And the benefits do not stop when you leave the workplace, either. Typically, individuals will reap the dividends of brighter mood and enhanced energy in their personal relationships, too. It’s unlikely that anyone close to you will complain about your transformation into a better balanced and altogether happier person.
Occupational Hazards
I have worked with a wide range of organizations around the world and interacted with individuals in varied settings and all levels of seniority – from graduate trainees to CEOs and successful entrepreneurs. Perhaps the most common fundamental issue that my clients express to me is that their performance is, at times, considerably lower than they would like and feel they are capable of. Many people have a sense that they could do more and be more effective – they’re just not sure how.
For some people, though, the issues are more acute. They may feel devitalized and swamped with work. A significant minority, no matter how hard they try, feel perpetually ‘off the pace’ in terms of the jobs they need to do. Work can somehow bleed (or haemorrhage) into personal time, including the evenings, weekends and holidays. All the while, this quite relentless nature of work can leave individuals feeling short of both time and energy.
Ultimately, the quality and quantity of their output tends to suffer, which usually adds to the stress and only compounds the problem. Now blighted by fatigue, some people can struggle to stay afloat and conclude the way they live and work is completely unsustainable. Ultimately, some decide it’s all too much for them and it’s time to go. For others, their organization makes that decision for them. I’ve seen the careers of many very talented and experienced professionals end unnecessarily prematurely in this way.
The cost here is not purely personal, of course. When individuals underperform, this has impact on the business too. ‘Going off sick’ is a potential consequence here, but this is the mere tip of the iceberg. My experience tells me that absenteeism is a relatively confined problem, especially at senior levels within an organization. Much more of an issue, though, can be ‘presenteeism’: essentially, people enduring long working days consumed with ‘busyness’, but at the same time simply not getting the results they, and maybe others, expect.
This sort of underperformance saps an organization’s productivity, which inevitably knocks on to revenues and profitability. This can eat into the bottom line, as will the increased costs relating to staff turnover: many organizations have considerable people ‘churn’, and substantial sums can be spent recruiting and training replacements. Healthcare costs associated with wellness issues can be a significant financial drain, too.
All organizations need to justify the resources they put into learning and development. It’s clear, though, that whatever is spent on making tangible improvements to the wellness, effectiveness and sustainability of its people pales into insignificance compared to the cost of not making this investment.
Opportunities Knocked
Another major unseen cost of impaired performance and ‘unwellness’ relates to missed opportunities. When vitality is depleted, fewer calls are made and emails sent, and less creative thinking and planning may go into, say, product development or service improvement. The acquisition and retention of clients and customers can be similarly neglected.
If you pitch for business, not being fully on top of your game or appearing ‘spent’ will do little to inspire confidence in your prospective customers. The inability to be mentally agile and spontaneous in your thinking won’t help matters, either. The winning or losing of work can sometimes come down to very small margins, and if a client does not have complete confidence in those doing the selling, it can cost you (and your business) dearly.
Also, if you are in a position of some seniority, then it’s inevitable that some will look to you as a role model. If you appear ‘bent out of shape’ to your junior colleagues, what sort of message might they take from that? I’ve worked with human resource professionals who tell me they have serious sustainability issues in their organization because increasing numbers of staff look at the sort of lives senior colleagues lead and decide it’s just not for them.
Of course, in the age of the internet, word is out about the organizations that are best avoided if one wants to enjoy a rewarding career and a decent quality of life. If an organization gains a reputation for driving its people ever harder, without giving much back, this can make recruiting top talent that more challenging (and costly).
Taking Care of Business
Of course, the reverse is also true, and I have worked with organizations that use the fact that they provide wellness and performance programmes for their people as a major selling point in the recruiting process. Some organizations even ‘advertise’ these initiatives to their clients. After all, the fact that an organization takes steps to support its people in meaningful ways only helps to convince clients that this is a company with whom they should do business.
Occasionally, some will go a step further and invite existing or prospective clients onto wellness programmes they sponsor. This endeavour provides value and meaning to people in a way that eclipses traditional corporate hospitality and the finest of dining.
One such delegate was the CEO of an international public company, who came as the guest of one of my corporate clients. The usual stresses and strains of running a sprawling, shareholder-owned company, coupled with an insane travel schedule, had led to some fatigue and wellbeing issues, as well as an ever-expanding waistline.
Inspired by what he learned on the programme, he changed some behaviours and found his lost energy was quickly restored. As an added bonus, he shed over 35 pounds in weight without any additional exercise or cutting back at all on business lunches or dinners. In a few short months, his diminishing proportions had required him to twice renew his wardrobe. While costly, he did not begrudge a penny of this additional expense. So changed was he by the experience that he sponsored a wellness programme for his own executive board.
This particular CEO’s experience is not by any means extraordinary, either – it’s typical. Again, all that is usually required to make a tangible difference to someone’s wellbeing and how they feel and function is some small but targeted changes in key areas. Many of the strategies in this book are simple and easy to apply, yet they pack considerable punch.
It was actually some significant personal benefits gained from some simple self-applied strategies that inspired me to shift my focus from conventional medicine to approaches that can transform wellbeing and health.
All Change
When I was a young hospital doctor, I had a pressing problem with fatigue. Some sleep deprivation no doubt contributed to this, but even when I snoozed my sleep debt away I felt I lacked the zip someone in his mid-twenties should have. In particular, I would find my energy levels were highly variable, and I was prone to catastrophic ‘energy crises’ at certain times. A major danger time for me was the mid to late afternoon: often at around 4 p.m., I would feel the life drain out of me. Sometimes, I would even struggle to stay awake.
It’s perhaps easy to imagine that these symptoms were the inevitable consequence of the often hectic schedule I worked back then. But, in truth, my unreliable energy and afternoon slumps started many years before I ever set foot on a hospital ward in a professional capacity. When I look back, I remember regularly ‘zoning out’ during lectures and tutorials while at medical school. However, it was when I started work as a doctor that my deflating energy became much more evident and inconvenient.
Seeing a long list of people in an outpatients’ clinic can be challenging at the best of times, but it was made infinitely harder when my overriding desire was to lie down on the examination couch in the corner of the room and go to sleep. Even in the operating theatre, I remember occasionally having to press hard with the heel of one foot on the toes of the other just to spark some life into my wilting body.
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