How to be a leader / manager with a HEART and HEAD approach?
It’s hard to believe that back in 2012 I wrote a leadership and management programme called XCEPTIONAL LEADERSHIP
You may ask – What is an XCEPTIONAL LEADER?
Well, from my perspective:
- It’s a manager / leader who positively impacts the business performance doing what the business needs them to do, and gets the desired results through workforce experience and engagement. Also in developing the people for the business now and its future needs.
- It is also about creating a positive impact on the health and wellness of the team and individual members they lead, and their colleagues.
This impact, like a pebble in the pond reaches out to the wider context of families and communities, spreading the feel-good feeling and influencing people’s happiness and lives.
The KEY FOCUS is getting the TASKS done and ACHIEVING THE DESIRED BUSINESS RESULTS.
Because, let’s face it, if the business isn’t achieving and making money, thriving, not only surviving, we have little need to focus on wellness and happiness of the workforce because, maybe there won’t be a business anymore, and that definitely impacts negatively on employees, their lives, families, wellness and communities?
We are aspiring for having a balance between achieving the TASK and the PROCESS of looking after the workforce simultaneously.
Looking after workforce wellness is NOT about sacrificing business needs.
It can be a balancing act at times when it comes to an individual’s wellness need over their performance for a short time, where they are then supported back to peak performance, no doubt about that. ITS ALWAYS A JUDGEMENT CALL ON THE MANAGER TO DECIDE HOW BEST TO SUPPORT THEIR TEAM MEMBER AND THE BUSINESS.
“So Now You Are A Leader – What Next? was the name of my 2012 programme I called XCEPTIONAL LEADERSHIP.
It’s hard to believe in 2023 I am considering resurrecting and refining this.
The content is as true now in ‘in my model of the world’ as it was back then when I wrote it, 11 YEARS AGO and it is a useful resource to support my mentees.
SO HOW DO YOU COMBINE LOOKING AFTER THE WELLNESS OF YOUR PEOPLE AND THE WORK PERFORMANCE OF THE PEOPLE YOU LEAD AND MANAGE IN YOUR BUSINESS?
It is after all THE PEOPLE employed by a business and their efforts and how well they are engaged and performing in the work they do, that lead a business to success and deliver promised results to happy customers and clients, isn’t it?
It was a play on the word to make it a bit different, and it had 5 Modules –
Developing a Flexible Leadership Style; Leading and Managing Performance; Communicating Effectively; Building High Performing Teams; Delegating.
This was my only attempt at taking my training on-line for people who were either new to management or had been in that role for a while and had not had the benefit of any formal training to help them do their role confidently, and with maximum effectiveness. I used it mainly as a resource to support my learners I was carrying out face to face leadership and management development learning, and one-to-one coaching.
- A good place for starting is with the understanding that WELLNESS is a big topic that combines mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health. These cannot be viewed in isolation and away from each other and any discomfort or imbalance in any area directly impacts the others. This can lead to either short or long-term ailments and disease, most often caused by stress and anxiety.
- Understanding the impact stress and anxiety has on our body’s immune system is vital as it can make our immune system less effective over time, as well as increasing our vulnerability to illness. It makes sense to reduce stress and anxiety wherever we can. We will never be able to completely remove stress and anxiety from our lives, but we can focus our efforts on reducing the toll it takes on our body.
Lets face it, LIFE gives us plenty to stress and be anxious about, but we recognise the workplace can play a major part in this. I am pleased to be working with businesses all around the North East including RE:GEN Group, RE:geon Training, Accounting for Good, Change, Grow, Live and many more who recognise the importance of putting practices in place to help reduce its impact for people, and are RE:DEFINING how to embed wellness and safeguarding practice, into business day to day operations.
These day-to-day business operations are focussed In an effort to create win / win / win in keeping employees and families safe, and helping to maintain a fit, happy, healthy, robust and engaged workforce. Helping the workforce to feel good and function their work performance at peak , and directly serving the communities we live and work in, allowing us to make greater contributions to serving a bigger picture in life.
Wellness should be viewed from a holistic point of view. Working with the model below our approaches are focussed on embedding a culture, educating and working with, and recognising the WHOLE PERSON and the inter-relationship between physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health that directly benefits employees in being PEAK PERFORMERS AT WORK AND IN THEIR LIVES.
