Today’s Morning Buzz is brought to you by Emily Colón, Consultant with the Southern Group in Florida. Connect with Emily via LinkedIn.
- What I’m reading: “10% Happier” by Dan Harris in between reading my 2-year-old son Llama Llama books.
- A hobby I enjoy: I’m attempting to take up tennis with my daughters.
- What I’m working on: The Florida Women Leading Government (FWLG) programming
Community isn’t a department. It’s not a line item. It’s not someone else’s job. Whether you’re writing policies, running payroll, or leading a city, you’re either building community or breaking it. I used to think “community-building” simply just meant hosting city-sponsored events, having murals painted, or launching a new engagement tool. It’s not to say those things don’t matter, but it’s something deeper: We build or break community in the small, often invisible moments. And sometimes, we break it without even realizing.
Every decision, every interaction, every email you send, it either strengthens trust or chips away at it. There’s rarely a neutral zone. And that’s true not just inside City Hall, but also in how we show up as residents and neighbors in the places we live.
Let’s start with the internal. The way we lead our teams sets the tone for the entire organization, and the ripple effects reach further than we think. Here’s what community-building looks like at work:
- Taking time to explain why, not just what.
- Asking for input and actually using it (This one is tricky. Don’t ask for input if your mind is already made up.)
- Checking in on someone before checking up on their work.
- Celebrating effort and growth, not just perfect outcomes.
- Creating clarity, which creates (psychological) safety.
It’s not about having pizza parties or morale posters. It’s about making people feel like they belong, and like what they do matters. And on the flip side? We break community when we:
- Skip context in the name of speed. Or mistake secrecy for strategy.
- Avoid hard conversations. Bad news usually doesn’t get better over time.
- Let burnout leak into our leadership voice.
- Reward silence over thoughtful push-back.
- “Protect our lane” instead of collaborating across silos.
The tricky part? These actions are often unintentional. That’s why they’re so hard to spot and so important to notice.
We build (or break) outside the office too. It’s easy to talk about community as something we serve professionally. But we’re neighbors, too. Residents. Parents. Voters. People who show up at soccer games, walk the dog, and post on social media (hopefully nicely). What we model in our personal lives is just as much a part of community-building:
- Do we give grace to the cashier having a hard day?
- Do we show up to volunteer, not just get the kids to school on time?
- Do we see public services as “ours,” not “theirs”?
The same things that build connection at work (curiosity, clarity, generosity) are what make us better citizens, not just better leaders.
We don’t get it right all the time. I’ve sent the rushed email. I’ve skipped the context. I’ve defaulted to “just get it done.” We all have. But community-building is like a muscle, and the more we pay attention to it, the stronger it gets. And we need it to be strong. Because at a time when polarization, burnout, and mistrust are rising, local government is still one of the last places where people with different views come together to build something real. That’s a powerful responsibility. And it starts with us.
So here’s to building on purpose. In the small stuff. In the unseen moments. Inside the building, and outside it. Because community isn’t just something we serve. It’s something we’re a part of.