Be Well Lead Well® Newsletter

Shared purpose is a powerful tool for team thriving and effectiveness. Just like your body’s connective tissue provides the framework and support structures for your muscles, bones, organs, joints, and other tissues, a deeply-held purpose is akin to connective tissue for your team. A shared purpose aligns your team members toward a clear mission of success, giving the team a strong sense of collective identity and coherence. It adds meaning and significance to your team’s work. It contributes to healthy team bonds, happy and engaged team members, and a positive work culture. Plus, an inspiring shared purpose energizes people on your team to accomplish something worthwhile together that they cannot do alone. A Shared Purpose has a Hidden Power—Yet, It May Not Be What You Think A shared purpose is one of an array of essential factors for building a team that thrives by design, not just by chance. (You can access in-depth insights about the other essential factors for a thriving team here.) When your team actively uses a purpose to steer its decisions and actions, that purpose has a hidden power which is more important than ever: It is an existential fuel to help people stay cognitively flexible,…

The pandemic caused an existential crisis for countless companies and employees. Yet, it also revealed that mental and emotional health and wellbeing is a business imperative. Recent studies show: Investing in the wellbeing of people pays off in increased employee productivity, customer engagement, company profitability, and stock market returns. In our post-pandemic world of work, many companies have become serious about making human thriving a new standard of success. As our team at Wisdom Works advises these companies, we realize there is a long way to go. A 2023 Gallup report across Germany, France, United Kingdom, the U.S.A., and other countries highlights that only one in four employees strongly feel their organization cares about their wellbeing. Leaders are struggling, too. When we implement Be Well Lead Well Pulse®, our assessment measuring 19 science-based factors of human thriving and stress resilience, the results are sobering: Leaders who report lower mental and emotional wellbeing also report less abilities to energize their teams, maximize the effectiveness and growth of people, and cultivate a collaborative work environment. Overstressed, imbalanced, depleted leaders don’t make the best decisions for their teams and organizations (or themselves.) Fortunately, a growing momentum of organizations recognize a thriving culture and…

“Who are you uninterrupted?” That question stopped me in my tracks. It was raised by Zee Clark during a webinar panel Wisdom Works recently hosted to explore what it means to thrive as a Black leader in today’s workplaces. Formerly a leader in Fortune 500 companies, Zee is a breathwork and resilience expert, plus author of the groundbreaking book Black People Breathe. Her question calls us to consider the deep sense of thriving that’s possible within ourselves when we aren’t interrupted by the biases and pressures of workplaces that don’t understand and embrace who we are. During the webinar, our esteemed panel shared many visible and invisible roadblocks that erode the thriving and effectiveness of Black leaders. Four of those barriers are:   1. The Narrow Lens Pigeonholing Black Leaders Corporate refrains to “bring your authentic self to work” are a farce if they don’t allow people to show up authentically. This means honoring: Every person brings a diversity of joys, struggles, backgrounds, traumas, and talents to work. Yet, Aaronde Creighton, Chief Diversity Officer at the Leadership Circle, stated Black people are too often seen through a narrow lens. “Black people are not a monolith. Because of an experience a…