The science behind friendship at work, loneliness, and building a culture of belonging.

SEASON 4:

Foundations of Friendship at Work & Cultures of Connection

Part 1: Foundations of Friendship at Work

Episode 3 — Workplace Wellbeing and Social Connection

We spend more than a third of our lives at work, yet many organizations still treat connection as optional and friendship as a distraction. In this episode of Friendship Matters, we explore why friendship at work is actually one of the strongest drivers of wellbeing, engagement, and performance.

Drawing on research from Gallup, healthcare, and organizational science, we unpack the hidden cost of workplace loneliness and why social connection directly impacts mental health, productivity, retention, and even longevity. This conversation challenges outdated leadership beliefs that prioritize tasks over relationships and shows why wellbeing cannot exist without social health.

Through real stories from leadership, medicine, and coaching, you will hear how small, intentional moments of connection create trust, fuel collaboration, and help people feel seen and valued at work.

In this episode, you will learn:
• Why friendship is a critical part of workplace wellbeing
• How loneliness quietly erodes engagement, creativity, and retention
• What the research really says about having a best friend at work
• How belonging and purpose affect both performance and health
• Simple, practical ways to build connection without forcing it

If you are a leader, HR professional, or anyone who wants work to feel more human without losing focus or results, this episode reframes what truly drives thriving workplaces.

©Friendship Institute 2026

Friendship Matters™ is intended to help improve our Friendship IQ. While this generally signals an improvement in our overall wellbeing, this podcast is not intended in any way to offer specific counseling or medical advice. Please seek help from a trained professional.

Trust is not a soft skill. It is the foundation of every high performing team.

SEASON 4:

Foundations of Friendship at Work & Cultures of Connection

Part 1: Foundations of Friendship at Work

Episode 2 — The Science of Friendship and Leadership part 2

Listen in as we break down what trust and connection really look like in modern leadership and how they are built through daily, intentional actions, not titles or authority. If you have ever wondered how to move your team from functional to fully engaged, this conversation gives you a clear and practical path forward.

Learn a simple, repeatable three step framework that you can use immediately to strengthen relationships, increase engagement, and create a culture where people feel seen, valued, and motivated to do their best work.

In this episode, you will learn:

• Why authenticity builds trust when it is done with boundaries, not oversharing
• How closing the say do gap directly impacts credibility and leadership effectiveness
• Practical ways to create meaningful connection at work, in person or remote
• Why listening deeply and allowing silence leads to better insight and stronger teams
• How thoughtful recognition, from handwritten notes to moments of fun, drives engagement and loyalty
• A powerful leadership case study showing how connection transformed an entire organization

Through real stories from executive leadership, healthcare, and coaching, this episode challenges the idea that connection just happens. It shows why leaders must design it intentionally and how small actions can create lasting ripple effects across a team.

If you want a team that trusts you, stays engaged, and genuinely wants to follow your lead, this episode gives you a clear, human centered framework to build trust and belonging starting now. Leadership is not just about managing work. It is about building relationships that help people and organizations thrive.

©Friendship Institute 2026

Friendship Matters™ is intended to help improve our Friendship IQ. While this generally signals an improvement in our overall wellbeing, this podcast is not intended in any way to offer specific counseling or medical advice. Please seek help from a trained professional.

What if one of the most powerful leadership tools is also one of the most overlooked?

SEASON 4:

Foundations of Friendship at Work & Cultures of Connection

Part 1: Foundations of Friendship at Work

Episode 1 — The Science of Friendship and Leadership

In this episode, we kick off our series by exploring the surprising role friendship plays in effective leadership. Research shows that employees are seven times more engaged when they have a best friend at work, yet many leaders are still taught to keep connection at arm's length.

We unpack why leadership is fundamentally relational, not transactional, and why trust, care, and authenticity are not soft skills but strategic advantages. Through real world stories and lived experience, including powerful examples from executive leader Lisa Grimes, we explore what it looks like to lead with genuine connection without sacrificing performance or accountability.

