Wellbeing : A Leadership Legacy
In today’s world, leaders are no longer protected by privacy and anonymity. They are more visible than ever, and so are their actions, opinions and leadership moves. This creates an enormous and positive opportunity for leaders to show up for their employees and build a leadership legacy that lasts.
Younger generations are demanding leaders who care about people and planet over (or as much as) profit.
“Strength” is experiencing a critical renaissance, changing ever so slowly from command-and-control to empathy, compassion and showing emotion.
Most employees want to feel valued and cared for, especially after a tumultuous few years of global strife and anxiety. In fact, companies in high stress, low leadership industries spend nearly 50% more on healthcare costs due to sick employees.
According to research from Stanford University, one of the top ten variables that negatively effects employee wellbeing is perceived unfair decision-making at the top.
According to our research at W3RKWELL, the extent to which a company enjoys wellbeing culture (WC) or one that experiences consistent health and performance decline (HPD) begins at the top — or, in the case below, to the left.
Leadership sets the stage for the direction of their company culture. Executives and founders who invest in psychological safety and equity create cultures that foster meaningful connections, which, when integrated with intentional autonomy, completes the recipe for growth and higher performance (just add training-to-fluency and clear metrics).
Leaders who wait on these investments in their people — or worse, who exhibit negative behavior — create environments of stress. This daily stress contributes to employees’ allostatic load, or “the cumulative burden of stress”, which can have serious health consequences. If employees experience this daily, unavoidable stress for long enough, they enter burnout. Burnout is a diagnosable condition that comes with costs to the company’s bottom line and reputation, not to mention the personal and professional life of the employee.
You’re a leader who cares about their people and the legacy they leave behind. So, now what?
Consider the checklist below as a starting point:
Leadership Starter Checklist
Are transparent systems in place to ensure that everyone, especially leadership, is held accountable for their actions?
Do hiring and promotion metrics visibly outline qualifications for leadership roles, and do those metrics include measurable acts of empathy, value-alignment and service to others?
Has your company developed systems to remove those who exhibit toxic or unethical behaviors in a zero tolerance policy?
Behavior trickles down — good, bad and ugly — and by putting formal procedures into place, you can better ensure that future leaders will possess the values and behaviors your employees want and need, instead of repeating ineffective, harmful behaviors from years (or leaders) past.
Leadership is one of nine culture categories assessed within our flagship assessment. It is designed to seek out unique variables rarely found in typical corporate evaluations to provide insight beyond the traditional. For more information, schedule a call to speak with our team about how former clients have used this tool.
