SHOW NOTES
The World Health Organization has defined wellbeing as being in a complete state of physical, mental and social wellbeing, not merely as the absence of ill health, but as a positive thing. It’s an aspirational piece. We’re not really quite there in organizations at the moment. Certainly, there’s a way to go in running an education program helping leaders and employees alike understand that wellbeing is a really slippery, dynamic thing.
Working harder is no longer the guaranteed path to being successful.
Resilience is not a bad thing, but it’s being used in lieu of taking a more complex systemic approach to addressing organisational shortcomings.
Leaders who are grounded and centred and able to deal with this constant disruption and constant change and the way they lead organizations, create the right environment for other people to not just survive but thrive. They are the sorts of leaders and they are the sorts of organizations that are going to go the distance and be really successful. We know that many organizations have much shorter lifespans these days i.e. they go out of business. Why do they go out of business? It’s not for the lack of working hard, but are they sufficiently centred, grounded, focused, visionary? Are they sufficiently creative and agile?
There’s a lot of research around to show that these are the predictors of success in the future. And in order to be able to do those things, you’ve got to be able to pause, stop, reflect, have a breath, recharge, replenish, recover, rest. Dare I say all sorts of potentially quite old fashioned concepts? But they are the things that are setting the organizations who are going to have longevity and successful development over the years ahead apart from the ones who aren’t going to be around.
As coaches, it’s our job to help leaders confront what they might be fearful of, by changing some habits.
