Want to know an underrated sign of good culture in the workplace?
Crying.
If you have built a truly safe and trusting environment, more than likely people on your team have cried in front of each other.
When a team is close enough to share about their personal lives and the inevitable struggles that come with it, then you know you have the makings for a strong culture.
When people, through tears, open up and tell you about a death in the family, the difficulties they might be having with an aging parent, or an unfortunate illness that is now impacting a close friend, then you know there is a good and strong environment.
They were allowed the space to deal with those emotions in real time, talk about them, get support, and then move on into their work.
In my experience, every team that I would consider to have a good culture had teammates that cried in front of each other.
The other teams with only an okay or not so good culture….almost never a tear.
On the total opposite end of the spectrum, I also believe tears from laughter is a sign of a great culture.
When your team can laugh, have fun, crack a joke, or tell a story where it moves people to tears it’s also a strong indicator of good culture.
Tears of laughter are a sign of camaraderie, connectedness, and a willingness of individuals to have fun!
Think back on your teams, the ones you probably loved the most and thought were good teams were also the ones that probably supported you emotionally, and that usually means the occasional tear.
So the next time you are thinking about your culture, think about if anyone has come to you or your teammates and shared these emotions.
Do you see teammates openning up?
Are they allowed to or felt comfortable enough to share their feelings?
Is there a good enough environment for them to show up as their best self on any given day, even if their best self that day means working in a lower capacity than normal because they were internally struggling with personal matters?
Crying and tears are not a sign of weakness.
They are signs of strength, connection, trust, and safety.
Week 5 of 52
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