Building a Well Organisation

Author

Wellbeing Leaders
October 16, 2024

 "Wellbeing is not a luxury; it's a necessity. It's the foundation upon which organizations are built and the fuel that drives performance and humanity."

In Today’s Issue:

  • Leaders: Wellbeing starts with you

  • A Fresh Perspective for Wellbeing Leaders with No Time and No Budget.

  • Practical tip for identifying your highest leverage actions to transform your workplace into a ‘well’ organization.

Leaders: Wellbeing starts with you.

Building a well organization starts from the top. 

Leaders must set the tone and prioritize their own well-being to inspire others. Research on homophily—the tendency for individuals to associate and bond with similar others—highlights how our behaviour is often influenced by those around us. 

When leaders model self-care and wellbeing, it creates a powerful blueprint for their teams to follow. As noted in leadership studies, looking around for “how to act” is one of the strongest predictors of behaviour in organizations.​ 

Every time you fly, you hear it: “Put your own oxygen mask on first.” It’s a simple yet powerful premise that applies to many areas of life, and most definitely to the arena of the well leader. 

Leaders drive change, which often comes with a strong sense of purpose. This purposeful dedication can lead to many forsaking their own needs for those the serve. As noted by Terry (2022), the perils of a calling can include feelings of work-recovery guilt and limited psychological detachment.

So what must we do to be well? 

While hosting a leadership development program with some of Dubai’s brightest minds last week, there was a simple and united sentiment from the program: 

  • Find your simple pleasures 

  • Make them a routine that brings you joy

  • Learn how to let go of the unnecessary.

Creating an environment where wellbeing is prioritized helps break the cycle of neglecting personal health in favour of professional demands. Encouraging leaders to engage in self-care practices not only benefits their mental and emotional health but also sets a standard for the entire organization, ultimately leading to greater productivity and morale​. 

Member Quote from the session:

“As leaders we must ‘budget’ our energy. If we’re the one required to fill the cup of others we need to be mindful about how we allocate our time and resources, and make conscious decisions of how energy is protected”

Magda Snowden, Member of the Wellbeing Leaders Mastermind

 A Fresh Perspective for Wellbeing Leaders with No Time and No Budget.

The Challenges of Traditional Approaches:

  • Studies show that initiatives like one-off wellness sessions, yoga and fruit bowls have limited impact on employee well-being.

  • Traditional perks often fail to address the root causes of disengagement, turnover, and low performance.

  • Siloed approaches, where departments or roles work independently, can lead to inefficiencies and poor budgeting. 

To address these challenges, we need to move beyond individual-centric solutions and focus on systemic changes.

It’s time to Stop Creating Programs and Start Creating Ecosystems

Workplace Wellbeing and Employee Wellness are very different but intricately interconnected. 

Workplace wellbeing is looking at organizational levers that affect individual wellness and collective performance.

Employee wellness is looking at what individuals can influence for themselves.

Both work together simultaneously to create the employee experience and results.

The Well-Working Ecosystem framework emphasizes the fluid nature of both. It’s underpinned by business case studies, performance psychology, HR insights, organizational behavior, preventative holistic wellness, and health sciences to create a comprehensive yet adaptable approach. This adaptability allows us to tailor solutions to an organization's specific needs.

Not only does this ecosystem bring departments, resources and people together at an organizational level, it’s aligned with the The UAE National Wellbeing Strategy too. It embodies the holistic approach across sectors, the need for clear roles, responsibilities and efforts, and it responds to fluctuating trends and challenges.

As a region, we are using wellbeing as a measure of societal progress, this ecosystem allows us to do the same at an organizational level to feed into the wider economy and a healthier nation.

Practical Tip: Start with a simple Gap Analysis of your organization. Evaluate every component in the ecosystem—on a scale of 1-10, and identify your priorities. 

Remember, there will be a cause-and-effect relationship between these components, what is the highest leverage actions that need to be taken to influence the many?

Many times, actions don’t need to cost money or time.

This will help you focus efforts where they’re needed most and bring tangible improvements to your organization's wellbeing strategy.

Join Us Next Month! 

Don’t miss our next live mastermind session on 6th November 2024. This is an interactive event designed to spark new ideas and actionable strategies.

Get your Ticket Here.

To discuss anything you’ve read in this email hit reply!

Was This Email Forwarded To You?

Sign up to receive these emails here.

Please do share and forward these emails to your colleagues.

It helps us more than you realise to pioneer change across the region and deliver even more value for you.

Thank you!

Keeping wellbeing leaders, well.

Sam & Charlotte