Have you ever felt left out or excluded from important conversations or meetings at work? Have you ever hid or covered parts of who you are or what you believe — your political or religious affiliation, or details about your personal life, history and background, for example — in order to fit in and be accepted at work? 

Let’s explore what people are giving their attention and energy to when they feel like they don’t belong. 

First a definition of belonging - the experience of being seen and heard and welcome with all of who we are. Every human being has a need to belong. And belonging is a potent force at work. 

Yet one of the biggest impediments to belonging is fitting in. “Fitting in is about assessing a situation and becoming what you need to be in order to be accepted,” Brene Brown observes. “Belonging, on the other hand, doesn’t require us to change who we are; it requires us to be who we are.” 

The need to fit in can lead to something called “covering.” As Rhodes Perry, author of Belonging at Work explains, covering happens when we intentionally hide or choose not to reveal certain aspects of ourselves that might cause us to be seen as outsiders. In order to fit in with everyone else, we downplay or conceal “a known stigmatized identity.” Covering sacrifices our authenticity — our belonging.

To understand belonging, it’s important to look at the dominant culture people may feel pressured to “belong” to. Every organization has its own dominant culture. Based on that culture and the broader culture the organization exists in, certain attributes will be prized and rewarded, while others are not. 

We all have to risk something to belong. However, if you have attributes that aren’t valued by the dominant culture, the risk of being yourself is much higher. This, understandably, is what leads to fitting in, covering, code-switching. 

For example, a recent Deloitte study showed that 61% of people in the workplace cover an aspect of who they are at work. But when the numbers are broken down, you can see that covering happens in 83% of the people who identify as LGBTQ+ and in only 45% of heterosexual, white men. These numbers show the disparity in the experience of fitting in and how much some people feel forced to cover in order to belong. 

So, what does belonging have to do with work performance? Everything. 

“If workers feel like they belong, companies reap substantial bottom-line benefits. High belonging was linked to a whopping 56% increase in job performance, a 50% drop in turnover risk, and a 75% reduction in sick days. For a 10,000-person company, this would result in annual savings of more than $52M.” “The Value of Belonging at Work” Harvard Business Review. 

Creating a Culture of Belonging—for Everyone

As leaders, you absolutely have a role in creating culture. You may have unconsciously created an environment where some people feel like they have to fit in because they don’t feel like they belong by being who they are. 

How can you “see” your culture? Culture is a collective phenomenon. It belongs to the “we.” It is not about individuals. So, to name or identify your culture, you have to gather together the “we” — leaders who influence culture — and engage in a different kind of conversation. 

Here are some statements and questions to reflect on to help you “see” the dominant cultural elements in your organization:

• Around here to be “professional,” you have to… (fill in the blank).
• Around here to be respected, you have to … (fill in the blank).
• What qualities or attributes do you have to have to be seen as a natural leader here?
• Who is a good cultural fit here?
• What are dominant and/or prized identities here?*
• How can you tell?*
• What is the impact on people who don’t possess these identities?*

You may want to have this conversation with your leadership team and think through the honest responses together. Don’t try to fool yourself or present only the more evolved responses. What’s really true in your organization right now?

Exploring these questions puts you on the path to creating more belonging at work. But even more, once you have identified the cultural impact of dominant identities to include more diversity, making changes will lift up the performance of every person and the entire organization—and that’s the true work of leaders today. 

*Questions from Whiteness at Work.com

Previously published on Forbes