The secret to enabling high performance and greater wellbeing in the workplace

January 17th, 2022

Ann Collins

“High performance” and “wellbeing” as goals for leaders both for themselves and their teams can feel conflictual.  When high performance means doing more, doing it better and working harder and wellbeing means “time for me”, the tension becomes clear. 

High performance and wellbeing are different sides of the same coin

Redefining what we mean by high performance and wellbeing is a very important part of resolving this tension.  As a first reframe, I would suggest that instead of seeing high performance and wellbeing as conflicting with each other, we seem them as different sides of the same coin.  High performance is not sustainable without wellbeing and for many employees, wellbeing is not possible without feeling one is making a difference and that our work is important: performing well is an essential part of wellbeing in the workplace for many.  Both are required to get excellent and sustainable results.

We know that high levels of trust and communication, a culture that leans into failure for learning and where successes and failures are embraced collaboratively, where people take responsibility and deliver are key characteristics of highly effective teams.   Underneath, there is another layer: the need for self-awareness on the part of leaders and their teams because those key characteristics are not strategies or systems or tactics or the latest IT solution, they are based simply on the capacities of people to be able to relate to each other and be ready to develop.

Self-awareness creates the basis for both high performance and wellbeing

Synonyms in the thesaurus for self-awareness include being mindful, conscious, attentive, and watchful.  This expansion of its meaning is perhaps useful to help us remember that whilst self-awareness is essentially inward-looking, it can be also about looking outwards towards others – by being watchful and attentive.  Essentially, it is not navel-gazing, it is about learning about how we relate to ourselves and others. 

"Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom." Lao Tzu

A growing body of research tells us that "knowing yourself" is key to being an effective leader in terms of performance.  Leading from a place of self-awareness appears to have a dramatic impact on leaders themselves, their wellbeing and effectiveness and on those around them.  Self-aware leaders are reflective, therefore able to self-correct quickly, they take responsibility readily for successes and challenges at a personal and collective level and therefore can move quickly through problems, learning for the future. 

Self-awareness in leadership also has a wider ripple effect: it promotes wellbeing at an individual and team level by encouraging people to know their values, strengths, manage stress better and help others to do the same with higher degrees of empathy and more effective communication. 

Self-awareness and high performance

Studies have asked leaders and their teams to rate their performance to compare their perspectives.  Leaders who showed high levels of self-awareness consistently rated their performance similarly to members of their teams, whether positively or negatively.  This alignment between the leaders and their teams’ views of their effectiveness and performance gives the team a huge advantage: a shared vision of their strengths, weaknesses, and priorities.  We could say that their collective awareness is high.

This suggests that communication is effective and open.  Relationships within the team are therefore likely to be strong with a high level of trust.  They can be creative, agile, and highly productive. 

Self-awareness and wellbeing for leaders and their teams

The impact of self-awareness on wellbeing is well known: people are more able to recognise their emotional responses and those of others, communicate more effectively, listen actively and show empathy and articulate their own feelings and needs.  As a result, they can make decisions that are more aligned with their values and can nurture the mindset and habits that are supportive of their own wellbeing.

The transfer of leaders' personal wellbeing to that of their teams is difficult to measure, however if leaders can form strong relationships with their teams, they have a good starting point from where to help employees to feel visible, heard and to articulate their needs in times of high pressure or stress. 

Working on this base layer seems to make sense as a way forward towards addressing both high performance and wellbeing.  Educating the workforce around the real benefits that personal development can have on leaders themselves, their teams and their results, is a first step.  There is however a visible shift in the way that leaders are articulating their needs in terms of personal and leadership development.  They see that personal development creates the necessary foundation for transformation in their leadership, career and life.

If you’re interested in finding out more about how to leverage your own self-awareness for your own planning for this year, why not join us for our one-hour free coaching webinar on January 24th?  I’ll be showing you how to reflect critically on your personal development, how to set goals for 2022 that will challenge you in your personal development and how to make sure that they happen. 

To reserve your place: www.anncollinscoaching.com/events

Email: bluebottlecoaching@gmail.com

If you are interested in executive or leadership development coaching for you or your company, do get in touch to talk about your requirements: book a call here.