Smart Leaders Drive High Performance Through Belonging—Not Burnout

By Beth Ridley, leadership and workplace culture consultant

This blog shares the key takeaways from a workshop I recently delivered to the 2025 class of leaders in the Leadership Institute, titled “Supporting Employee Mental Health: Practical Steps for Leaders.”
The session focused on addressing the rising levels of employee disengagement and burnout—and what leaders can practically do about it. Spoiler: the answer isn’t bonuses or yoga apps. It’s belonging.

Here’s a summary of the most impactful ideas and data that resonated with participants—and how you can start applying them right away.

Employee disengagement is rising—and it’s costly:

• 59% of employees are quietly disengaged
• Burnout is the top driver, fueled by heavy workloads and a lack of support
• Disengaged teams cost U.S. businesses an estimated $1.9 trillion in lost productivity each year

The workload isn’t going anywhere—and raises, perks, and bonuses aren’t realistic solutions. Even when available, research shows those incentives only go so far.

You can’t keep asking your team to do more—but you can help them tap into their intrinsic motivation and resilience by creating a culture of belonging.

Smart leaders are prioritizing belonging because it delivers measurable performance gains—without requiring extra budget.

Belonging Fuels Performance from the Inside Out

Belonging is the universal human need to feel valued and accepted. Alongside love, it’s a key driver of self-esteem, motivation, and resilience.
When people feel they belong, they experience less stress, bounce back from setbacks faster, and stay more engaged.

The data backs it up. Teams with strong belonging see:

• 56% higher job performance
• 50% lower turnover risk
• 75% fewer sick days

Motivating employees from within by fostering belonging is what I call Holistic Performance—an approach to leadership that drives results by balancing high expectations with genuine care for wellbeing.
It’s about working hard and working healthy, so burnout isn’t the cost of success.

👉 Watch my TV interview to learn how Holistic Performance is helping leaders transform their teams.

Engineers Need Belonging, Too

You might assume engineers don’t need belonging to stay motivated—but engineers are human first. And humans perform at their best when they feel seen, supported, and connected.

Think of someone who made you feel like you truly belonged. What impact did that have on your effort, confidence, or results?

Now imagine creating that same dynamic across your team. That’s how you build a high-performance culture from the inside out.

How to Start: The 3 C’s of Belonging

You don’t need new tools or more time—just a shift in mindset. Belonging is built through small, intentional actions that fit into the rhythm of your 1:1s, meetings, and daily interactions.

Here’s a simple framework to guide you: the 3 C’s of Belonging.

1. Comfort (Psychological Safety): Create a space where people feel safe to speak up, ask questions, and share concerns—without fear of judgment, dismissal, or penalty.
2. Connection: Help your team feel part of something bigger than their to-do list. Reinforce shared goals, mutual respect, and a sense of purpose.
3. Contribution: Make sure every person knows their work matters. Seek input, act on feedback, and show how individual efforts drive team success.

Need a place to start? Think back to that someone who made you feel like you belonged. What did they say or do that made a lasting impact?

Borrow a bit of that energy—and bring it to your team. One small, consistent gesture can spark a powerful shift in how people feel, show up, and perform.

Start small. Stay consistent. And trust that when people feel like they belong, high performance always follows.

Coming Soon: The Belonging Best Practices Toolkit™

This is your plug-and-play guide to help leaders build cultures of belonging—without adding to their workload. It includes:

• Short explainer videos
• Personalized action plan template
• Practical tools and tactics you can use in your next meeting or 1:1

👉 Want early access? Email me to get on the list: beth@ridleyconsultants.com

About the Guest Blogger

Beth Ridley is a former corporate executive turned workplace culture consultant, speaker and author. With 30 years of global leadership and management consulting experience, she’s dedicated to helping organizations build stronger leaders, teams and cultures through a focus on inclusion and positive psychology.