Do you want increased productivity?

Then be a Healthy Leader!

A question I am often asked – how to incentivise my team to improve performance and productivity – the Holy Grail of business objectives. Put another way; how do I increase profits with my existing staff?

I know this may seem pedantic with regards to the use of words, but semantics matter. The people that work within an organisation are not owned by that organisation (my staff), and together they form the team that make it tick – they display the culture that you, as a leader, unconsciously or consciously set by your values and behaviours. If the team is not performing to your expectations what is it that you, as a leader, are doing, or perhaps more importantly are not doing?

As a Healthy Leader you would be acutely aware of the prevailing culture, because you care about the people working in your company. Care in its broadest context refers to the health and wellbeing of the team; be that emotional (mental health) or physical (environment and activity). This often reads like a “nice to have” list, but not essential. I would suggest that by caring for the team across a broader spectrum, health and wellbeing will deliver long term financial benefits far in excess of your investment.

We only need to look at the information from the Office of National Statistics (ONS); the UK has not fared well with regard to employee engagement and productivity. The ONS state that during 2015, UK workforces were 31% less productive than those of the US and 17% less productive than the rest of the G7 countries, and in 2012 only two in five employees were working at peak performance. This is despite employees in the UK working similar hours to these regions. Failure to unlock discretionary effort in employees costs UK business £6 billion. Productivity goes up as a consequence of higher engagement – greater work satisfaction and happiness in the role.

How do I become a Healthy Leader?

It won’t happen overnight, but once you cross the Rubicon you will never want to go back to where you were before! I am a fan of best practice and often make reference to sporting excellence as the ideal benchmark to follow; if you spent 6mins watching Sir David Brailsford talking about CORE principles (https://www.thepositiveencourager.global/c-core-approach-achieving-excellence/) it will provide you with a flavour of how being a Healthy Leader will help you to lead the way.

One last point – you don’t need to wave money under someone’s nose to incentivise them; it tends not to work and brings more problems than solutions. Watch Dan Pink explain why in 10mins