“She’s One of Us”
What Belonging Looks Like on a Team
You made the roster. You have the uniform. Your name is on the schedule.
But do you feel like you belong?
Those are different questions. Being part of an organization gives you a position. Feeling
accepted and included depends on what happens after you arrive.
For sport managers, that difference deserves attention. Think about a new employee joining
an established staff, an athlete entering a different locker room, or a volunteer working their
first event. They may know their assignment while still wondering: Do these people see me as
one of them?
A moment involving Las Vegas Aces rookie Kate Martin gives us something concrete to
consider.
A Moment That Communicated Membership
On July 16, 2024, Martin went down with an injury during a game against the Chicago Sky.
While she was on the floor, her teammates and team staff gathered around her. Several used
towels to shield her from cameras.
Martin was helped to the locker room and later returned to the bench, although she did not
play again that night.
Afterward, A’ja Wilson explained why the team had responded that way. They wanted to
protect Martin’s privacy. In describing their rookie, Wilson said, “she’s one of us”
(Wong, 2024).
That phrase connects an action to a message: your place here matters, including when you
are vulnerable and unable to keep playing.
We cannot determine Martin’s feelings from that moment. We can examine what her
colleagues did and what Wilson said their actions meant.
What Do We Mean by Belonging?
Belonging means feeling accepted and included by the people around you. It is knowing that
you matter and have a place on the team (Carr et al., 2019).
Consider a hypothetical sport organization.
A new event coordinator receives a badge, a workstation, and access to the scheduling system.
The onboarding checklist is complete.
But colleagues make decisions in conversations the coordinator is not part of. They refer to
procedures nobody has explained. When the coordinator asks a question, someone responds,
“You should know that already.”
The person has access to the workplace. Their interactions may still communicate that they
are outside the group.
Now imagine a colleague saying, “We discussed this before you joined. Let me explain the
background, and then I want your perspective.”
That small interaction makes information and participation available.
Why Exclusion Matters for Teamwork
Researchers found that people who felt a stronger sense of belonging at work also reported
better performance and were less likely to consider leaving. That connection matters, but it
does not prove that belonging alone caused those differences (Carr et al., 2019).
Here is what they did: participants played a virtual ball-tossing game with simulated
teammates. Some were included; others received the ball only a few times. They then
completed a task that could earn money.
When the earnings benefited the team, excluded participants persisted less than included
participants. When the earnings benefited only themselves, that difference went away
(Carr et al., 2019). So in their experiment, exclusion reduced effort directed toward the group.
A professional locker room is more complicated than a virtual game. Still, this information
gives managers a reason to examine if their own practices invite people to contribute, or leave
them feeling disconnected.
What Martin’s Teammates Help Us Notice
The response to Martin illustrates support through visible behavior. Her teammates noticed a
vulnerable moment and acted together to protect her privacy.
Also, a fair-acting ally can buffer the effects of exclusion. Martin’s situation was not an
exclusion experiment, so we should not treat the two as equivalent.
The connection is a managerial question: What can a colleague do to communicate that
another person counts?
We should also resist declaring an entire organization inclusive because of one supportive
incident. A moment can illustrate a practice without telling us how everyone experiences the
workplace.The more demanding question is whether support extends consistently across roles
and status levels.
Would the same care reach a temporary employee, an unfamiliar volunteer, or someone
whose contribution is less visible?
Making Belonging Part of Everyday Work
Managers can begin by examining ordinary interactions.
Who receives information before a decision? Who gets invited to contribute? What happens
when someone asks for help or identifies a problem?
Carr and colleagues emphasize fair-minded allies, opportunities to share experiences, and
taking employee feedback seriously.
In a sport organization, that could mean explaining an unwritten routine, inviting a new staff
member into a planning conversation, or following up when a volunteer says an instruction
was confusing. It also means asking people what would help rather than assuming you
already know. Wilson’s statement gave us a memorable phrase. The responsibility for managers
is to consider what makes that phrase credible.
If someone joined your sport organization tomorrow, what would you do
that tells them, “You’re one of us”?
