Leading Well: A Monthly Blog for Developing as A Wellness Leader

Your beliefs matter as a wellness leader. In some of the leadership training I use to conduct around communication styles and team dynamics, I often discussed the Ladder of Inference. I would explain that often times events happen. These events can be viewed rather objectively as a camera would see. It’s just that we, as humans, infuse those events with interpretations, and often times those interpretations are based on limited data. We move up this ladder in a matter or mere seconds, and often don’t even realize that we do it. But its why we find ourselves reacting sometimes. Its why misunderstanding can result.

The brain looks to patterns in the past and fills in the details. Those patterns are influenced by our values, our emotions and our beliefs. Beliefs are powerful in shaping how we view life. A belief is where you focus your attention. And what you focus on you attract more of. You see a belief puts energy and even willpower on the thought.

Ultimately our beliefs shape our realities

In coaching and in leadership we often talk about a fixed or growth mindset. A fixed mindset is one where you believe your basic abilities, our intelligence and talents are just fixed traits. What you are given is essentially what you have to work with. In these scenarios your locus of control is outside of yourself. It rests with things outside of your control. Whereas a growth mindset is one where your talents and abilities can be developed. You can grow and adapt. Skills can be learned and mastered, challenges can be overcome. In these cases, your locus of control resides within yourself. These are in fact beliefs. Which mindset is more empowering? Is there a mindset that invites more possibility into your life and leadership? Is one mindset more limiting? Can you see how these shape not only your life but your work?

Our Beliefs Impact Everything

What we believe can impact things like wellness or illness, or even our longevity. Do you believe you are more prone to a condition, that its inevitable that you will get it because someone in your family did? Or do you believe that you have a say in your health and that if you take certain steps you will stay healthy. Can you opt out of the possibility of illness and opt-in to health and wellbeing? Or longevity, how long do you think you will live? Again, is that set by genetics and family members? Or is that based on lifestyle choices you control. How you handle change, even your satisfaction and trust in our relationships are all driven by your beliefs. Your beliefs even shape how you lead. In essence your beliefs shape every aspect of your work and life

Beliefs as a Wellness Leader

Beliefs play a role in you being a wellness leader. You trust that a healthier future is possible for not only you, but for you team, in your workplace. And as a wellness leader, the opportunities for you to affect wellness are endless. Do you want to focus improving mental health, protecting our environment, clean energy or launch a healthy eating or mindfulness program or just run healthy meetings? This month it’s worth considering your beliefs and what they impact in your life, in your wellness and your leadership.

1) Examine your beliefs.

Consider what beliefs may be at play. Are they valid, or they perhaps outdated? In particular focus on beliefs you have about wellness. Start with whether you see a fixed or growth mindset at play in your life? Some of our beliefs depends on what sort of world you think this is. You see the world as inherently good or a dangerous place? These beliefs shape how you view and approach problems, solutions and even what you deem to be possible. A coach, whether through individual or group coaching is skilled at helping you look at your beliefs. But a trusted friend can also work to help you examine your beliefs. Journaling some of these questions is also another avenue to help explore your underlying beliefs and whether they are working for you or against you and your goals.

2) Develop your own personal wellness moonshot.

Before you can lead others, you first need to lead yourself. What is your own personal wellness moonshot? To avoid a lifestyle-related disease, diseases which are inherently preventable? Or to balance work and life so you can live a life you love? Maybe it’s to champion a cause, such as the environment or a cure for a disease that affects or affected a loved one? Whatever it is, you can craft your very own wellness moonshot. How does this guide your decisions and actions going forward? Are they in line with your personal moonshot or not? It can be eye-opening to see that day-to-day we are not living aligned to our bigger goals. How we live and work are too often designed for unwellness rather vitality. Simply aligning more of your day-to-day actions can create positive momentum in your life. For me, my personal wellness moonshot is about bringing wellness into the workplace, specifically with respect to wellness for leadership and professional development, addressing burnout and making wellness sabbatical policies more commonplace.

3) As a Wellness Leader

How can you lead wellness within your team and at your organization? Maybe to take a moment to practice a centering breath at the start the of a meeting. Or perhaps look at the project lifecycle and find opportunities to build renewal into the lifecycle so that team members don’t burnout on the project. Other opportunities could be sponsoring a workshop or training in the workplace around workplace wellness topics. Or establishing walking meetings rather than keeping people seated all day. Again, the opportunities are endless to help to influence wellness in the workplace.

4) An organizational wellness moonshot

Is there something to tackle at the organizational level or a moonshot that the organization wants to accomplish? Perhaps this could be a product or service that prevents disease or enables wellness. If that is not the focus of the organization then maybe it is supporting something within the community such as partnerships for community wellness programs. Also consider the organization’s culture. Does is support wellness. Again, oftentimes culture and systemic behaviors and expectations support illness rather than vitality. Does everyone at your organization work through lunch? Is it expected that people will check email while on vacation? What organizational wellness moonshot might your organization want to develop?

Summary

Beliefs play a powerful role in shaping how we view the world. As wellness leader, your thoughts and beliefs affect not just you, but those you lead. This month it’s worth considering your beliefs as they relate to wellness and see how you can better align your beliefs with your wellness goals, personally and for the teams and organizations you are part of. I am an Ambassador of the Global Wellness Institute and this blog series on Wellness Leadership is based on their Wellness Moonshot. An initiative to rid the world of preventable diseases.