To nap or not to nap?

In the past napping at work was a quick way to get fired but now some organisations are starting to consider whether ‘taking a nap’ should be part of the working day.

The average adult needs at least seven hours of sleep a night to achieve optimal health but many people don’t get anywhere near that with Nuffield Health’s 2023 ‘Healthier Nation Index’ (a survey of 8,000 UK adults) highlighting that, on average, we’re only getting 5.91 hours of sleep a night, down from 6.11 in 2022 and 6.19 in 2021. This discrepancy positions insufficient sleep as one of today’s pressing health issues.

In the workplace, whilst we might think that powering through the day without breaks is the most effective way to work, it’s actually counterintuitive to health and to productivity. We’re actually wired to take time to recharge through ultradian rhythms with our brains actually achieving maximum productivity when we follow 90 minutes of work with 20 minutes of a recharging activity - something like yoga or mindfulness, or just something as simple as taking a nap.

Around 3% of GDP is lost each year due to sleep deprivation, so offering employees the opportunity to recharge with a nap during the day could not only help to improve their physical and mental health but could also see them contributing more. Research shows well-rested employees are better cognitively and this includes essential work functions such as learning, decision-making, attention to detail and memory recall.

Of course, creating a napping policy would take some commitment and resources and the idea of “sleeping on the job” is still anathema to most companies. But if you want your team to be at the top of their game then maybe giving them the opportunity to have scheduled naps could mean improved mental wellbeing, increased employee performance and productivity and perhaps even a way to attract and retain top talent.

Putting people first – the benefits of Human Leadership

A survey by Gartner of 230 HR leaders showed that 90% of them believed that it was essential for leaders to focus on the human aspects of leadership if they were to succeed. It also showed there was a 37% increase in high engagement for those employees who worked for a human leader and that these employees improved their team’s performance by up to 27%. However, another Gartner survey of 3,400 employees conducted at the same time showed that only 29% of them thought that they were led by a ‘human leader’. The business case for human leadership is there so why aren’t leaders more committed to the approach?

Human leadership refers to the practice of guiding and influencing a group of individuals or an organisation towards a common goal through effective communication, collaboration, empathy, and understanding of human behaviour. It emphasises the importance of connecting with and inspiring people on a personal level, considering their needs, motivations, and strengths.

Contrasting with more traditional, authoritative, or transactional leadership styles that focus primarily on power dynamics, hierarchy, and task-oriented goals, human leadership places people at the centre, recognising that a motivated, engaged, and well-supported team is essential for achieving sustainable success. Some of the benefits of human leadership include:

• Enhanced Employee Engagement: Human leaders build relationships with their team members that lead to higher levels of engagement and job satisfaction. Employees feel valued, supported and understood so are more likely to be motivated and committed to their work.

• Improved Communication: Human leaders prioritise open and transparent communication, creating a culture of trust and encouraging team members to express their ideas, concerns and feedback, leading to better collaboration and decision-making.

• Higher Productivity: Employees who feel connected to their leader and colleagues, are more likely to work collaboratively, share knowledge and contribute, leading to increased productivity and better results.

• Reduced Turnover: Human leaders create a work environment that fosters loyalty and a sense of belonging. Employees are less likely to leave so staff turnover and recruitment and training costs are reduced.

• Enhanced Creativity and Innovation: Human leaders encourage employees to share ideas and perspectives, promoting a culture of innovation, creative problem-solving and new solutions.

• Higher Employee Well-being: Human leaders show genuine care for the well-being of their team, provide support during challenging times and promote a positive and healthy workplace culture.

• Effective Conflict Resolution: Human leaders address conflicts and disagreements constructively, using open communication and empathy to facilitate resolution and maintain positive relationships within the team.

• Development of Leadership Skills: Human leaders focus on mentoring and developing the leadership skills of their team so individual growth improves and a pipeline of future leaders built.

• Positive Organisational Culture: Human leaders contribute to the development of a positive organisational culture based on respect, trust and collaboration. This attracts top talent and contributes to the organisation's reputation and success

• Adaptability to Change: Human leaders are more attuned to the emotional and psychological impact of change on their team which helps employees navigate transitions and adapt to new circumstances.

• Higher Employee Satisfaction: Employees with human leaders are more likely to feel satisfied with their work, interactions with colleagues and overall work environment.

• Improved Performance Reviews: Human leaders provide regular feedback and coaching so employees improve their skills and performance and contribute to meaningful and productive performance reviews.

Whist other leadership styles may have their own strengths and applications, human leadership stands out for its emphasis on building strong relationships, understanding, and addressing the emotional needs of team members, and promoting collaboration and empathy as fundamental aspects of effective leadership.

Human leaders choose transparency over control, relationships over hierarchies and wellbeing over productivity. They engage with employees, lead by example and are authentic and empathetic. They possess high emotional intelligence, are calm and confident, and communicate clearly.  They see change as a way of building a new and better future where the values and purpose of the organisation are genuinely believed in and lived out every day.

In today’s constantly changing world of work, can you afford not to be a more human leader?

Just ticking the boxes? The rise of wellbeing washing.

In a time of tight recruitment markets, employee wellbeing has gone from a nice-to-have to a must-have.  However, research from Claro Wellbeing seems to show that not all employers are as committed to their programmes as they might not be - they are not  ‘putting their people first’ and instead are ‘wellbeing washing’.

Wellbeing washing is the practice of superficially promoting or claiming to support well-being without genuinely addressing the underlying issues or taking meaningful action - offering employees gym membership, fruit boxes and stand- up desks but then not worrying about unrealistic workloads which mean instead of exercising and eating healthily the same employees are slumped on a sofa at home with a takeaway! 

The Claro survey was taken from a nationally representative survey of 1,000 adults in May 2023 and it suggested that over a third of those surveyed thought their employer was wellbeing washing with one in six thinking that their employer had lost trust as a result of this behaviour. It also found that seven in ten workplaces celebrated mental health awareness days, but only a third of organisations had mental health support that was seen as good or outstanding by employees. So, in the eyes of employees, company rhetoric is not matched by the robust structures, schemes and mechanisms needed to support better wellbeing.

The disconnect seems to be between what employers offer and what employees feel they need. Many employers’ wellbeing initiatives are well-intentioned but lack a systemic approach and are based on a poor understanding of the true state of workforce wellbeing. Others though are focused on boosting their brand reputation, using social media to pump out their support, cynically paying lip service to mental health issues without considering the real needs within their own organisation.

Now more than ever employee wellbeing is something employers need to get right. It isn’t a perk. A free gym membership will do nothing if someone is too exhausted to exercise. The aim has to be the creation of a company culture that really cares about wellbeing, because getting this right is a win-win for employees and employers. There are commercial risks in not engaging properly with employees and if the negative aspects of wellbeing washing are to be avoided, businesses need to lead by example.

Recognising a toxic work culture

With senior executives at ITV defending their work culture against allegations of bullying, trauma and discrimination, allegations of bullying against Dominic Raab and of misconduct at the CBI, workplace toxicity has never been so high-profile.  And recent research shows that these problems are a lot more common than you might think. In the US, around 30 million or one in nine workers consider their workplace toxic according to research from MIT Sloan School of Management, with the three main factors creating toxic cultures being bad leadership, toxic social norms, and poorly designed job roles.

These unhealthy and negative workplace environments can have detrimental effects on employees' well-being, job satisfaction, and productivity and are characterised by various negative behaviours, practices, and attitudes that hinder collaboration, growth, and a sense of belonging. So, if you’re looking to move jobs, what are the signs that an organisation is ‘toxic’?

