Despite the compelling evidence that neglecting our well-being has serious consequences, many professionals still struggle to do more about work-life balance. Several studies have shown that the pandemic has put enormous pressure on working people. Workers who work from home are spending longer at their desks and facing greater workloads than before the pandemic hit. What does it take to free your team from unhealthy patterns and achieve a more sustainable, rewarding work-life balance? Here are our 3 tips.
Add it to the calendar
The first step is to create a safe space for your team to talk about wellness. Start by adding it to the weekly team meeting agenda and highlighting its importance. It can be a little tricky at first – switching from the usual work topics to topics that are traditionally seen as more personal in nature – so start sharing your vulnerabilities yourself. Once you start talking and acknowledging each other's challenges, it quickly creates a new sense of openness and empathy, and discussions become the new norm for your team.
Share your own experiences
If you want people to prioritize their well-being, you have to demonstrate that you do it. What are you doing to take better care of your well-being? Maybe you've quit alcohol and caffeine, or you're setting some time in your calendar to exercise. Share your experiences with your employees. Exposing yourself will reveal common issues such as overthinking, constant media coverage of bad news, work-life balance, lack of personal growth or self-confidence.
Make wellbeing a group effort Jointly decide to create an online whiteboard where the team can post issues, topics and questions and share what they are doing to improve their well-being. By creating a virtual whiteboard, the more reserved members of the team can see what others are sharing before contributing or adding their own content.
The whiteboard allows you to offer practical strategies to help alleviate problems. The team helps each other by posting links to resources, articles they've read, or great content that helps them relieve stress and free up more time for themselves. Having the items on a shared board also allows you to see how the people are doing and keep the conversation going. By putting wellbeing conversations on the agenda, being vulnerable and sharing tactics and strategies, wellbeing becomes a priority.
