How Do We Build Wellbeing and Resilience and Why Does It Matter To Organisations?

Investing in mental health is not just ethical; it's economical. Deloitte's report (Deloitte, 2019) reveals that for every £1 spent on mental health interventions, employers see an average return of £5. Tackling issues like presenteeism, where employees work while unwell, not only improves well-being but also boosts productivity and innovation. By addressing mental health proactively, businesses can create happier, more efficient workplaces and see significant financial returns. 

Delving into the core of our wellbeing, Gallup's research unfolds the five key pillars that form the bedrock of a fulfilled life. In this blog, we'll uncover the elements essential to both our wellbeing and resilience, enabling us to thrive through uncertainty and lead with strength and compassion. 

5 Key Pillars of Wellbeing 

What builds our wellbeing? @Gallup's extensive research across 150 countries has distilled wellbeing into five essential elements: 

🧘‍♂️ Physical Wellbeing: It's the foundation that fuels our energy and vitality. What do we do to look after ourselves physically? How could we be more active during the day? What would work for you in small ways (eg walking a bit more) and bigger ways (finding some physical activity you enjoy)?  

🤝 Social Wellbeing: Our relationships are lifelines. Who are the people who energise, and drain us? How can we nurture meaningful connections at home and at work? 

💡 Financial Wellbeing: Financial security is a stress buffer. This relates to both earning enough (whatever that means for us) and having financial security.  How do we manage our finances to reduce anxiety and provide a sense of stability? 

🎯 Community Wellbeing: Feeling part of a community gives us a sense of belonging, and evidence shows that giving to others and volunteering builds our wellbeing. Showing compassion helps us feel good too. How can we engage further in our community? 

🌱 Career Wellbeing: Loving what you do each day is the ultimate career goal. That way it doesn’t feel so much like work.  This is something that drives me as a coach. How much does your role use your strengths - and passions? What could you change about your day-to-day to make your role more enjoyable? If you’re a manager, how can you support your team to identify and use their strengths at work. 

Resilience is not just about you endure, it’s about how you recharge 

We often hear the word ‘bounce-back’ to describe resilience. For me, this term oversimplifies things, implying a quick return to how things were. For some things we can. For other events it take much longer, eg grief, long-term stress, health issues etc. The term resilience comes from material science, and is the capacity of a substance or object to spring back into shape, that sense of elasticity.  Often after a tough time, we sense we have re-found our shape and yet are also different. We’ve grown, increased our perspective, become more pragmatic and a bit stronger. 

Other aspects of resilience include: 

• Becoming strong enough to live with uncertainty and ambiguity 

• Learning to grow, not crumble, through adversity.  

There are two aspects to resilience - physical and emotional. I often think of them in terms of energy in a battery. Sometimes we’re ‘full’, with plenty of energy and ready to take on the world. Other times we’re on ‘empty’, hanging on by a thread.  

That’s why I love this phrase, ‘Resilience is not just about how we endure, it’s about how we recharge.’ I can only keep going if I do the things that recharge me, physically and emotionally. This involves being physically active, spending time with friends and family (and on my own), and getting enough sleep. 

Questions to consider: 

• How do you recharge physically and emotionally - during and after the working day?  

• What gets in the way? How can you reduce these barriers? 

• If you lead a team, how can you encourage your team to recharge? 

Building Emotional Resilience 

Emotional resilience means:

• the ability to recover from set-backs 

• the strength live with uncertainty 

• and learning to grow, not crumble, through adversity 

So how can we do this? 

📷 Develop a sense of perspective. This takes time! Imagine using a camera lens: from your viewpoint, how does the situation appear? Now, consider how it might look from the opposite perspective. What might others see, and in what ways could their view be valid? Extend this analogy by thinking long-term, like using a 'longer camera lens' – will this matter in 6 months? If not, perhaps it's not worth the worry now. 

🎈 Practice being in the moment. Rather than dwelling on the past or future, focus on the now. What activities help you achieve this? Whether it's sports, time with loved ones, or being fully engaged in your work, find what absorbs you completely and make time for it. 

🧘 Meditation can aid in this practice. It's not about emptying your mind but about acknowledging the thoughts and emotions that flow through it, creating a healthy distance from them. Check out this short carton clip for more insights.

👻 Be aware of FEAR - False Evidence Appearing Real. Do you tend to expect the worst? It's a common tendency. Challenge these thoughts by examining the evidence and considering alternative perspectives. 

🎾 Practice makes perfect, just like altering thought patterns. Novak Djokovic says, ‘It takes more than one sit-up to make a six pack.’ This holds true for mindfulness and is a metaphor for personal growth. Persist in this practice, and research indicates that the neural pathways in your brain will adapt! 

Building resilience is a very common theme in leadership training and lea coaching. If you’d like an informal chat to find out more please send me a message. I’d love to hear from you.

Kate Jennings