1.     High employee turnover: A consistently high turnover rate may be an indication of a toxic work culture. People tend to leave in search of a healthier environment.

2.     Lack of trust and transparency: In a toxic work culture, there is often a lack of trust and transparency between management and employees. Important information is withheld, decisions are made without consultation, and communication is inconsistent or one-sided.

3.     Negative and gossip-filled environment: A toxic work culture often fosters negativity and gossip. If you frequently hear employees complaining, engaging in office politics, or spreading rumours, it suggests an unhealthy atmosphere.

4.     Micromanagement and lack of autonomy: If employees are excessively micromanaged and not given the autonomy to make decisions and contribute their ideas, it can indicate a lack of trust and a toxic work culture. Micromanagement can lead to feelings of frustration, disempowerment, and decreased job satisfaction.

5.     Lack of work-life balance: When work-life balance is disregarded, and employees are expected to work long hours consistently or are discouraged from taking time off, it can contribute to burnout and negatively impact well-being.

6.     Bullying or harassment: Any form of bullying, harassment, or discrimination within the workplace is a clear indication of a toxic work culture. This can include verbal abuse, insults, belittlement, or any behaviour that creates a hostile work environment.

7.     Lack of recognition and appreciation: In a toxic work culture, employees' efforts and achievements are often overlooked or undervalued which can lead to demotivation and decreased morale.

8.     Fear-based management: When fear and intimidation tactics are used to manage employees, it indicates a toxic work culture. Fear-based management can include threats of job loss, public humiliation, or unfair treatment.

9.     Resistance to feedback and change: Toxic work cultures often resist feedback and change. If suggestions for improvement are dismissed or met with hostility, and the organisation remains stagnant in its processes and practices, it suggests an unhealthy work culture.

10.  Physical and mental health issues: A toxic work culture can contribute to physical and mental health problems among employees. Increased stress levels, anxiety, depression, and physical ailments like headaches or sleep disorders may be prevalent.

Toxic workplaces are psychologically, emotionally, and physically draining so it’s best to avoid them completely. They can be difficult to spot though as the recruitment process puts leaders and teams on their best behaviour but research about the company prior to the interview and looking for the warning signs during the interview process could provide a heads-up.  Asking specific questions about work culture, expectations, employee turnover and workload and if possible, talking to current employees to get their perspective should also help avoid getting pulled in.

Optimise your teams through psychological safety.

Psychological safety, the belief that you can express thoughts, ideas, and concerns without fear of negative consequences such as ridicule, embarrassment, or punishment has been found to be essential to the success of an organisation. This has been shown recently in research from Google’s Project Aristotle where psychological safety was found to be the single most important factor for effective teams.

Now, with the lack of equity, diversity, and accessibility, falling levels of retention and productivity and a rise in burnout all pointing to people feeling unsafe and unhappy in their workplaces, surely, it’s time for the psychologically safe workplace to play a key role in optimising teams.

In a psychologically safe environment, people feel comfortable taking interpersonal risks, sharing their opinions, and being vulnerable without the fear of being judged or criticised. This sense of safety promotes open communication, collaboration and innovation within a group or organisation. People are more likely to engage in constructive dialogue, provide feedback, and contribute to problem-solving efforts which also enhances creativity, productivity, and overall team performance.

To be effective psychological safety needs to be taken up by employees at all levels in an organisation. Team culture reflects the actions of its leaders so to establish and maintain a psychologically safe workplace, leaders must consistently adopt inclusive behaviours to build new team norms over time and identify when an employee’s threat responses are triggered, and how to effectively deal with them.

Overall, psychological safety creates a supportive, inclusive, and collaborative work environment that enables teams and individuals to perform at their best, contribute their unique perspectives, and drive organisational success. Conversely, when psychological safety is lacking, people may hesitate to speak up, withhold their opinions, and avoid taking risks. This can lead to a culture of silence, poor decision-making, and stifled innovation within a team or organisation.

By prioritising psychological safety, organisations can create an environment where individuals feel valued, empowered, and motivated to contribute their best, leading to higher levels of collaboration, innovation, and overall well-being.

Are you ‘rusting out’ at home?

Following on from quiet quitting, the next trend to hit the workplace seems to be ‘Rusting out’, the term used to describe a state of disengagement and apathy that can occur when someone feels unchallenged or unfulfilled in their work. It’s something that’s often associated with feelings of boredom and stagnation and can lead to a decline in motivation and productivity.

The benefits of ensuring employees are engaged is well established and is of course paramount for business growth. Finding the right work environment is therefore essential and, whilst working from home and hybrid working options really suit some people, others find being away from the office leaves them feeling less connected or engaged by work and at risk of ‘rusting out’.

There are several varying factors such as personality, work environment, job characteristics, and personal circumstances that can contribute to it, for example the nature of the work itself can play a significant role in preventing rust out. If the work is inherently unchallenging or lacks variety, it can lead to monotony and reduced motivation, regardless of whether one is working from home or in a traditional office setting. Employers should therefore strive to provide stimulating and meaningful work assignments to maintain employee engagement and prevent rust out.

Additionally, the increased autonomy and flexibility working from home provides allows individuals to have more control over their work schedules and environment. This can be beneficial as it provides an opportunity to manage work in a way that suits individual preferences and needs. Having control over one's work can help prevent rust out by promoting a sense of ownership and engagement but the lack of social interaction that can occur when working remotely is a real red flag. Social connections and interactions with colleagues are important for motivation and engagement in work so if an individual feels isolated and lacks opportunities for collaboration and socialisation, it may increase the risk of rust out.

The blurring of boundaries between work and personal life can be another problem. A lack of clear routines can make it challenging to maintain a healthy work-life balance because without proper boundaries, people may find themselves constantly working or struggling to separate work-related tasks from personal activities. This lack of structure can contribute to feelings of monotony and eventually lead to rust out.

Like its distant cousin ‘burn out’, ‘rust out’ can have a real negative impact on an individual's well-being and performance. Recognising the signs and taking appropriate steps to address the underlying causes is essential to restore motivation, engagement, and overall satisfaction in work and life. To mitigate the risk of ‘rust out’, it's important for individuals and organisations to establish effective communication and social connections, prioritise work-life balance, and ensure that work tasks remain engaging and meaningful!

Manic Mondays?

We've all been there. Waking up on a Monday morning and realising the weekend wasn't quite long enough to recover from the stress of the previous working week. If you've ever had similar feelings, the latest emerging workplace trend may well be something that might appeal to you.

Bare Minimum Monday is intended to lower all the feelings of anxiety and stress about the upcoming working week.  These start to build on a Sunday afternoon so the idea is to focus on your own mental health and wellness by giving yourself space and a sense of calm to better navigate your first day back to work.  Doing “the bare minimum” of what needs to be done on a Monday (along with whatever else you want to do) means you are better able to focus on larger or more complex tasks on your other working days.

The idea comes from TikTok creator Marisa Jo Mayes who sees it as a form of self-care and a way to fight back against the feelings of overwhelm, exhaustion work-related stress. By prioritising the self and avoiding stressors, better outcomes are achieved, there is a positive impact on employee wellbeing by protecting mental health and employees are happier and healthier in the long term.

Recent work trends such as the Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting have shown that employees are considering how their work impacts their mental health far more but Bare Minimum Monday would seem to be at odds with the classic models of self-care. These tend to be built on meaningful engagement, not avoiding or ignoring challenges and building ways to thrive. If employees are just doing the bare minimum, or getting the ‘Sunday Scaries’ it could be a sign of disengagement, which leads to the question, if you need to disengage from a job to cope with it, is it really the right job?

