Why we need both career belonging and workplace belonging to feel valued

Sometimes, when people hear the term "career belonging" they start talking about how their employer doesn't appreciate them and how messed up their company culture is.

Suddenly, they’re not talking about career belonging anymore. Instead, the conversation has shifted to workplace belonging without them realizing it. This is because people don’t know the difference between career belonging and workplace belonging

I want to clear up the confusion. These are two different concepts with two different aims. Yet, both are necessary in today’s workforce.

Definition of Career Belonging Vs. Workplace Belonging

Here are my definitions:

• Career belonging means your career belongs to you. It's defined by you, aligned to your values, and consists of internal measures of success. You know how you want to feel seen, known, and valued in your career, you can communicate that, and people accept you for it.

• Your sense of career belonging impacts how well (and how quickly) you navigate and overcome career hurdles as well as your overall sense of wellbeing in your life.

• No matter what comes your way, the stronger sense of career belonging you have, the more resilient you are to market forces and economic changes that may affect your career plans and trajectory.

• When your career belongs to you, you can never lose it or have it taken from you. Only you can redirect or change it when you want to.

Workplace belonging is a big buzzword. There are many DEIB (diversity, equity, inclusion, belonging) experts dedicated to this. My definition of workplace belonging is:

• Workplace belonging is when you feel seen, known and valued by your employer and coworkers. You feel safe to bring your unique self into your workplace and are accepted for it.

• A sense of belonging in the workplace impacts business performance and your well-being as an employee.

Why we need both types

Career belonging and workplace belonging are two different types of belonging. These terms are tricky when used together but they are distinct ideas.

Most people don’t understand there is such a thing as career belonging. They’ve been focused on solving for workplace belonging but call it belonging, generally. When I add the word career in front of belonging, people assume I mean workplace belonging, even though I’m talking about an entirely new idea.

Both concepts need to be addressed in today's workforce. We need to feel we belong when we work on teams and in companies, but we also need to feel our careers aren't in jeopardy when there are layoffs or we're up for a promotion.

Our careers are separate from our jobs. No one can take our careers away from us because they belong to us. That’s what career belonging is about.

If workers are going to feel motivated and engaged at work, they need to feel they belong on their team and in their company (workplace belonging) and they need to feel they have a career that represents them on their terms (career belonging). Both are powerful concepts that apply to today’s workforce.