Principle 6: Embrace synergies of Wellbeing & Resilience
You can find here all of our publications. In the following list, choose which filter you would like to apply:
Principle 6: Embrace synergies of Wellbeing and Resilience
Organisations are currently feeling the pressure cooker effect of upping the need for performance, reducing headcount and cost, layered up with worrying about the wellbeing of their employees. The Resilience Engine sees a shift towards coping and indeed not coping – and these levels of resilience don’t bring about change or high performance.
Wellbeing initiatives of gyms, healthy eating, even mindfulness is not stopping that resilience drain. What to do?
Embrace both resilience and wellbeing as integrated. Strategically.
In fact, resilience and wellbeing end up as the same thing, you cannot have one without the other and are so intertwined, that there makes little sense in considering them separately.
Consider the high performer who drives projects through no matter what. What we call Bounceback levels of resilience. Whilst punching through difficulty, they fail to put things on a more even keel and consider a longer-term, more transformative way of leading. They are stuck from really being a great leader because their physical health is not great. Their weight and eating & drinking habits affect their sleep, which in turn affects their speed of decision-making day to day, and given this is quite a drag, it leaves them little space to get into a proactive, strategic way of working. High-ish resilience, wellbeing not brilliant.
Consider the healthy person who cycles and hillwalks, invests a lot in themselves in terms of nutrition, sleep, yoga, but who holds some inner negative beliefs about their own capabilities. They are a decent manager but get caught by aspects around needing to treat people fairly in a naïve way, and think everything ‘above’ is a power game. No chance of them shifting to the next level of leadership. High wellbeing but resilience not brilliant.
Which comes first? Wellbeing or resilience? Neither, investment in one is investment in the other, and so both become synergistic.
Consider the successful entrepreneur. Works 4 days a week, plays tennis on the 5th. Is very strong and clear within the core business (IT middleware), but is also driven by the social benefits from that same core business via their Foundation, which helps rebuild schools in war zones. Makes time for both. Very family man, around for his kids. Highly purposeful, highly bounded, great delegator, super clear on priorities, great friends and family, invests significantly in his own resilience & wellbeing. Doesn’t see one end and the other start, it’s all the same thing. High resilience, high wellbeing.
Wouldn’t that be the kind of person you want around the place?
If you want your employees to both feel good and perform well consider resilience and wellbeing synergistically. Talk to us today.
Author: Jenny Campbell