Expecting employees to be at the top of their game 100% of the time is unrealistic. We all have good days and bad days and its certain that there will be times when we are more productive and produce better quality work. Whilst it may be tempting to do as little as possible on Mondays to avoid stress, this approach may not be the most effective in the long run. It's important to find a balance between minimising stress and meeting work responsibilities. Instead of doing as little as possible, prioritising your tasks and finding ways to work more efficiently may be a better way to manage Manic Mondays.

Executive loneliness. Overcoming isolation in the business world.

Nick Jonsson was born in Sweden but he left in the 1990’s because he wanted to learn English. He moved to Australia where he played golf professionally for a few years before moving to South East Asia where he has lived and worked since 2004.  Mainly working in Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand, Nick took on a number of MD roles leading large international companies.  After a while Nick realised he was quite lonely and he can now see he was isolated perhaps because he had ‘elbowed’ his way to the top, something many executives do. He changed his life, leaving the corporate world five years ago and now knows many other senior executives find themselves in an isolation trap.

Nick tried to balance the stresses of his working life by playing hard. Initially he did this through exercise but life had its ups and down and he was divorced in 2015.  This left him feeling even more isolated both at work and at home so it was natural that he wanted to go out and meet people. It was a lot easier to go to the bar instead of going to the gym and having a couple of drinks was OK in the short term but it became a bad habit. He stopped his gym membership and became a regular at the bar, which in turn became a downward spiral. He realised a change was needed but this was very slow. At the time his friends were happy to see he was out and about, it was good to see him enjoying himself, they were worried about him just exercising and being on his own. It felt natural and he didn’t realise it before it was too late. He put on a lot of weight, his health deteriorated, he had hypertension and high blood pressure. He was only 42 years old and was in poor health.

Then with the added stress of work it got to the point where he couldn't stop the drinking. He realised he was addicted. It had been secret and silent for a long time and he didn't want to admit he had an addiction and issues. He was at rock bottom but had to admit it to himself and to other people to get out of it. People had thought he was coping and didn't have a problem with drink and it's the same with loneliness. It seems as if everything is OK until you suddenly realise it’s a problem. Until you realise it's a problem you don't know its problem.

Once he was on his way to recovery, Nick wanted to know if he was the only one suffering in this way. He sent out a survey to other senior executives to find out how lonely they were in their roles. His first finding in 2019 was before the pandemic and showed that 30% of the senior executives he surveyed actually admitted they were suffering from loneliness in the workplace. He went back to the same group in 2020 during the pandemic and the figure had gone up to 59%. He was definitely not alone!

The senior executives Nick surveyed worked in the C-Suite in large multinationals based in Singapore. A number of them were European or American, working as regional directors in large companies so they were displaced from their home countries and often only had their immediate family with them. They needed a different type of support without knowing it.

Nick knew about the loneliness so the next question he asked then was whether this was something they would talk to HR or their boss to. The answer was that 84% wouldn't. The type of role they were in meant they were the people who needed to be seen as being the strongest and stereotypically not able to ask for help. Some people have external executive coaches but many people find it hard to trust internal bosses or HR so who did they turn to? When asked do you seek professional help 75% said no so they were coping by themselves. Nick feels that one of the few good things that came out of the was that psychologists and therapists could be seen online so people could start to reach out without being seen in a waiting room somewhere. Anonymity is there now so there has been some progress but people are still reluctant to talk about it and seem to deny it because the stigma is still there.

Many of these leaders are what Nick calls anxious over achievers like himself. He was not good at high school went overseas to study at university. Once he got a taste of winning scholarships and topping some classes he wanted to take it to the workplace.  What was important was getting to the top, getting power and getting promotions packages. What he saw when he conducted his interviews was that many were as anxious as he had been and thought the way to prove themselves was to achieve and get power in the company. There are many leaders walking around feeling very anxious.

Men tend to define themselves by their work about what they have rather than who they are. If the job is lonely then that's what you've striven for and your sense of achievement is linked to. The realisation that this can feel empty can have a real impact. Nick found that women tended to have a few close friends that they could be vulnerable with. They could share some of the challenges or issues facing them. If you are exposing yourself to a friend that friend will help and guide you but men often have good friends to play golf with, to have couple of drinks with or have a good time with.  Nick’s way of relaxing meant not bothering friends with issues he was having at work, rather it was something he left at the office. He went out and had a good time but then woke up in the middle of the night worrying about a problem that was still there in the morning. He was bad at having someone to talk to about his issues and it was the same with many of the executives he interviewed.

Men can be just as emotionally intelligent as long as they are skilled up to be but there may be a cultural thing around the acceptance that men shouldn’t talk to each other about difficult issues. The current generation breaking it down through and there is a new attitude. Some of this may come down to parenting. In Asia people are very quiet about what’s happening in their family and there is a lot of stigma about mental health and addictions generally.  People keep things to themselves a lot more than in the western world where we are speaking up a lot at the moment.

At work the leaders are often a parent substitute and need to create an adult culture where just deciding you don't like something isn’t OK because you still have to come to work and perform. If leaders are lonely they will find it hard to provide a positive adult culture with supportive mechanisms right through. Vulnerability has to start at the top. No one is going to knock the bosses door and open up about the issues or challenges they are facing if the leader has never been seen to be vulnerable. Why are we all so scared of admitting to others that we are going through a challenging time?

The world of work is changing and although styles of leadership before Covid weren’t working, they are still are being pursued. A new style of leadership may be needed going forward. Career limiting mistakes can drive leaders to loneliness. The easiest thing to do is make a mistake - it’s not about all the brilliant decisions you make, its how few bad decisions you make. This is what leads to the dumming down of the average.  It’s a sign of weakness to make a mistake. Admitting weakness is a sign that we are struggling and that is a mistake. We need to change that. If you have a leader who is lonely, ethical decisions start to be comprised as well because the leader becomes weaker.

There is some positive change though. In his own company Nick operates a fail fast policy so as soon as you make a small mistake people need to admit it and share it so everyone can learn from it. If there is a culture where people are comfortable sharing their mistakes and what they learned from it, people would not be so scared and mistakes will be dealt with and not be so costly. For example, in Nick’s company the marketing team have an additional budget called ‘Test and Trial’ which they can use to try new things so if it doesn't work out its ok and people learn from the exercise.

Nick’s networking organisation, Executives’ Global Network (EGN) Singapore providing more than 600 senior executives and business owners with a safe and confidential space where they can share their challenges, receive support, and learn from each other. It’s as if you have your own private advisory board or an external management team. You can put your problem on the table for the facilitators or moderators to discuss and the aim is that executives leave a session feeling the pressure has been lifted. Just talking can help because even if they don't get the answer, they get sympathy and support. It’s a shared experience. The perception that people at the top don't get lonely is a very dangerous one.

You can find out more about Nick at nickjonsson.com

  You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.

The rise of the resentful employee

Over the past couple of years we’ve seen the rise of a number of workplace ‘buzzwords’ that describe the growing number of employees leaving their existing roles or becoming dissatisfied with their working life. ‘The Great Resignation’ and “Quiet Quitting ‘ have become well-established terms for people who are no longer satisfied with their work-life balance or are actively reassessing how work fits in with their priorities or lifestyle.

Now though there’s a new word hitting the world of work. Resenteeism is seen as a successor to ‘quiet quitting’ and describes a situation where employees are staying in jobs where they are fundamentally unhappy, feel underappreciated, undervalued and aren’t bothering to hide their dissatisfaction from their employer or co-workers!

