Did you know that 13.7 million working days are lost each year in the UK because of work-related stress, anxiety, and depression, costing £28.3 billion a year? As leaders, we are not only dealing with numbers or performance, but we are also dealing with the human behind that performance. 

Many leaders nowadays take into account the well-being of employees. However, we might be missing the first step; awareness. A poll conducted by Nuffield Health shows that two out of three people won’t share their mental health issues with their employer. 

It’s common practice now to have well-being and mental health policies, but looking at those numbers, we still need to consider if, as leaders, we’re creating a space where people feel comfortable and safe to share those issues and benefit from those policies. 

Read “What I have learned about stress and mental health since quitting rugby – By Ollie Phillips” here. 

Why will this disconnection cause issues?

Even when leaders have the best intentions, it’s impossible to solve an issue if we’re not aware of it. 

Due to the fast-paced environments we are accustomed to, it can be challenging for many people to address well-being issues. A culture of urgency, increasing workloads, and blurry boundaries can all contribute to our team not finding the space or not feeling comfortable to bring up their well-being.

This is why focusing on our team’s well-being is not only about policies, but, even more importantly, about reflecting on the culture and environment we’re creating for our teams. 

Why should leaders focus on well-being?

Well-being must be well maintained. It’s crucial for leaders to keep a healthy working environment where everyone can perform at their best for desired outcomes.

Failing to achieve this, can have huge implications for the team and the overall business. Our environments and workloads can directly link to stress and burnout. This, in turn, will influence your team’s performance, and can even make you lose great talent. 

However, leaders can be role models and demonstrate attributes of open and positive well-being for their employees. Starting with non-judgmental catch-ups, taking time and breaks for yourself, and reassuring employees about these healthy actions can all be successful ways to start. 

Through these good examples being set, employees will be encouraged to follow, allowing an increase in well-being advocacy and positivity.

How can we as leaders build a culture of well-being?

There are many ways of doing this, and for each leader and business, it would be different. However, we can start with some non-negotiables:

• Create a safe environment where people can openly talk about their well-being, their professional and personal lives, and how they might be impacting each other. Once people feel comfortable and safe to talk about an issue, we can start putting strategies and policies in place to help them get better. 
• Reflect on your culture. Cultures in the workplace are created by the behaviours we demonstrate day in and day out. Taking the time to reflect on what those behaviours are and what they are communicating to our teams is a great first step towards a healthier culture and workplace. 
• Allow flexibility and boundaries. These two can seem opposites, but they don’t have to be. Now more than ever, the lines between work and life are getting blurrier and blurrier. This is why it’s also more important now to create boundaries that help us achieve balance. This is an extremely hard task because it completely varies from person to person. Nonetheless, just having honest conversations about it can benefit everyone in our teams, including ourselves. 
• Lead by example. More important than what we say, it’s what we do. This is why as leaders, we need to lead by example. It’s not enough to tell your team to take time for themselves, if they don’t see you doing it, they will assume that it’s not okay. A great example of this is how we behave during holidays, are you still sending emails? If so, you might as well be telling your team that it’s not ok to truly disconnect while on holiday. (Read more about disconnecting while on holiday here). 

By creating balance and support, individuals can enter and stay in their optimal zone of functioning, which is a healthy and stable state of well-being.

Read “Why daily exercise should form part of your corporate strategy – By Ollie Phillips” here.

Optimist view:

At Optimist Performance, we believe that great individuals and teams start with well-being. This is why, in our leadership and coaching programmes, we not only focus on business issues but also consider how personal challenges could be impacting our professional lives. 

Learn more about our coaching programmes and book your free call to see if we are the right fit.

Are you ready to get the best out of each person on your team, including yourself? Then you need to start looking at the human behind the performance. Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can help you and your team become the best versions of yourselves.