You will hear why people follow leaders they trust, how consistency and authenticity build loyalty over time, and why knowing your people matters more than surveys, bonuses, or titles. We also examine the hidden costs of disconnection, from loneliness at work to disengagement, retention challenges, and even imposter syndrome among leaders themselves.

This conversation challenges the myth of command and control leadership and reframes friendship as a foundation for trust, engagement, productivity, and belonging. If you want to be the kind of leader people would follow anywhere, not because they have to, but because they want to, this episode sets the stage.

Listen in and rethink what great leadership really looks like.

©Friendship Institute 2026

Friendship Matters™ is intended to help improve our Friendship IQ. While this generally signals an improvement in our overall wellbeing, this podcast is not intended in any way to offer specific counseling or medical advice. Please seek help from a trained professional.

Rituals often look small on the surface, a shared walk, a candle lit in remembrance, a weekly check in text, but they carry enormous power. In this final episode of our holiday series, we explore how rituals anchor connection, create belonging, and help us make meaning during times of transition, uncertainty, and grief.

The conversation unpacks the difference between routines and rituals, highlighting intention as the key distinction. While routines help us function, rituals help us feel. They invite us to pause, reflect, and choose connection with ourselves and with others. Our hosts share personal stories of inherited and newly created rituals, from winter solstice gatherings and New Year traditions to lifelong friendship rituals that have endured for decades.

We also explore the science behind ritual, including how predictability and shared meaning soothe the nervous system, reduce stress, and support deeper connection through oxytocin and parasympathetic activation. The episode challenges the idea that rituals must be religious, rigid, or elaborate, and instead reframes them as flexible, life giving practices that can evolve as our lives do.

Listeners are invited to reflect on whether their current rituals still serve them, and to consider creating or renewing one small ritual that brings grounding, connection, or comfort. Because connection is not accidental. It grows through intention, presence, and the meaning we create together.

©Friendship Institute 2025

Friendship Matters™ is intended to help improve our Friendship IQ. While this generally signals an improvement in our overall wellbeing, this podcast is not intended in any way to offer specific counseling or medical advice. Please seek help from a trained professional.

The holidays are often described as the season of giving, yet for many people they come with pressure, comparison, and exhaustion. In this episode of Friendship Matters, we explore a different question. What if the most meaningful gift is not something you buy, but the presence you bring?

The hosts unpack how holiday stress is driven by social expectations, financial pressure, and the urge to perform generosity rather than experience it. Drawing from personal stories, neuroscience, and research on generosity and well being, the conversation reframes giving as time, attention, empathy, and authenticity.

You will hear why presence is one of the most powerful and scarce resources we have, how generosity activates the brain's reward and empathy networks, and why giving in community amplifies its impact. The episode also offers practical ideas, from asking better questions and listening deeply, to volunteering together, practicing gratitude out loud, and letting go of perfection when hosting or gathering.

This is a thoughtful and grounding conversation for anyone feeling overwhelmed by holiday expectations, or longing for deeper connection. The takeaway is simple but profound. Generosity is not about how much you spend. It is about how fully you show up.

©Friendship Institute 2025

Friendship Matters™ is intended to help improve our Friendship IQ. While this generally signals an improvement in our overall wellbeing, this podcast is not intended in any way to offer specific counseling or medical advice. Please seek help from a trained professional.

During the holidays, the office party can feel like one more box to check, not a place where people actually connect. Yet our sense of belonging at work has a real impact on health, energy, and performance, especially at the end of the year.

In this episode of Friendship Matters, we talk with special guest Jana Boehmer from the Veterans Affairs Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation. Jana was tasked with bringing together a fully virtual team of seventy five people for a holiday celebration that was creative, inclusive, and genuinely meaningful. What she designed was so powerful that her colleagues are still talking about it.

You will hear:

• How a virtual holiday party became a shared experience that reduced loneliness and strengthened trust

• Simple prompts and rituals that help people share their real lives without putting anyone on the spot

• Practical ways leaders can model care, curiosity, and transparency so that employees feel heard, not managed

• Ideas to include people who do not celebrate traditional holidays or who may be grieving or isolated

• Why work and life are never completely separate, and what healthy work life integration really looks like

If you want your office holiday gathering to feel like more than awkward small talk, this conversation will give you concrete ideas to create connection, honor diverse stories, and build a workplace where people truly feel they belong.