This new trend seems to be in response to the unstable economy, challenging cost of living and redundancy and recession fears that are all prevalent at the moment. Employees who were thinking about leaving their existing roles are staying put so feel ‘stuck’ and frustrated by the lack of opportunity. This can very quickly create a negative work culture that discourages open communication and collaboration, affects the morale of colleagues, decreases productivity and engagement and increases workplace conflict.

In the Gallup State of the Global Workforce 2022 poll, the UK was ranked 33rd out of 38 European countries for workplace engagement with just 9% of UK workers being ‘actively engaged’ in their jobs. That’s worrying and really highlights how important it is for employers to have policies in place that head resenteeism off and ensures a productive and engaged workforce is maintained.

In what is a very volatile work environment, employers who promote a positive work culture that values employee well-being, encourages open dialogue and provides resources and support for managing physical and mental wellbeing, will be in a better place to halt the rise of the resentful employee.

Overt or covert? Spot the narcissist in your workplace.

Most people find that their relationships with work colleagues have a huge affect on their wellbeing. Toxic relationships can lead to anxiety and depression and this can be particularly noticeable if you are working with a narcissist. But narcissist is a wide-ranging term that describes many different people who possess similar traits but who demonstrate different behaviours at different times. Generally though narcissists are thought of as incredibly self- centred with no consideration for the feelings and needs of others. While many narcissists do behave this way, there are many other who exhibit completely different behaviours that make them far more difficult to spot.

Two of the better-known types of narcissism are overt and covert. Whilst both share the same behaviours - a lack of empathy, a need for admiration, feelings of inadequacy, a desire to control others and low self-esteem – they are expressed completely differently in their outward actions. Overt narcissists are very easy to spot because they display all the traits we typically associate with narcissism. They’re very vocal, constantly telling everyone how great they are, how everyone else has failed and being completely insensitive to the needs of others. A covert narcissist however is less obvious, they’re more reserved and introverted so are difficult to spot because they hide behind a mask of sensitivity and vulnerability.

Narcissism is all about control and manipulation For example, narcissists always shift blame onto their teammates and an overt narcissist will do this by criticising and taking every opportunity to tell you where you went wrong and how everything is your fault. Covert narcissists however use a more passive form of manipulation, creating confusion by implying you forgot something or remembered it incorrectly and using their workmates to supply constant re-assurance about their skills and talents.

Outwardly, overt and covert narcissists appear to be very different but as well as sharing the same insecurities, they exercise the same narcissistic behaviours and blame-shifting, projection and gaslighting are just some of the forms of control and manipulation they use. Whether you’re dealing with an overt or covert narcissist, being aware of their traits means you’ll be better placed to protect yourself and set some boundaries in place to deal with their dysfunction.

Let your body show you the way

Ellen Meredith is an energy healer, conscious channel, and medical intuitive who have helped over ten thousand clients and students worldwide. Ellen helps her clients engage with the body’s energies to activate healing. Ellen feels we are being forced by our own inner nature and the awakening happening all over the planet and the conflicts were running into. There are a lot of changes and people are shifting in what they want to do and how they want to do it. We are being forced to go inward and reevaluate and ask ‘What’s my part? What do I want to choose moment by moment? What do I want to do with this life?’ Beyond that there is a rising yearning to know ourselves in a deeper way. It's a very exciting awakening or time of change but it also means letting go of a lot of habits and ways of thinking and being social that don't work anymore.

Energy medicine uses energy to heal. We are all made of and fueled by energy and, under the surface of our awareness our body, mind and spirit are constantly communicating using energy. This communication is a language literally something we can learn to participate in and speak. It influences our health and wellbeing and what happens around us to a certain extent by learning to speak the lingo. Ellen’s latest book is about activating the inner guidance system that's built into the body mind and spirit and accessing inner knowing learning how to navigate change using energy tools. The body communicates using chemistry and energy and your energy influences your chemistry but your chemistry doesn't necessarily influence your energy. It’s an emerging field but one that's been around 1000s of years in the guise of acupuncture, yoga or tai chi. There are lots of different practices and traditions that have used the energy communications of the body.

Everyone will say I don't have any energy today. It’s a rare person who says there is no such thing as energy. What’s really going on is a blowback. We’ve been in a long period of outside in thinking where we look outside ourselves for authority. We want science to tell us the truth, we want religion to tell us the truth, we want external forces to validate our truth. We live in a culture that says our objective reality is more real than our subjective reality. That's out of balance. What’s shifting now is the rising awareness that there is a role to be played by inner knowing and inner awareness and the choices that come from within us or from our own experience rather than from statistics about what’s a good life, how you should live or what’s healthy. Something that's healthy for me might not be healthy for you.

All of us have been socialised to think that the outside in reality is more true, more accurate, more correct than something that arises from our own experiences and knowing. We are out of balance and need to activate our ability to access out own inner wisdom because right now we are in an age where technology are enabled us to her everyone’s opinion. We are bombarded by group things such as social media so if we don't have access to our inner wisdom, our inner knowing and our inner truth moment by moment, then we are at the mercy of charismatic but not very balanced people. There is a big move on the planet of authoritarian government and people wanting to turn to authorities who will tell them what the right thing is but there is also a counter move to say no, we need people power, we need to wake up and jointly make these choices and decisions for our own mutual benefit.

Energy medicine has lots of tools for shifting the dynamic of energy that makes us up. It's a very healing thing. Our culture helps us believe that if we have a headache we can get rid of it with a pill but we have trouble in believing that doing something like a yoga pose will also get rid of the same headache. It has to do with our culture and how we are raised. Energy medicine has lots of activities and tools that influence the energetic exchanges of the body and between the mind, body and spirit. We can learn what’s needed, by letting the body show us what’s needed.

Symptoms are your body speaking to you and telling you that it needs something. We all have to learn how the body communicates and how to respond appropriately but we are pretty clueless about that. If we are tired we think we’d better have a stimulant such as coffee but adding coffee to fatigue doesn't address why – are you fatigued because you’re not loving what you’re doing, because you’re doing too much, because you’ve used up your available energy or because you’re really bored? We have to be able to understand these communications so we can find out what we need and make adjustments to live a healthier more receptive life.

Ellen comes from a background of creative writing and feels we don't always need something that's always calming. Sometimes we need to create something big and bold that runs the whole gamut of possibilities. It isn’t always about applying the same technique when you feel bad, it’s about attuning to what your body, mind and spirit is asking and making different choices moment by moment. We make micro choices all day long. Do I pick up my phone or look out the window? Do I grab something quick to eat or consider what my body really needs at this moment? We need to be awake and aware to get more precise about what we need and listen to the things our body is asking for throughout the day to make us more effective, efficient and passionate in each thing we do.

 You can find out more about Ellen at  http://www.ellenmeredith.com.  

 You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.

Ellen’s books are Your Body Will Show You the Way and The Language Your Body Speaks. 

Women’s health – a priority for employers.

During 2022 there were over fifteen and a half million women in the UK workforce and, in areas such as health and social care and retail, female workers dominated. However, for many years there has been little awareness of the issues that can impact on women’s health.

Women can have complex and varying health concerns throughout their life including, fertility, miscarriage, pregnancy and menopause as well as endometriosis, breast or cervical cancer, post-natal depression and peri-menopausal anxiety. Despite the large number of women in the workforce however there is often a stigma around these issues with some women feeling so embarrassed or ill equipped to discuss things with their manager that they avoid the conversation all together!

