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How Leader Well-being Impacts Productivity
As leaders, we are always looking for ways to boost productivity: both our own and within our organizations.
But while it’s easy to look to time management skills or carrot and stick approaches, we are missing out on the impact that well-being has on productivity: both mental and physical. When we are WELL, we do better work, find it easier to manage our workload, and see our productivity improve.
Dr. T went LIVE on February 14th, 2024 to take you through some exciting research on how mindfulness and movement in the workplace impacts more than just the individuals participating…the whole organization becomes healthier, bottom line included.
Watch the full recording if you want the details, and check below for three reasons your team should take care of your people’s wellbeing.
#1: Meditation has ripple effects in the workplace on both your people AND your KPIs
Your wellbeing impacts your people, and your organization’s performance. To test this ripple effect, one multinational manufacturing corporation trained just 5% of their leadership in a focused attention meditation and had them practice together daily for 3 months. The REST of the employees were completely unaware of the study.
Surprisingly (or unsurprisingly) the non-meditating workforce noted improvements in measures of their own depression, anger, and the extent to which emotional problems interfered with their work.
And if that weren’t enough, the organization’s productivity and quality control metrics improved during that quarter (compared to the previous quarter and year), even setting a company record for revenue per hour worked during that time. Remember, this was with only 5% of the workforce training their mental well-being. Imagine the impact if 10%, 20%, even 50% of the workforce were engaged in their own emotional health.
When company leaders invest in their own wellbeing, the results trickle into their entire organization.
#2: Mindfulness solves the most difficult challenges that managers face
Studies have shown that the most stressful aspects in managerial roles are: personal organization, task prioritization, personal relationships, and managing other’s emotions. In this study, after training experienced managers in mindfulness-based stress reduction:
- 64% of the managers found they were more efficient, better able to organize their work and prioritize their tasks
- 45% of the managers were better able to listen to their team, to pause before reacting, and to professionally communicate in conflict
- 64% of managers reported being less stressed, less on edge, and better able to relax
These improvements were directly related to the most important and stressful features of managerial work. Good leaders simply cannot afford to have managers who are operating in a constantly reactive or overwhelmed state. Longevity is the goal, mindfulness is the path.
#3: Just 1 hour of movement during the work week decreases your peoples pain and improves their productivity.
As a leader, productivity is top of mind, but are you daring enough to risk an hour of work time weekly to help your people? One study suggests that for the betterment of your organization, you should. A group of Danish researchers ran 15 different exercise trials in all sorts of workers: manual laborers, technicians, office workers, dentists, etc.
They concluded that when leaders allowed their people to use one hour of work time per week to exercise on site (split into a few days of 20-30 min sessions), it cut people’s pain levels nearly IN HALF.
And NONE of the 15 trials found a decrease in on-the-job performance. In fact, in some of the trials, there was an 8% INCREASE in productivity
Exercise is more than just medicine. It’s a competitive advantage.
Remember, YOUR self care and YOUR health are your competitive advantage, granting you improved energy, longevity, and ability to calmly handle the hard hits that come with any career.
How to dive deeper?
At Movement Rx, we are in the business of creating teams that lead and work better from a place of wellbeing. Because if you don’t make time for your wellbeing now, you’ll have to make time for disease later.
We’re leading an immersive and freeing weekend designed to help you take back control of your time and re-focus on what’s actually important to you: your wellbeing.