The Key to Sustainable Wellbeing in the Workplace
How Employers Can Promote Healthy Habits Among Their Workforce
Supporting your employees is key to wellbeing… or is it?
In the dynamic landscape of leadership, we’ve witnessed a profound shift from the more traditional command-and-control model to a more compassionate and supportive approach that emphasises support and encouragement.
The conventional perception of a leader as an authoritative figure, entirely focused on getting the job done and pushing their team towards the end goal regardless of the pressure placed on their people, is now widely recognised as unproductive.
In this article, we will explore the key to creating sustainable wellbeing in the workplace and the importance of striking the right balance between promoting healthy habits with employees and ensuring the growth and success of the business.
The Importance of Employee Wellbeing
Nurturing the positive mental health of those within an organisation is crucial to the success of a business, yet many employers often overlook the importance of employee wellbeing in pursuit of productivity and profit. However, it’s now well documented that when employees are not well-supported in their work environment, it can lead to burnout, low morale, and decreased productivity.
Promoting healthy habits among employees can result in improved physical and mental health, increased job satisfaction, and a positive work culture. This, in turn, can lead to improved employee retention rates, reduced absenteeism, and higher levels of productivity.
Creating a Culture of Wellbeing
To promote healthy habits among employees, it is important for employers to create a culture of wellbeing within the workplace. This involves fostering a supportive and positive work environment that prioritises the physical, mental, and emotional health of employees.
Employers can achieve this by engaging with a workplace wellbeing consultant who will identify the root causes of poor wellbeing and can help implement effective strategies to ensure that your employees are well-equipped to manage their mental health and boost productivity.
Organisations can also offer team development coaching and leadership development training, provide resources for stress management and self-care, encourage breaks and exercise during the workday, and promote a healthy work-life balance. It is also important for employers to lead by example by maintaining their own healthy habits and encouraging their employees to do the same.
The Importance of Striking the Right Balance
Recently we’ve seen a monumental 180-degree shift with the evolution of leaders who now recognise the importance of fostering a workplace where individuals feel valued, needs are met, and communication flows freely. Great, right? Well… not exactly. I’m going to be a little controversial here and say we’ve got this wrong and perhaps we’ve overshot the mark.
In the pursuit of prioritising employee needs, some organisations have shifted too far towards the employees’ needs and inadvertently downplayed their business requirements. The prevailing narrative insists on a new way of working, emphasising employee wellbeing as the top priority.
Government initiatives, mental health organizations, and societal pressures have propelled this shift, leaving businesses grappling with the extremes of the pendulum swing and their newfound responsibility and seemingly complete culpability for their employee’s wellbeing.
Don’t sink the ship to save the crew
Now, don’t get me wrong—I am a massive advocate for employee wellbeing. I mean, it’s what I do! All my recent articles have consistently underscored the importance of employers taking proactive steps to ensure their employees’ welfare and how they can promote healthy habits among their workforce.
However, there’s a nuanced perspective that we must consider: an excess focus on support, without an adequate dose of challenge, can be counterproductive for both businesses and individuals.
Imagine a ship with a dedicated crew tirelessly tending to the sole needs of the team, oblivious to a growing hole that threatens the vessel. If the ship sinks, everyone goes down with it. It’s a stark analogy I know, but it encapsulates the essence—business needs cannot be ignored for the sake of employee support alone.
All employees have a job to do, and there is undoubtedly a standard that needs to be met. Let’s not forget that!
Exploring Leadership Mindsets
In the realm of leadership, striking the right balance between challenge and support is crucial. Let’s delve into 4 basic leadership mindsets and their likely outcomes:
1. High Challenge-Low Support
This mindset fosters high expectations but with uneven achievement, mixed standards, competition, risk adversity, blame, fear, and low morale. While it may lead to short-term achievement, it is unsustainable and a breeding ground for stress and anxiety.
2. Low Challenge-Low Support
Reduce the challenge and you create an environment where low expectations, low achievement, low standards, and boredom prevail. This lack of challenge and support results in a joyless environment filled with apathy and stress and where nothing matters.
3. Low Challenge-High Support
Here, low expectations and achievement coexist with complacency. You can often find the cosy club here. The comfortable position can lead to dependency, poor knowledge, low innovation, and resistance to change.
4. High Challenge-High Support
The ideal balance involves leaders with high expectations actively enabling growth and development. This approach results in high standards, achievement, cooperation, collaboration, innovation, and risk-taking—a recipe for a high morale environment with consistently positive outcomes.
Becoming a Leader of Choice
When looking at the 4 leadership mindsets it is clear that high levels of support, WITHOUT equal levels of challenge, can jeopardise wellbeing. The sweet spot lies in high challenge-high support, offering the best outcomes for both employees and employers.
Developing a high challenge-high support mindset is key to becoming the kind of leader who people want to work for. It’s about caring for high performance and individual success in equal measure. As Jack Welch wisely stated –
“Before you are a leader, success is all about growing yourself. When you become a leader, success is all about growing others.”
How Do I Become a High Challenge-High Support Leader?
By adopting a high challenge-high support mindset, leaders can become individuals that employees choose to work with, leading to a positive and productive work environment for all.
The challenge lies in finding the delicate equilibrium between challenge and support. Currently, many leaders find themselves in the low challenge-high support category. If you’re curious about your leadership mindset, I invite you to complete a FREE underlying beliefs questionnaire. Simply email fiona@morethanmotivation.co.uk to request yours.
The key to sustainable wellbeing in the workplace lies in striking the right balance between challenge and support in our organisations. So, as leaders let’s strive to find that sweet spot and become leaders of choice, prioritising both business growth and the growth of those we lead to achieve sustainable success.
Want to Know More?
Achieving sustainable wellbeing in the workplace requires a holistic approach that balances challenge and support. By understanding the root causes of stress, prioritising employee wellbeing, and creating a supportive culture, employers can create a workplace where individuals thrive and business success flourishes. Investing in employee wellbeing isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s the key to a healthier, happier, and more productive workforce.
As a professional member of the International Stress Management Association and holder of a CPCAB-accredited Level 5 Diploma in Mental Health & Wellbeing Awareness, I can help you develop a wellbeing strategy, undertake stress risk assessments to protect your workforce and provide stress awareness training. Get in touch at More Than Motivation for more helpful advice and support.
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