Since the pandemic partnerships and parenting have become more equitable than ever before but the challenge of balancing work and home life still remains. Women often end up compromising on the quality of their personal and professional lives but in a competitive employment market expectations around health and wellbeing are growing. Now, if an employer is to build a truly diverse and inclusive workplace they need to support female health and wellbeing by being proactive in providing flexibility and choices that allow women to remain in or return to the workplace. Organisations that overlook these factors may well suffer from reduced productivity, engagement and retention levels as well as increases in absence or even skill gaps.

As we move further into 2023, it’s the perfect time to focus on making women’s health and wellbeing needs a greater priority for employers. Organisations that can demonstrate they are addressing the challenges women face by offering a more inclusive working environment, support, guidance and access to benefits and services, will retain their female staff and help them reach their full potential but also attract the best new female candidates.

Improving Connection - Humanising the Remote Experience

Dr Amy Mednik is a psychiatrist working in her own private practice in New York. She grew up in New Jersey and went to college at MIT in Boston where she studied, and became fascinated by the brain and cognitive science. She then attended medical school and and fell into psychiatry halfway through the clinical rotation. She received her medical degree with Distinction in Research from Albert Einstein College of Medicine and a Bachelor of Science in Brain & Cognitive Sciences from MIT.

As a psychiatrist she mainly focused on medication versus psychotherapy. This developed into psychopharmacology, giving medication and seeing what symptoms can be quieted down so people can become their best self.  She wanted more to offer her patients so she then got involved with TMS which uses magnets to create electrical fields to intervene on the brain. She had just got up and running with in-person office based treatments when Covid struck and she had to shut down her office.

In 2020 she started working online with her patients, students etc. A colleague then invited her to write a book about an idea she’d had about the remote experience - what is wrong with the remote experience, why it makes us feel exhausted, why we have trouble focusing and why do we feel what we feel socially. They spent a year writing and living it and it was finished in 2022.

Brain science used to be very much about ‘this is where that happens’ and ‘that happens in that one part of the brain’. Things were learnt because when someone had a stroke and they couldn’t recognise faces that must be where faces are stored in the brain. Now we’re learning it’s not that simple and it’s really very network based. There is not one thing, there is a lot of communication between different areas and feedback loops that's great because networks are something that can be intervened on so that that network gets healthier and can be improved.

Amy is very interested in the use of psychopharmacology for anxiety and depression but with each of these things there are medicines that work well for people. When its done correctly negative symptoms are turned off and when you talk to the people you’ve prescribed for they can tell you what they experience and describe what the feeling in their head is really like. When the prescription is adapted, they can then describe the change and what that feels like.

There is a range or spectrum for drugs that also depends on the disorder. Anxiety and trauma really straddle the chemical responses to medicine versus environmental situational responses to therapy. With both of these you have symptoms that you can take and turn everything off so patients don't feel anything. If you are precise though there are a wide range of doses and sometimes a little does a lot so we just quiet the noise, we turn the volume down on the anxiety or trauma that's talking and not serving you. People begin to feel they have more access to themselves, their minds and to their creativity because the fight or fight response that should not be going is turned down. They can then engage better in therapy and in life and do more things. With trauma though its not always safe to go into those parts of your brain, your brain wont always let you into those parts before you build the scaffolding with a little bit of medicine, do the work, break the things down build them back up and then you might not even need the medicine.

Amy feels the maximum between sessions is six months but on average she sees patients every three months. If you are taking medicine and it’s helping you to feel better that's great but if it’s making you feel worse then it’s worth review. These things have side effects but it is not one or another – if your life has changed and you've done well in therapy and things are different to when you started the medicine its also worth reviewing. There is no right answer. Some people stay on them for live because they really help them to be their best self.

Amy’s new book about the virtual experience is Humanizing the Remote Experience through Leadership and Coaching: Strategies for Better Virtual Connections This looks at how we can foster wellness, raise engagement, and strengthen connections in professional contexts as our interactions become increasingly remote. Amy feels that as humans, we’re simply not wired for flat, two-dimensional virtual settings, that we’re built to connect in the real world. When this need isn’t met, we inevitably become stressed, struggle to focus, work harder, and burn out.

There are a lot of ways we can improve the remote experiences, but we need to learn the signs that our needs aren’t being met in our virtual interactions, for example why Zoom calls are physically exhausting, why what we intend to say gets lost and distorted in virtual settings and why being part of a remote team can increase stress.

To understand what is missing from these remote interactions, we need to understand how we use space, sensory cues and group dynamics and the challenges people face when their innate need for human connection is unmet.  Amy and her co-author Dr Diane Lennard used research and case studies, to outline the paradox that the digital technology we use to connect with others can leave us feeling less connected.

Amy’s book is Humanizing the Remote Experience through Leadership and Coaching: Strategies for Better Virtual Connections and you can learn more at www.HTRE-Book.com or you can find out more about Amy at dramymednik.com

  You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.

Time management for a stress-free Christmas

Christmas is meant to be a time to relax and enjoy ourselves but it can be very stressful. A recent study by Harvard Medical School found that 62% of respondents described their stress level as “very or somewhat” raised during the Christmas holiday. A further study from the National Alliance of Mental Illness reported that 64% of people were already struggling with their mental health said the holiday exacerbated their condition.

Part of the problem is that people have unrealistically high expectations for the Christmas season. We all want it to be as perfect and magical as the songs and films tell us it should be. But with trips to the supermarket, gifts to buy, family to contact, cards to be written, presents to wrap, decorations to put up, meals to prepare and homes to be prepared, there’s just too much to do! And that's before we add in the financial pressures facing everyone at the moment.

So is it possible to manage stress levels at Christmas?  Well, some preparation in the run-up can help and introducing a few time management strategies will help you take control and stop you feeling you’re being driven like one of Santa's reindeer!

1. Choose for yourself

Make a list of things you have to do to prepare for the holiday and the things you want to do. If you end up with December being a mad whirl of non-stop Christmas preparations and activities then stand back and consider if you’re doing things because you want to or because you think you have to.  Give yourself more time to enjoy the things you like by cutting out some of the ones you really don’t have to do.

2. Start early

Christmas activities don’t have to be crammed into the week before. You can decorate your home for the holiday season in November if you want and buy Christmas gifts at any time of year. Stretching out your Christmas activities over a longer period of time can really help reduce stress. Christmas decorations, cards and gift wrap, are often available at discounted prices in the week after Christmas so why not buy them then, put them away and take it even easier next year!

3. Get help.

Who says that you have to everything yourself?  Use the gift-wrapping services that many shops provide. Assign some tasks to other family members. By using the time management strategies of outsourcing and delegation you’ll lighten your workload and your mood.

4. Do it online.

You don't have to take the time to drive anywhere to shop if you don't want to. Reduce stress by shopping and buying Christmas gifts online or if you do actually enjoy hitting the shops, make a list then check availability and compare costs online before you leave home. It also helps to pre-plan and coordinate your journeys so you can combine running errands with Christmas shopping.

5. Make it fun

Everyone finds some holiday season activities that have to be done boring. Why not try to make whatever it is you find boring more enjoyable by making it special and different. Have some friends around for a Christmas baking event or get the family together to decorate the tree and put up decorations.

6. Look after yourself.

We all know how we should take care of ourselves – get enough sleep, eat the right things, exercise and drink plenty of water. It’s just harder in the Christmas season when these always a lot more food and alcohol around. Try to find time to exercise each day - put on a fitness DVD, invite everyone for a brisk walk or organise a team game you all can take part in.  Don’t keep saying “yes” to everything that’s asked of you. This only builds up stress levels. It’s okay to say no.

