“I, like most people, spend a lot of time at work, and I’ve found that meaningful relationships help me do my job better — and feel happier while I’m at it,” says Beth Steinberg, Chime’s Chief People Officer. “Cultivating connection also helps me be an effective leader and truly understand my team,” she adds.

Jennifer Hillard, Chime’s Head of Early Talent, agrees: “It’s important to build relationships and get to know people personally so you can communicate and collaborate with them,” she says. “I believe that collaboration is necessary to do any job well, even if you’re alone in a role — and collaboration is best when there’s an existing connection there.”

Beth and Jennifer aren’t alone in their beliefs and approaches to cultivating relationships at work: a 2022 Gallup report showed that “having a ‘best friend’ at work contributes to a thriving employee experience and to communication, commitment, and other outcomes.” And, given that people spend a large portion of their time with coworkers from age 20 to 60, it makes sense. While you might not find a ‘best friend’ at work, connecting with colleagues is important.

“Creating friendships and connecting with your teammates as human beings make going to work more meaningful because you become invested in the true success of their lives.”

— Beth Steinberg

“I feel fortunate that I’ve made so many deep connections with people at work and that some of the folks I worked with 20 years ago are still my closest friends,” Beth says. “Creating friendships and connecting with your teammates as human beings make going to work more meaningful because you become invested in the true success of their lives.”

In celebration of Women’s History Month, women and nonbinary folks at Chime are grounding themselves in the theme of cultivating meaningful relationships and connections at work. Over the last few years, we have all faced societal obstacles that have complicated building meaningful connections. Yet, amid those challenges, our connections have kept us grounded. Moreover, connection is especially important for women and other minority groups, who can find it more difficult to open up and be candid with folks because of how they might be perceived.

Read on to learn more about what real relationships look like, why they matter at work, and how to start forging meaningful connections in your own work life.

What is a real connection — and why does it matter?

“To me, creating real connection is rooted in trust,” Beth says. The model for trust she refers to over and over again is from Harvard professor and expert on operations, culture, and leadership, Frances X. Frei. It’s called the Trust Triangle:

“Basically, Frances argues that you can learn empathy and you can understand logic, but if people observe you as inauthentic, they’ll have a very hard time trusting you,” Beth explains. “I’m the first to admit that I haven’t always been an authentic leader — that has come with experience — but I’ve learned that I can never expect someone to be open and vulnerable with me if I won’t be the same with them.”

To that end, Beth strives to always be honest with her team. If she’s having a bad day, she’ll tell them what’s going on. If something amazing happens, she’ll share that, too. Perhaps the key to achieving this is never seeing her authenticity as a negative trait and, instead, embracing it as a sign of strength. “When you invest in an authentic, two-way relationship, you’re able to build trust, drive deeper connections to the work you’re doing together, and, ultimately, see better results,” she says.

For Jennifer, she calls the same authenticity by a different name: being genuine. “When you communicate, do it genuinely, and you’ll see your relationships shine,” she says. “Being genuine breeds honesty, transparency, and mutual respect.” A resource that has helped Jennifer be genuine in cultivating relationships and building teams is Daniel Levi’s Group Dynamics for Teams. “It’s helped me understand how to foster relationships with my colleagues and navigate the challenges I’ve encountered when collaborating with others and building group dynamics,” she says.

"When you communicate, do it genuinely, and you’ll see your relationships shine. Being genuine breeds honesty, transparency, and mutual respect.”

— Jennifer Hillard

The value of trust — and the role of radical candor

Research shows that when employees feel trusted, they perform better, go above and beyond the expectations of their roles, have more confidence, and stay more engaged for longer. “In my experience, when your team trusts you and each other, they take more risks, they’re more open and honest, they feel more supported, and they get better results,” says Beth.

A true relationship with your colleagues creates a level of respect and can encourage folks to help each other out — because they know someone is genuine. “Honesty leads to trust, and to build those, you need to foster relationships,” Beth says. “By building relationships with my team, I can have a greater degree of honest dialogue with them — they won’t be upset or caught off-guard by real feedback, but instead know that I care about them deeply.”

However, many people fall into a trap when building authentic relationships. Beth turns to Kim Scott’s concept of radical candor to better understand this. “Kim explores the idea that people can be so empathetic that they feel they can’t be honest — she calls this ruinous empathy — which is an inauthentic way of leading,” she says. “Not every day is going to be easy, but if you build a foundation of mutual trust and respect, you can get through anything.” To do that, having a high regard for self and others is critical — and will lead to radical candor.

While they believe in building authentic relationships, Beth and Jennifer admit that they sometimes forget how hard it might be for people to come to them. “You might think you’re approachable, but you don’t really know,” says Jennifer. “You can miss out on so much important data if people don’t feel comfortable telling you the truth,” Beth adds. Both echo how important it is for everyone, at any level of the company, to feel comfortable approaching them — and know that they’ll be met with radical candor.

In practice: Building authentic connection at work

“To create meaningful connections, I always find a way to connect personally before doing so professionally,” Jennifer says. “I think actively about doing so; for example, if I have to ask someone for data, a report, or a status update, I’ll first check in personally and ask them a question completely unrelated to my work request.”

“To create meaningful connections, I always find a way to connect personally before doing so professionally.”

— Jennifer Hillard

For Beth, although she doesn’t have a formal practice, she still checks in on peoples’ lives. “Someone on my team recently came back from vacation, and while I had a million work things to discuss with them, on their first morning back, the only thing I asked them was how their trip went,” she says. “I was sincerely interested in their response and knew that connecting with them personally would only make us more productive later on. Those many small interactions make up the bigger relationship and sustain the connection over time. At the end of the day, people are humans first, and we’re emotional beings — we have to understand and appreciate that and start there.”

Cultivating such connections hasn’t always been easy over the last few years, however. With the pandemic and more folks working remotely, she makes a point of scheduling more quick meetings to keep those connections going. For Beth, having face-to-face interactions helps her build deeper connections. “I can read body language in a different way and pick up more cues,” she says. “While in-person might be more of the exception than the rule now, it will always be my favorite way to connect. I know it’s hard and isn’t possible for many, so it’s important to find other ways to get to know each other, too.”

How connecting at work helps Chimers connect with our members

Cultivating meaningful relationships and connections at work isn’t just nice to do, it’s necessary for folks to feel like they belong, are set up to succeed, and are cared about at work. At Chime, our ability to connect helps us find empathy and connect with our members, which is a critical part of achieving our mission. “Most people come to Chime because they’re interested in leveling the playing field that is financial services for everyday people, and any opportunity to drive understanding and empathy internally will drive the same externally,” Beth explains. “Any behavior or cultural norm that we cultivate internally will always bleed out through our work, so the more we can foster real connections at Chime, the more we’ll drive an understanding of how we can do better for our members.”

“Any behavior or cultural norm that we cultivate internally will always bleed out through our work, so the more we can foster real connections at Chime, the more we’ll drive an understanding of how we can do better for our members.”

— Beth Steinberg

Since our members are the reason we do this work, we’ll continue to find ways to build a lasting relationship with each other and with them — showing empathy, expressing radical candor, and finding meaningful ways to connect at work, in our products, and out in the community.