Jana Boehmer serves in the Veterans Affairs Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation, where she leads initiatives that strengthen employee wellbeing, connection, and whole health. With experience across both corporate and federal environments, Jana specializes in designing inclusive, human centered programs that bring people together across distance, roles, and diverse backgrounds. Her work focuses on creating meaningful experiences that support employee engagement, psychological safety, and a culture of belonging throughout the VA's nationwide system.

Connect with her on LinkedIn at Jana Boehmer MSM, RDN

©Friendship Institute 2025

Friendship Matters™ is intended to help improve our Friendship IQ. While this generally signals an improvement in our overall wellbeing, this podcast is not intended in any way to offer specific counseling or medical advice. Please seek help from a trained professional.

Family is not always defined by shared DNA. For many of us, the people who feel most like home are the friends who show up, celebrate with us, and stand beside us through every season. That becomes especially true during the holidays, when family expectations, distance, or loss can stir up complicated emotions and a deep sense of disconnection.

In this episode of Friendship Matters, Donna Brighton, Dr Russell Greenfield, and Lisa Grimes explore how intentional friendships can become your chosen family and offer a grounded sense of belonging. They share real stories and practical ideas for reshaping the holidays in ways that feel authentic, life giving, and kind to your nervous system.

You will hear:

• Why the holidays are so emotionally loaded, even for people who look "fine" on the outside

• How chosen family can expand, not replace, our idea of family and home

• Simple friendship traditions like Friendsgiving, question filled dinners, and shared service that deepen connection

• Ways to support friends who are grieving, alone, or far from home during this season

• How small invitations and intentional questions can transform a gathering from surface level chatter into meaningful connection

Listen if you have ever felt out of place at a holiday table, if you are far from family, or if you simply want your friendships to feel more like home, for you and for the people you love.

©Friendship Institute 2025

Friendship Matters™ is intended to help improve our Friendship IQ. While this generally signals an improvement in our overall wellbeing, this podcast is not intended in any way to offer specific counseling or medical advice. Please seek help from a trained professional.

This episode explains why holiday stress does more than tire you out. It actually disrupts the physiology that makes connection possible. Dr. Dael Waxman shows how small, intentional shifts can recalibrate your energy, reduce reactivity, and bring you back to what you wanted from this season in the first place. If you want to feel less drained and more genuinely connected during the holidays, these insights give you a practical way to get there.

In this episode, you will hear about:

• How chronic holiday stress affects your physiology, mood, and ability to connect, and why that is not a personal failure

• A simple practice of naming what gives you energy and what drains it, then reshaping your season around what truly matters

• Practical ways to reset your nervous system and your social life, from one minute mindfulness to tiny acts of kindness and connection at home, at work, and in your community

In this episode of Friendship Matters, we unpack what all the "overs" of the holidays do to our bodies and brains, why stress makes it harder to feel close to others, and how small, intentional choices can restore energy, connection, and joy. If the holidays tend to take more out of you than they give, this conversation offers realistic ways to reset without pretending the season is calm or simple.

Dael Waxman, MD, PCC is a professionally certified coach who works with individuals, groups, and teams to support leadership, life, and professional well-being. He is also a faculty member at the Healthcare Coaching Institute.

Previously, he served as Professor and Vice Chair of Family Medicine at Atrium Health – Wake Forest School of Medicine, where he also created the role of Medical Director of Physician Well-being for Medical Education.

Drawing on decades of experience in medicine and coaching, Dael helps people strengthen relationships, foster resilience, and build more supportive workplace cultures.

Outside of work, he enjoys travel, kayaking, hiking, cooking, and—most recently—learning barista skills.

You can connect with Dael at https://www.linkedin.com/in/dael-waxman-md-pcc-18917322/

©Friendship Institute 2025

Friendship Matters™ is intended to help improve our Friendship IQ. While this generally signals an improvement in our overall wellbeing, this podcast is not intended in any way to offer specific counseling or medical advice. Please seek help from a trained professional.