7. Relax and enjoy.

Whether its taking the time to drive around to enjoy the displays of Christmas lights, attending a carol concert or simply catching up with friends, doing something you enjoy will see your holiday stress drop considerably.

8. Be realistic

Over-exceeding your capacity will only end in frustration. One of the most important and practical steps to take is to lower your expectations. Don’t expect too much from others or yourself and realise that everyone has their own nature, talents and capacities. By understanding that they, like you, cannot be anything other than who they are, you will avoid disappointment.

9. Stop work

Working from home or on a hybrid-working pattern can make it difficult to walk away but its essential to set some boundaries. Put the laptop in a cupboard, turn off your email notifications and forget about work for the holiday.

10. Let it go

Remember, everything passes and Christmas is only one day Take a deep breath and let it go. Things will return to normal very soon.

Become a Braveologist. The key to conscious bravery

Pamela Brinker has been a psychotherapist for more than thirty years but, when her second husband died of brain cancer eleven years ago, in her grief she didn't know what to do or where to turn. She looked at the obvious resources and tried to modify things as she had taught her clients but, within months, both of her then teenage sons turned to drugs and alcohol in their pain and suffering.

 Even though they were close it was such a challenging time for them. They were turning to each other and to substances. Within three years they were both addicted to amphetamines and Pamela had to come up with some different strategies. She became a ‘Braveologist’, using tools and resources differently and adapting and modifying different techniques not just for grief but also for the mental health and addiction challenges her sons were facing.

There is an assumption that drug users ‘come from the wrong side of the tracks’ and a lack of understanding that addiction can start in many ways - having an operation and getting addicted to painkillers or from grief. There are negative connotations when they talk about addiction and this is a stigma we need to break. None of us want to become addicted but most of us are to something – albeit chocolate or shopping!

Pamela thinks we need to start having a view of addiction that's on a continuum. Although she uses word addiction in her book, she sees it as substance or behavioural issues. She feels that we all need compassion and understanding to realise that no one wants to be dependent on a substance to get the level of happiness or containment that they seek or to deal with pain. That's really part of how addiction develops over time - it's a combination of a lot of different things. There is no one size fits all and it becomes a brain issue of pleasure and desire.

Some of the most recent research shows that the part of our brain that we need to use to help us override our dependency, is the same part of the brain that is flawed and not working properly. Pamela suggests that we walk alongside those we care about with deep compassion with tenderness and with strength.

One approach that is used when working with addicts is the 12 Steps which has been adapted for many different addictions such as eating, shopping, gambling etc. In the US there also mindfulness or whole-being based programmes with strategies that support people getting into their bodies not just their hearts and minds. Pamela has done a lot of work with somatic enquiry, awareness and body work which helps get us into the places in our bodies where our pain is stored. This is an answer to the ‘how do we resolve addiction’ and the ‘how do we quit depending on a substance’ questions. If we bring deep compassion to ourselves, to our whole being, we are seeking something to help us with what our brains, bodies and hearts can’t handle.

Linking the body to the mind is important as we wear pain in the body as well as the mind. The answer to many mental health even trauma issues is in the body. Pamela feels that we need to move past mindfulness and use the data available to us from going both inside and outside our beings so that we become more consciously aware. She uses the six zones of experience to do a whole being scan – the body, the heart, the mind, our intuition, the energy fields/environment around us and then the deepest part of our core self or essence. We can do this scan in thirty to sixty seconds and can gain a wealth of information so we can realign and balance and be there for our loved ones.

Self-care is very important when working with addicts because it’s very draining giving of yourself. It’s also important to guard and protect our happiness so we can remain a vibrant being who isn’t defined by our circumstances, situation or other people. When we are feeling agitated or tap into a situation which might be a crisis we start asking ‘what should I do?’ The key foundation of self-care is to tap into our own being where we have a wealth of data that can help us to decide what to do, to see what options are available and to think more clearly and be calmer - which is what we think we want when we say we want mindfulness! What we really want is to be truly aware and make choices that are truly brave.

Integrating the body with the mind helps the mind make better choices and allows for pattern disruption so that other things aren’t distracting you from harnessing your whole self. Most of us activate emotionally, in our bodies or both. Our minds start racing so we want to be able to ground ourselves and rebalance, to tune in to our bodies and calm the sympathetic nervous system.

There is a criticism of some awareness approaches. The critical thing is what comes next, of having awareness not for the sake of awareness but of making choices and taking meaningful action. We can’t just pretend to live joyful lives, we can’t just hope and affirm.

Being consciously brave is about being able to know what is needed in any given moment and then doing it. When we have the capacity to be free of all feelings and not judge ourselves we can come into our whole being and say ‘I can do this’. We need to be able to know who we truly are – to know I’m not my situation or defined by my loved ones - I’m defined by my essence which is never changing

Conscious bravery is innate. We are born with the capacity for it but we do have to cultivate and learn what tools work for us as its not a one size fits all.  Your form of conscious bravery may look different to everyone, but its something everyone has to practice.

Pamela is the author of the new book CONSCIOUS BRAVERY Caring for Someone with Addiction or you can find out more about her at https://bebrave.us/about-the-author/

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.

Embracing the 4-day working week?

In 1926 Henry Ford became one of the most high profile employers to reduce the working week from six days to five. As well as the benefits this brought to his employees, his business actually benefited as productivity rose as his employee’s leisure time increased. Since then, the five-day working week has generally become the norm but now the question being asked is whether a further decrease in hours would not only lead to improvements in productivity, but also to employees mental and physical health.

The 4-day Week Global initiative is a coordinated, 6-month trial of a 4-day working week.  It’s currently running in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and the UK where there are 3,000 workers in 70 companies each having an extra full day off each week whilst still being paid 100% of their salary.

Supporters of the idea highlight the benefits that a reduced working week might bring. Staff who work less may be healthier and less stressed so there could be a noticeable reduction in burnout, depression and anxiety as well as countering the negative impacts of remote working. Reduced hours would improve employees work life balance with more options for flexible working and increased time for family responsibilities and commitments, socialising, exercise, continuing education and volunteering, all leading to an improvement in both mental and physical health. 

Advocates also argue that employers have a lot to gain from a shorter working week. Employees who are better rested and generally happier tend to be more focused, and motivated. This in turn could boost productivity and engagement and reduce the number of absences caused by illnesses, stress, and mental health conditions. Moving to a four-day working week could also make companies more appealing places to work and help in recruiting and retaining the best talent.

Despite these benefits, many businesses are hesitant. Even if predictions that reduced hours would increase productivity are true, its quite possible that changing work patterns would prove difficult and expensive to particularly in industries such as hospitality, retail and health implement where choices would need to be made in terms of staffing and opening hours. Although a reduction in hours might seem a good option for people unable to work from home, perhaps the question should be whether more time off or an increase in salary would be most beneficial?

The feedback from the initiative at the halfway point of the project has been mixed, with some companies taking part finding it difficult to implement and benefit from a different operational model. Other response has been positive though so with three months to go its becoming increasingly obvious that whilst shortening the working week isn’t a silver bullet for increasing engagement, productivity and improved employees physical and mental health, in some businesses it may well help.

Empowering your health journey

Estelle Giraud is a PhD scientist in population genetics who has become a commercial operator, founder and leader in biotech and frontier medicine @Illumina. Estelle has had to navigate the change and challenges that come with this journey and is both excited and scared by the rise of big data in healthcare and wellness. She is also passionate about creating a better healthcare system from the ground up, especially for individuals. She believes people don’t neatly fit in single boxes and that some of the most interesting insights about people and the world come from the unplanned intersections and she brings her authenticity and openness to the tough conversations about the hard problems we face.

