conversations.

How Hogan Helps

Hogan’s personality assessments are objective tools that can help improve leader and employee well-being. While our assessments can give insight into the extent to which a person is concerned with well-being, they don’t measure well-being itself.

Hogan practitioners can use our assessments in development conversations to combat stress and burnout and improve well-being. They should first explain the purpose of development and what the assessments measure, then focus on these areas in the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI) and the Motives, Values, Preferences Inventory (MVPI). The Hogan Development Survey (HDS) measures overused strengths that can become derailers. Practitioners should review high HDS scores for greater insight into potential performance challenges.

HPI

The HPI measures characteristics that describe how people tend to behave when they are at their best. Everyday personality strengths influence both managerial style and workplace reputation.

• The Adjustment scale concerns how someone typically handles stress and coaching. Those with lower scores tend to be more stress-prone and coachable, while those with higher scores tend to be more stress-tolerant and resistant to feedback.
• The Ambition scale refers to a person’s drive, energy, confidence, and initiative. A higher score might suggest behaviour that focuses on work to the exclusion of well-being, while a lower score could imply the opposite.
• The Interpersonal Sensitivity scale relates to communication style, such as whether someone is candid and argumentative or sensitive and diplomatic. A person with lower scores could seem insensitive toward the well-being or emotions of their employees or coworkers, while someone with higher scores could seem oversensitive.

MVPI

The MVPI measures personality from the inside, describing the values that drive our occupational goals. Put another way, values show what people most care about when it comes to work.

• The Hedonism scale measures preference for formal or informal work environments. It can suggest how likely someone is to integrate work into their personal life.
• The Altruistic scale measures preference for personal responsibility and self-reliance or helping and serving others. It can suggest how motivated someone is to improve others’ lives.

Emphasising a leader’s interconnected strengths and preferences that already pertain to well-being can provide a natural segue into occupational well-being as a developmental theme.

Advice for Leadership Development Conversations

Understanding how personality affects learning will help a Hogan practitioner to approach these three areas of the leadership development process⁵:

1. Enhance the learner’s receptivity to feedback and coaching.

Early in a development conversation, practitioners should draw a personalised connection between development and occupational well-being. If the leader has a high Altruistic score, the practitioner might connect that value to development by pointing out that a focus on well-being can increase employee retention. If the leader has a low Interpersonal Sensitivity score, the practitioner might explain that developing a variety of communication styles might make employees feel more connected and improve relationships.

2. Match feedback and coaching approaches to the learner’s style.

Effective leaders build and maintain high-performing teams. Leaders who learn about their own and their teams’ strengths and values also gain insight into improving the occupational well-being of both by reducing stress and increasing productivity.

Development, therefore, should help leaders become more self-aware and more perceptive of what their employees might need for well-being. Practitioners who build a development plan based on the leader’s learning style help provide optimal conditions for gaining strategic self-awareness.ⁱ

3. Promote engagement and action in executing the development plan.

The development plan should, if executed well, enhance how a leader’s personality strengths positively influence behaviour and reputation. According to Trish Kellett, MBA, director of the Hogan Coaching Network, “Developing the behavioural repertoire of leaders equips them to understand and approach people in even more impactful and effective ways.” While this achievement will likely improve well-being broadly, it may also be appropriate to develop specific action items related to occupational well-being goals. Goals that appear in a development plan should be tied to specific business outcomes. There’s a difference between intentional deep breathing before client video calls and leaving work an hour early twice a week for a guided meditation class. Both are ways to manage stress, but only the former is suitable for a development plan.

Development coaching offers the opportunity for leaders to learn strategies to combat stress and burnout and to improve their well-being and that of their employees. Incorporating well-being into leadership development conversations should become another approach in the Hogan practitioner’s repertoire.

Note

1. For an extended discussion of learner styles, see pages 127–130 in Coaching the Dark Side of Personality.⁵

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