How do you prioritize yourself for the benefit of your team and business?
When thinking of the in-flight personal safety video instructions, the message is straightforward: you first, then others.
So, does this apply in the workplace as well? What about in the "work from home" context, where the boundaries between the person and professional mesh together?
We often hear proclamations from peers and media alike on the importance of self-care, but actually prioritizing one's self, it seems, is a rare feat.
Let’s set aside the dynamics of family life and enter into the professional environment for a moment.
In this situation, it appears more common to prioritize a co-worker, your team, a client or the organization as a whole before getting to you.
Logic states that if you’re healthier, stronger, and more resilient, the more a positive environment develops for those around you. Role Modelling the qualities that showcase progress instead of succumbing to the potential stress and fear that can present itself in times of change is a sustainable way forward.
De-prioritizing yourself through mindset and actions that come as a result of telling yourself such things as "not having the time", "not having permission to do so", or that "it makes me feel guilty" can eat away at boundaries and create unsustainable workloads that can creep in to one’s private life.
As a result, this can be a very tricky and complicated space for many - especially for those who find themselves in a situation where compensation and reward is based on what they do for others.
A leadership coach once said to me that before they even start working together with a new client, they send them to their personal trainer first.
The premise?
To get some foundational strength in place to achieve a stronger physical and mental state before getting down to work.
Interesting, don’t you think?
This leads us to beg the question: How do you own your best leadership qualities for the benefit of those around you and the impact you seek to have?
With that in mind, welcome to Issue 2 of Empowered, focusing on well-being and leadership.
Emerging contexts of a changing world have always required approaches to leadership development to evolve.
Pär Hellstadius, Team Lead - Business Transformation at Hyper Island shares more.
The focus of conversations on Leadership Development have shifted slightly over the past years, and we can see an increasing interest—as well as concern—regarding the well-being of leaders in the workplace. The topic of well-being and health in Leadership Development has been gaining attention since before the pandemic, but during the past year, it has surfaced as one of the most important top-of-mind topics when I speak with CXO’s and HR leaders.
Society and the organizations within them are continually facing the challenges as well as the opportunities that come with technological acceleration, globalization and increased complexity. The new reality forces us to come together, across silos and borders, to co-create and innovate in order to solve these problems collaboratively. As a result, many organizations become dynamic with high-pressure environments characterized by speed of change, pushing us to leave known territories and comfort-zones to explore, learn and grow. Most of the time it’s fun, inspiring, and creative, but sometimes it can unfortunately lead to paralysis, stress, and poor performance.
The impact this has on leaders and the increased demands and pressure they experience is a theme that emerges when we work with our clients and participants. The stories are about navigating complexity, managing relationships, conflict, leading change and facilitating effective collaboration.
We caught up with Katie Burke recently over Whatsapp between Stockholm and London this month for conversation covering this past year.
Katie works in a hybrid role at Accenture Interactive across Innovation and Thought Leadership. We have been fortunate to collaborate on a few initiatives together the past few years, notably in leadership development and employee experience. We dove into a Q&A that spanned a relocation to London, a role change, pandemic observations, the power of people and also some insights on how she learns and develops as a person and professional.
An Extract from the Interview
Starting a new role in the midst of the pandemic, there’s no business as usual. What were some of the surprises that showed up for you in your work this past year?
I really miss my colleagues. That was a surprise. They provide me with so much energy. Honestly, I see the headlines about work predominantly going remote, and it makes me sad. There are so many moments in work where being together through the hard times and together in times of triumph – those are gone and I miss them terribly.
When we spoke, the notion “the gravity towards certainty” came up – whether in our politics, our approach to ways of working, and so on. At the same time, What are the drawbacks of this and seeing everything as fixed and proven true? Why do you feel is it important to approach work as a series of experiments?
There's something about an experimental mindset that I feel really helps to drive progress and to help stay away from mediocrity. In the Fjord Trends this year, we wrote about templated design and how what we are viewing on screens is ‘sea of sameness’. It’s dull and shows a lack of creativity. The same can be said for productivity tools and learning. We are raising the expectation bar on everything we do – experiences at work, shopping, health – these are all measured against the best experience out there. You have to experiment with the ever-evolving technologies and trends. It’s not just for the products and services that you offer to customers…it’s also the tools and services you offer to your employees to make work easier for them.
Liene and Dawn are co-leaders of our Leading Teams Course (as well as a few other hats at Hyper Island) and recently did a live Q&A . In it they discuss leadership and how to best be prepared for continuous change. Watch the recording here:
In next month we will be going deeper on the creative mindset needed to explore technology and people from a place of curiosity and confidence.