Estelle believes we have the fundamental right to have agency over own bodies and our own health and that this can’t be layered in political, religious or any other way of thinking – it’s your own body, your own health journey and, as humans, we have the right over that along with the privacy that goes with it.

Trellis Health has the belief that health is rapidly changing. What we think about health data is rapidly changing – genetics, wearable’s, where people live and what people eat all impact on our health. At the same time we don’t have a good infrastructure for health data particularly in the US as there is no national infrastructure and people have their health data in dozens of different systems. This means that from a patient perspective there is little value in that health information. It doesn't serve you and allow you to manage and own your health. There are a lot of things you can talk about - AI and data driven medicine for example - but at the end of the day we need good health data on people and that data needs to impact on, and serve them.

Estelle’s company has been creating a platform, a health data hub, which starts with pregnancy. There are a couple of very specific reasons for starting at this point. At a high level pregnancy is a really unique time point in a person’s life where a lot of deep and broad measurements happen. It is the first interaction with the healthcare system and there is a lot of space for improving that user experience as well as the health outcomes – how do we decrease maternal and infant mortality at this intense time in a really data driven way.

The idea is that you own your own health data, cleanse that data and show it to the people who need to know so they can provide the healthcare you need for yourself on a global scale. People are more mobile these days and there are different systems in different countries. You can’t just assume people are going to be born, live and die in one system if we are going to have a mobile lifestyle it makes sense for all of our health information to come with us as we move through life. For example when you are on holiday and something happens to you. You can’t speak and your wishes or allergies are missed.  The mission of Trellis is to empower people to see and connect with their health and those two things are difficult to do. Health is an abstract thing. We don't think about it until we are sick and that's when it will help to have that data at your fingertips. It allows people to connect with it so we can own our health journey.

Estelle comes at this from a patient and a data science perspective. Health is not just about going to the doctor, having some blood tests and going home.  Its about mental health, diet, stress, sleep and community. All of these things impact our health and we’ve gone through the period where people would have one doctor who had seen their family for generations and had information about the whole family in their head. Today’s medical systems have been fractured into specialties and fragmented out – an app for mental health, seeing a specialist for something else - all different people and systems. People are slowly starting to realise that health needs to bring that all together and that to talk about truly managing your health it needs to be holistic.

There are a lot of inaccuracies in health data generally and this is difficult to fix without a level of transparency. With transparency people can see the data and start to have the conversation that something isn’t right so lets try to correct it. To realise precision medicine, we need vast amounts of clean, accurate data – if its full of errors we can’t develop the algorithms to do that. This is of course some of the most powerful data you can have on a person and is even more valuable than financial data which is why the privacy and ethics of this space is so important.

Trellis work automatically though API’s. The US has massive problems with health data and has built exchange networks that operate within the hospitals. This means that when users sign up to the platform they don't need to call every single doctor they've had. They authorise Trellis and then they can collect and build a longitudinal health record for them automatically. The revenue model is that of a consumer paid subscription. They don't take money from insurance companies which simplifies and strips away lots of ulterior incentives. They work with a lot of younger Millennial and Gen Z women who have the idea that if it’s free you are the product. This comes from platforms such as Facebook that monetise people. Trellis makes it really clear that you pay a subscription fee and that's how they make money. It’s your data and they don’t sell it to anybody. They don't make money any other way - it’s all about you and the value you get from your health data.

Organisational resilience comes from this consumer model because it gives independence in the market place. It sounds simple but simple is always best, particularly in healthcare. If you get from where you start profitability, the more organisational resilience you’ll have.

Genetics is the use of simple rules that are written in how we inherit things from our parents and how we pass things down to our kids. When you look at population levels there are mathematical relationships between different people based on their genetics. Its also relevant for how we think about disease, and human health and predispositions. If you put the data across populations you can answer really interesting questions about human health. Things like longevity, bullying and mental health are the sort of things you see in a correlation between life chances and wealth, Some aspects of life are hard coded in a very specific way in our genetics but other things are far more complex and depend on environmental signals throughout our life – where you grow up, levels of pollution, how you eat. All of these things throughout your life will impact your genetics. You can derive algorithms for understanding all of that by looking at the data. Everything about us to some extent or another has a genetic component.

You can find out more about Estelle and Trellis Healthcare at LinkedIn or https://www.jointrellishealth.com/

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions. 

A practical approach to leadership. The Zen Executive

Jim Blake is the CEO of Unity World Headquarters, a spiritual, non-denomination, non-profit founded in 1889 in Kansas City, Missouri. It helps people of all faiths and cultures apply positive spiritual principles in their daily lives. He had previously held numerous executive positions in the corporate world, including as Director of Customer Operations for Landis+Gyr, a global leader in the utility industry, and Vice President of Products and Technology for Rhythm Engineering.

Jim is based in Missouri which is known for its weather threats including tornado’s and recently the state has been experiencing 95 - 100 degree heat. There is an on-going threat from nature whether its fire, snow or storms and you need resilience to deal with these sudden changes in weather. Part of being resilient is acceptance of where you are and what may or may not happen. Establishing the proper mind set for being prepared is important, as preparation is the key to eliminating fear. If we accept the risks and prepare properly then you can reduce the fear and anxiety that might come with threats from the weather and from anything else.

Acceptance is a vital skill of understanding. Taking the stoic approach when things happen - what you do about them is the thing that makes the difference. Some people come out of adverse events well whilst others are completely defined by it, sometimes for the rest of their life. Acceptance is also an important part of healing. Our emotional posture and thoughts about these things dictate our experience of it. Something happens in your life and its how you handle that through your thoughts and emotions that determines your experience of that event. Accept and move though it and you’ll still have the rest of the day to be fine or hold on to it and let it impact your decision-making and how you interact with people for the rest of the day. It’s an important self-awareness skill.

Jim’s undergraduate degree was in IT coding but although he enjoyed it he found it to be isolating. In the early 1990s IT companies were moving away from main frames and mid ranges to PCs. With new devices and the Internet coming on line Jim took the opportunity to move into network communications. It was more social and more big picture and so he took his career in that direction. Since then he has led teams in general IT, application support, coding and network development until in 2016 he joined Unity World Headquarters as CEO.

Leading a non-profit is a very complex role perhaps more so than a commercial organisation. Jim’s background in programming and project management work formed a great base and he had learned huge amount from the leading global organisations he had worked in. The main things he had taken away were their commitment to innovation, their dedication to new product development and their focus on bringing on talent. That innovation served him well at Unity and gave him a really powerful way to use his experience and apply a whole new set of thinking in how it does it does its work.

Unity sits under an umbrella of teachings called new thoughts from the late 1800’s. These ancient principals that were mainly taken from the east and are traditions based on spiritual principals related to emotions, thoughts and how these create the experience you have as your life unfolds.  All of these new thoughts, areas or traditions work on a practical level not as a lot of dogma. Unity didn’t want to be classified as a religious organisation because it wanted it’s teaching to continue to evolve over time. Through its website it provides a lot of resources that are practical with sections on healing, grief, addiction and other everyday problems but looking at them from a spiritual perspective that takes its truths from all of the major traditions from the east.

Jim’s book, The Zen Executive, is based on the experiences he had during his corporate career. The first section is about self care - getting in touch with how your feelings and emotions impact your experiences and why and how you can better care for yourself. The better we do this in mind body and spirit, the better we perform and the better we show up.  When we show up stressed and angry, it affects our decision- making and the relationships around us.

