🎒 Microlesson

🪞 Reflect

Do you have a best friend at work?

💡 Concept

Connections with other people make us happier and more satisfied, both in life and at work. Recent Gallup data shows that having a work "best friend" is even more important now than it was at the start of the pandemic. Having a strong interpersonal connection to at least one other person at work makes you more likely to

• feel supported, especially in times of change.

• have a deep sense of ownership for your work.

• innovate and share ideas.

• have fun while at work.

Meaningful relationships at work benefit the individuals involved as well as the team and organization they are part of. Employees with best friends at work are more likely to

• engage with customers.

• be more productive.

• recommend their workplace to others.

How can you develop deep relationships with colleagues when working remotely?

🎬 Take Action

If you’re one of the eight in ten employees without a work best friend and you’d like to change that, here are some actions you can take:

• Build connection rituals with team members to get to know one another better.

• Check in regularly with team members to have conversations unrelated to work.

• Attend social events as your schedule allows.

• If you’re a leader, encourage (but don’t mandate) opportunities for fun, like playing video games or solving a mystery as a team.

• Leverage communication tools to provide ways for team members to share personal interests, like Slack channels.

• Reach out to a team member today to schedule an informal coffee chat.

• Remember that friendships—both within and outside the workplace—take effort and commitment from both parties.

✅ Check In

🧠 Keep Learning

Learn how to cultivate relationships in distributed teams with the Leadplaceless virtual leadership program.

🎁 Learn with your team!

Refer our weekly microlessons to your team members to learn as a group! Just follow the instructions in the section below to get started.