Feeling flat, tired or overwhelmed? Concerned you or your colleagues are headed for burnout?
In Thriving Leaders, Thriving Teams, Lauren Parsons shares how everyone from aspiring leaders through to CEOs can stop languishing, start flourishing, and cultivate a positive, energised workplace culture.
Poor health and mental distress are on the rise globally. People are suffering in silence. Not enough leaders understand how to create true workplace wellbeing. Unfortunately, too many organisations – often inadvertently – treat people as “assets” or “resources” to be used rather than human beings to be nurtured, motivated and celebrated. This needs to change.
Just as master gardeners create the right environment for plants to thrive, leaders must cultivate the ideal environment for their people to flourish. This book shows you how.
Packed with the latest research, inspiring stories, and practical tools it’ll help you:
- Boost your wellbeing, energy and vitality, even if you’re busy and “don’t have time”.
- Be a better leader and help others thrive, no matter what your role.
- Cultivate a positive, energised workplace culture.
Below Parsons shares five key insights to help you and your team thrive.
1. Everything starts with self-leadership
Regardless of any title you may or may not have, you are a leader. You’re the leader of your own life. How you show up every day matters. As a leader, the first person you lead is yourself.
How you breathe, move, eat, and think all affect your wellbeing, which then impacts those around you. If you understand the daily habits that affect your attitude, focus, resilience, and energy, you can choose which habits to dial up or dial down, to help you flourish.
You might think staff wellbeing is solely an individual responsibility. Something you can’t influence. Not so. For example, take sleep, one of the most important cornerstones of wellbeing. It not only enhances mood and energy and increases speed and accuracy, but it also improves cognitive function. A well-rested person is smarter, more creative, and better at problem-solving.
Sleep may also seem very personal and out of your sphere of influence, but a person’s day sets up their night. One of the key factors that affects sleep is getting sufficient sunlight during the day to ensure you produce adequate melatonin (the hormone that helps you get to sleep and stay asleep). If the norm in your workplace is to stay indoors, run back-to-back meetings, skip lunch, work late on screens and survive on caffeine, you’re perpetuating a fatigued workforce who will never be able to give their best.
Parsons’ “DERT model of leadership” reminds leaders to constantly ask themselves, “What am I Demonstrating, Encouraging, Reinforcing and Tolerating that helps or hinders my staff to thrive?”
Quick tips to boost energy and effectiveness:
- Encourage walk and talk meetings.
- Snack on exercise. (The topic of Lauren’s TEDx Talk.)
- Stamp down on late-night working.
- Set up nap pods or recharge rooms and send the message that walking around drained and exhausted is the thing to be frowned upon (not taking your breaks).
- Ensure staff head outdoors for at least 10 minutes to get natural daylight into their retina.
2. Lead like a master gardener
You can’t force plants to grow. They have to do that themselves. A skilled gardener, however, can cultivate the ideal environment and shape the conditions to create the best possible results. Picture growing an orchard as like growing a great team of people. Leaders have the role of master gardeners, helping people flourish so they can perform at their best.
The book outlines 12 keys which contribute to success.
- Light = A clear vision
- Water = Positive feedback and appreciation
- Fertiliser = Coaching feedback
- Stakes = A good induction period
- Training = Systems and professional development
- Wind protection = Psychological safety
- Disease and pest protection = Prevention of bullying and harassment
- Regular weeding = Staying on top of issues
- Pruning = Prioritising
- Space = Autonomy
- Good soil = Your workplace culture
- Orchard layout = Structuring your team
Just as plants need light and water, people need a clear vision to uplift them and regular praise to help them thrive. Trees in an orchard need structure, nurturing, protection and space as they grow and develop. So do team members. Leaders who intentionally cultivate a healthy workplace culture will see the fruits of their labour over the long-term.
3. We need a holistic approach to flourish
Parsons has developed five Live Well Principles which are to:
- UPLIFT your thoughts, to have an attitude of gratitude and focus on what you want.
- NOURISH yourself with whole real food full of nutrients and goodness.
- INVIGORATE your life by integrating things like movement, play and time outdoors.
- STRENGTHEN your body, relationships and resilience.
- RESTORE your body and mind, knowing how to recharge and keep everything in balance.
Within these principles, there are 32 pillars which include things such as elevating self-talk, standing strong, having brave boundaries, staying in rhythm and being present.
4. Are you operating as a Formula One race car or a long-haul truck?
When Parsons’ husband Morrie was deployed in Afghanistan, he lived at a base in the Hindu Kush mountains. The base was powered entirely by generators. While the base was being prepared for winter, he and an electrician were discussing the size of generator required for the increased power consumption. The electrician outlined how critical it was that the generator’s capacity was well above the planned day-to-day operating requirements.
He gave an example that a new 500 kVA generator loaded to 100 per cent of its capacity will at first generate 500 kVA of power. However, if continually loaded to full capacity, that generator’s potential output will degrade dramatically. It’s like putting its working life on fast-forward.
Continuing to load a generator to 100 per cent makes its maximum capacity (those 500 kVA it was designed for) rapidly reduce over time. Very soon, it can only produce 400 kVA, and then 300 kVA and so on. Even when it’s “maxed out”, its new potential output is much lower.
Generators have a sweet spot of around 70 per cent of their total capacity. Keeping them running at or around this point, maximises their potential output over their lifetime. The remaining 30 per cent provides a buffer, allowing for spikes in load if more power is needed in any given moment. These short-term increases aren’t harmful if they’re only brief in nature.
People have a sweet spot too. If you load yourself or your team to 100 per cent almost all the time, you’re likely to degrade your ability to perform. Even (and you could argue especially) high performers need to build buffers into the way they operate to prevent burnout.
Another way to look at this is with engines. Formula One race car engines, which get pushed to their limit, need to be rebuilt after virtually every race. Long-haul truck engines however, which run in their optimum load zone (their sweet spot) may do a million kilometres before being rebuilt or replaced.
The question to ask is, are you or your team running like race cars to see short-term results, or like long-haul trucks to go the distance?
5. Get a clear vision of a thriving workplace
Here’s Parsons’ definition of what thriving workplaces should look like:
Leaders:
- Prioritise their own wellbeing and set a great example for staff with their daily habits.
- Take a human-focused approach and intentionally encourage their team to look after their own wellbeing.
- Are authentic and vulnerable, and skilled at creating a connected, high-trust team environment.
- Know the signs of mental distress and how to respond.
- Are strong communicators, skilled listeners and experienced at catching people doing things right and providing immediate specific praise.
- Don’t tolerate behaviours that undermine individual or team wellbeing.
All staff:
- Are enthused to come to work and enjoy the work environment.
- Workplace habits add to their wellbeing.
- Find work fulfilling, contributing to their sense of purpose and achievement.
- Feel safe, supported, connected and appreciated.
- Are able to get in flow and deliver their best work, then switch out of work mode and enjoy great life balance.
Get your copy of Thriving Leaders, Thriving Teams at all good bookstores, or order your copy from www.ThrivingLeadersThrivingTeams.com
Lauren Parsons is an award-winning Wellbeing Specialist with over 20 years’ experience.