The second part of the book is about the intersection between business and life and the practices that make people feel that they cannot combine their spiritual and work lives. Jim feels they can be combined so you can bring your whole self to work. The last part is about leadership and understanding leadership from a new perspective so you bring compassion, empathy and wellbeing for yourself and those you serve with to bear. There is the idea that you cant be good to people and that you have to treat them with fear intimidation, command and control. Jim thinks that if you do it the other way the results are even better. When a person feels safe, heard and appreciated, they are far more productive than if they are in fear and stress around their work.

Some people confuse the message about being safe, heard and appreciated as being soft, woolly and non-accountable but those things are not true. People still need to be measured, to show they are doing a good job. They need to be encouraged and have their potential understood and maximised. Leadership is not just about letting people run riot. One of the major points in the book is that you can still hold people accountable but that you can do it in a way with compassion, respect and transparency so you bring out the best in their performance. People know when they are doing a good job and what they are capable of so it's the job of the leader to hold a lens up and say ‘you’re doing this and that's great but you could be doing more’. Some people find this threatening, challenging, bullying or patronising. That's their choice. The job of the leader is to see the potential and then help their employees to see it to.

Jim feels we need to bring our whole self to work and advocates that some of the things we do at work are in alignment with things that exist in our spiritual life such as compassion, empathy and deep listening. The idea that work just has to be work and that `I can t bring some of what I believe in terms of my own spirituality’. You don't have to put it on blast but Jim suggests we can bring a spiritual approach to our work and posture of service to what are doing and how we are doing it. We don't need to share the reasons and motivations that inspire us with everyone but we don't need to exclude them from the workplace either. Jim feels the way to do this is to bring the same spiritual posture we feel in our most comfortable setting to the office in how we treat people how we approach our work and how we endeavour to inspire others. By finding the why and then giving context you understand the meaning of the work you’re doing. You are linking work to meaning.

You can learn more about Jim at www.1amjimblake.com where there are details about his book “The Zen Executive”. You can find out more about Unity at http://www.uinty.org

You can listen to the podcast in full and find out further information here. Our upcoming guest list is also available along with our previous blogs.
Find out more about our innovative Resilience and Burnout solutions.

Leadership in the remote workplace: Opportunities and challenges

The combination of technological advances and shifting cultural norms has resulted in the remote work trend continuing to grow in popularity as numerous companies embrace this new way of working. 

However, with the rise of remote work, there is an increasing need for leaders who can motivate and inspire team members from a distance. Effective leadership in the remote workplace requires a different set of skills than traditional office management.

The rise of this new setup in the virtual world has presented new challenges for leaders. How can leaders effectively lead a team when everyone is working in different locations? And how can they leverage the opportunities that come with a more dispersed workforce?

In this blog, I'll be discussing the challenges and opportunities of remote leadership. Leadership in the remote workplace can be difficult because leaders can't always rely on face-to-face communication. However, there are many opportunities to take advantage of when leading a team remotely. Keep reading to learn more!

The opportunities in leading a remote team

Leading a team remotely can present a number of opportunities. For example, it can allow leaders to build a more diverse team, as they are not limited to candidates who live in their area. It allows them to tap into a global labor market.

It can also allow leaders to create a more flexible work schedule, as the traditional 9-5 workday does not bind them. It can improve work-life balance. This can be a huge convenience when managing time and meeting deadlines.

Additionally, leading in a virtual world can help leaders develop their communication and organizational skills, as they will need to effectively communicate with their team members in different time zones.

Opportunities to be innovative and experiment with new ways of working are also beneficial for leading a remote team. This can include experimenting with different communication methods, such as utilizing video conferencing instead of email or developing new corporate policies based on input from everyone in the organization.

In addition to these practical benefits, working remotely also encourages a broader mindset, encouraging all members of a team to think creatively about how to succeed in their roles and what is best for the company as a whole.

The challenges of leading a team remotely

One of the biggest challenges is maintaining team cohesion. Without the daily interactions that take place in an office setting, it can be difficult to build relationships and stimulate a sense of teamwork.

Additionally, remote work can make it harder to monitor employee productivity and identify issues early on. As a result, leaders need to find new ways to stay connected with their team members and ensure everyone is on track.

Another challenge is managing expectations. When members are not present in the same physical space, it can be difficult to manage deadlines and ensure everyone is on the same page. This is why leaders need to overcommunicate and provide clear guidelines.

Communication is also a challenge. With team members working in different locations, there can be a lot of miscommunication. It's important to find ways to effectively communicate with the team, whether that's through video conferencing, instant messaging, or another method.

There can also be technical challenges, such as internet connection issues or problems with video conferencing. These challenges can be frustrating, but it's important to remember that they are not insurmountable.

Lastly, remote work can be lonely and isolating. This is why it is significant for leaders to make an effort to connect with their team members on a personal level. 

Effective strategies for leading a remote team

One key strategy for leading a remote team is establishing clear communication guidelines and protocols. It is important to set expectations around how and when leaders will communicate with the team members and ensure that everyone follows these guidelines consistently.

In addition to establishing communication protocols, it is also important to adopt different communication methods that work well in a remote setting. For example, video conferencing can be used for team meetings, while instant messaging can be utilized for quick questions or updates.

During a video conference, encourage an open webcam policy so that team members can see each other and build relationships. Participants may use an online webcam testing tool to check their setup before the meeting.

When communicating with the team, it is also important to be clear and concise. This will help to avoid miscommunication and ensure that everyone is on the same page. Make certain to provide a written record of team communication, such as in a shared document or chat log.

In addition to these strategies, it is important to foster a culture of trust and respect within the remote team. Leaders should make extra effort to connect with their team members on a personal level and set aside time for relationship building over video chat or email.

Summing It Up

Leadership in the remote workplace is a new and evolving field. There are multiple opportunities for those willing to take on the challenge, but there are also several matters that should be considered. 

Leaders in the remote workplace need to focus on communication, culture, and trust. Communication is crucial to be certain everyone is on the same page. Culture helps employees feel connected to their work even when they're not physically present. Trust allows employees to feel comfortable taking risks.

Ultimately, for anyone who is eager to shake up their routine and find new ways of working, being at the helm of a remote team can be an exciting opportunity indeed. It might not be without its challenges, but these can all be overcome with the right approach.

Guest Blog Author

Jennesa Ongkit is a content writer for VEED.IO and an all-around wordsmith. In her spare time, Jennesa enjoys reading books, watching movies, and playing with her pets.

Does employee wellbeing translate into improved productivity?

As we move further into the post-pandemic world, organisations are increasingly looking at long-term working models. Whilst some organisations found that home working led to increased productivity, others saw engagement and focus decline and productivity drop as employees experienced isolation, anxiety and stress.

Many studies have shown that higher levels of physical and mental health translate directly into greater happiness, increased self-motivation, improved staff retention and absence, better morale and ultimately improved performance and productivity. Whilst leaders are currently juggling many issues, productivity is one of the things they can’t afford to put on the backburner so developing a culture of wellbeing for employees has moved from being a nice to have to a must-have.

Building a culture of wellbeing in the workplace that helps, encourages and supports employees to practice healthy behaviours in the office will optimise employee wellbeing and positively impact on the employee experience to create a working environment where people will thrive.

Whilst in the past productivity has been boosted primarily through investment in skills and technology, now the more an organisation supports its staff in taking charge of their time and life, the happier and more productive workforce it has.