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Workplace connection has been undervalued for too long. In a report on workplace challenges for 2025, Gallup found: “Many report feeling disconnected from their organization’s mission and like their organization doesn’t care about them.” This sentiment among workers and leaders relates to the continual de-prioritization of humanity in the workplace.
In a previous post, I shared that the growing disconnection and burnout workers face stems from a deeper crisis: the loss of fulfillment. The key to being fulfilled at work is rebuilding connection to self, others, and something greater. This post focuses on why connecting with others at work is foundational for team performance and culture.
As a public company CEO coach and positive organizational psychologist, I consistently see executives and CEOs overlook connection as a business imperative. Executives and CEOs tend to blame resources or processes for stalled results when the root cause is often weak connection.
Why is that? Key reasons include:
- It can feel more tangible to focus on business processes and elusive to focus on relationships.
- Organizations overemphasize what they need to accomplish; this means relationships at work have been considered secondary to results.
- There haven’t been enough evidence-based tools to give a roadmap for measuring and improving connection.
These are based on the misperception that connection is separate from accomplishing work. However, work does not get completed in isolation. In a corporate environment, most work is accomplished through interconnection. It is very rare for an individual to execute against the entire deliverable or project by themselves.
Leaders often make assumptions that if we set the goal and workers know the goal, then that’s enough. In truth, how people work together to attain the goal matters more.
Through our recent research, we discovered that the strength of our relationships in the workplace creates the foundation for team performance and thriving cultures.
Introducing the 5Cs Model: Connection Is the Heart
The 5Cs is a scientifically validated model that captures the five critical elements to create high-performing teams and thriving cultures. Our organization developed the 5Cs model in partnership with experts at Principles based on extensive research and experience working with executive teams. The elements are:
- Connection: Trust and Well-being
- Candid Communication: Psychological Safety, Feedback, and Transparency
- Clarity: Defined Roles, processes, and shared goals
- Collaboration: Team support, accountability, and collective excellence
- Contribution: Purpose, values, and meaningful impact at work
Connection reflects the level of bonds everyone feels with each other. It encompasses the subfactors of trust and well-being. Trust refers to the trustworthiness and deep sense of mutual trust that teams and organizations foster. Well-being emphasizes how much people feel their physical, mental, and emotional health matters to the team and organization.
At its core, Connection starts with two critical questions:
- Do you care about me?
- Can I trust you?
Connection is the heart of the model because building trust and care within an organization is foundational to all other elements. Connection enables the next element, Candid Communication. Teams and organizations need to feel some level of connection with each other to communicate openly. The stronger our workplace relationships are, the more we can lean into Candid Communication.
Our research results reveal:
- Connection is the superpower for improving team cohesion and culture.
- Connection is the most significant element of the 5Cs and impacts every other element more significantly than the others.
- Connection is the individual element of the 5Cs most predictive of job satisfaction, though all 5Cs combined are more predictive.
My forthcoming book Connected Culture provides a roadmap for leaders to build high-performing teams and thriving cultures with the 5Cs model.
The difference between low and high Connection environments:
Low-Connection environments don’t allow teams and organizations to produce the maximum level of results. People often feel isolated or disconnected from their peers or the organization’s culture. Overall, it creates an environment where all other elements of the 5Cs suffer.
The wonderful news is that environments of high trust and care create an upward spiral of openness and engagement. To outsiders, it can look like teams are accomplishing the impossible. Magic happens when teams and organizations achieve something much greater than the sum of their parts. High Connection is the heart of how organizations accomplish all aspects of what they want to achieve.
How Leaders Can Foster Connection on Their Teams
Our relationships at work are often transactional. We’re all so busy going from meeting to meeting that when we interact with others, we focus on what work needs to get done. We tend to give less attention to work relationships. When you are at your max capacity, it’s hard to consider spending time to have deeper conversations with colleagues or team members.
There’s also a misperception that cultivating connection at work will take too much focus or requires team offsites. This isn’t the case. The truth is, leaders can shift to intentionally cultivate relationships during every interaction. This counterbalances the tendency to focus only on results.
Leaders can start by asking how people are doing or feeling and then fully listening to their response. This is not about asking surface ice-breaker type questions like what’s your favorite flavor of ice cream. Instead, it’s an opportunity to connect on a deeper level as human beings.
Meetings are one place to start. Meetings are an existing, yet underutilized, opportunity for improving connection. Use the beginning of one-on-one or team meetings for a meaningful check-in. Ask questions such as:
- How is everyone feeling on a scale of 1 to 10?
- What brought you joy recently?
- How are we caring for ourselves and each other as a team, as humans?
Reflection: What’s one way you could build relationships at work in the next week?
Connection emphasizes bringing greater humanity into the workplace. Trust and care belong at the center of how organizations and teams operate. Business results and connection are not an either/or. They are both/and. When leaders prioritize both, teams deliver results far beyond what’s expected.
