Baking Belonging into Your Team

The Brutally Honest Bakery Baking Belonging into Your Team or Event

You will often hear me talking (if you pop by the cake counter) about "inclusive cakes"—the small gesture which means a huge amount; the joy when someone actually remembers your dietary requirements.

It was the reason I set up The Brutally Honest Bakery. I wanted to create cakes that EVERYONE can enjoy.

And there’s a reason I harp on about it. Because that feeling of being included—of someone actually making an effort—is really powerful. But it also has a knock-on effect I don’t talk about as much.

It’s like a Grace Dividend.

When a person feels truly seen, it rebounds. It gives you, the giver, GRACE which flows naturally from their gratitude.

I see it like we all have an "Emotional Bank Account" (in my family we call it ‘your cup’). And when you feel you belong (amongst other things), your cup gets filled up. This in turn creates a buffer so that when things get stressful—a difficult project, a clunky process, or a tired mum—you’re far more likely to offer grace and ride out the storm in return. Now that is something every workplace (every family even!) needs in huge measure right now.

People don’t just leave jobs; they leave cultures where they feel like a replaceable cog. They stay where they feel like a valued ingredient. Maybe this sounds like a BIG FAT SLAB sales technique? And of course it is. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t true.

The stats (from HBR and BetterUp) speak more clearly than me: a 56% increase in performance and a 50% drop in turnover risk just from fostering "belonging."

An inclusive cake won’t fix everything. In fact, it will fix very little on its own. But it’s a start. It’s a relatively affordable (and tasty) way to show a willingness to look past the "easy option" and see the individual.

At THE BRUTALLY HONEST BAKERY we want to help make that as pain-free as possible.

So however your team looks, how are you going to bake some belonging into it this week?

#Leadership #Belonging #CompanyCulture #EmployeeRetention #TheGraceDividend #TheBrutallyHonestBakery