Recently, Project Resource Partners were fortunate enough to have Melbourne Wellness founder, Jack de Leeuw present our most recent virtual workshop: How Personal Wellbeing Builds Performance. Given the events of the past 18 months, and even with the changes that will come with our new found Melbourne freedoms, looking after our personal wellbeing has never been more important. 

Jack’s presentation provided us insight into how looking after our personal wellbeing, can ensure we are best placed to ensure our performance and that of our teams is as close to optimal as possible. In doing this Jack discussed what we mean by personal wellbeing, how it effects our personal performance and what influences it in the workplace. He then looked at practical steps that we can take to improve our personal wellbeing and how it can support team performance. 

These are my top takeaways from what was an enlightening and informative workshop. The key takeaway though for me is that a lot of what is required is not complicated or new, and at its core relates to looking after what we eat, what we drink and our sleep. Yes, there’s more, but those three things can have a great impact on us, and it doesn’t mean to say that we aren’t allowed treats thrown in as well!

1. Dodge, Daly, Hayton and Saunders in 2012 determined that wellbeing is a balancing act between our resources and the challenges that we face. Resources challenges physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual, and we need to work to keep these in balance.
2. Research tells us that by ensuring the wellbeing of our staff, we can increase productivity, engagement, and satisfaction, leading to a far healthier workplace.
3. Wellbeing has three parts and it is important to recognise the importance of all three: psychological, which supports how well we manage stress and relates to our personality; physical, which is our wellness and looks at nutrition, movement, hydration and recovery; and social, which is our connectedness.
4. It’s important to note that it is very difficult to separate work and life, so rather than work life balance, we are looking for life balance and that is something that is an individuals responsibility, but companies can support and educate us on this. There needs to be a wholistic approach.
5. Everything is connected, from our inner self to outer self or physical being to our connected self, and if any part of that is out of balance, just a little bit then it can impact our ability to manage stress.
6. That said not all stress is bad, and in fact we need some stress to be able to achieve our highest levels of performance, but what we have to be able to do is manage that stress, and as a business, ensure that our people are supported to be able to manage their stress levels, so they remain performance enhancing.
7. Within work there are several levers that are available to us where we can impact wellbeing is a positive manner. These include the context; such as job design and reward, leadership; do we align with company values and purpose, culture; is it aligned, relationships; are our conversations real and authentic, and management; is it respectful and empowering.
8. One thing that can have a real impact is how leaders demonstrate wellbeing themselves. Do they set boundaries? Do they send emails late at night? Do they take mindfulness breaks? It’s important to think about your actions and how they can influence those working for you.
9. Some of the key things that people look for from their leadership teams in terms of dealing with them, are that they are capable, respectful and give autonomy.
10. The key takeaway for me though was that it is the very simple things that make the biggest difference in the quickest time. Am I getting enough sleep? Am I hydrated? Is my diet whole foods and balanced, or processed food and fats? Am I getting enough exercise? Am I putting in mindfulness breaks?

So yes, there are things that an organisation can do to support personal wellbeing, and they will help improve performance, but as individuals it is something that we need to be aware of, and know we can have an impact on very quickly if we need to. To find out more about this topic please visit melbournewellness.com.au.

I’ve also included the recording from this workshop for your viewing pleasure: