How can team leaders create a healthy work environment?

I was recently chatting with a communications director for a global company. They’re building a brand-new team and asked for my thoughts on best practices to keep up team morale. They’re concerned about their team burning out, and they want to do what they can to ensure they are showing their team that they are prioritizing their well-being. I recommended to them, and you, to develop a workplace wellness charter. If you’re a team of one or a team of 10, you need a set of norms that help set boundaries around work expectations. Such a charter is a short document and shouldn’t be more than one page.

Fostering a conscious culture of wellbeing in your workplace helps team members feel empowered to prioritise their wellbeing. Creating a workplace culture that champions employee wellbeing requires a thoughtful integration of mental health initiatives, meaningful connections between colleagues, flexible work arrangements, and support networks.

Leaders must recognise the out-size impact they have on their teams' wellbeing. A recent study by The Workforce Institute surveyed 3,400 people across ten countries, revealing some eye-opening findings about the role of managers: ? 60% of employees say their job is the biggest factor influencing their mental health. ? Managers have an equal impact on mental health as spouses (69%) and more than doctors (51%) or therapists (41%).

One of the most important things leaders can do to encourage self-care and well-being is to do self-care for their own well-being. Our followers look to us to model the desired behavior. As such, they need to see us practicing these important steps. That tells them that it's not only okay to do so, it encourages them to do so. Remember that great quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "What you do speaks so loudly, I cannot hear what you say." Make sure they see you doing the right thing, and they'll follow suit.

We often look to our direct managers as a model for how we should function professionally. Your new directs will look at every move you make, including: Are you sending emails late at night and over weekends? Are you joining conference calls while on vacation? Are you even taking a vacation? Are you scheduling meetings just to schedule meetings? Modeling the behavior as one who prioritizes their well-being will show your team the right path forward and ultimately help retain your team members who otherwise might burn out and want to leave the company. See this new role as an opportunity to establish a best practice to protect your and your team’s well-being.

When I ran agency account teams, I made time to talk to my teams often about their current role, what they are interested in doing, and how that mapped to the goals of the agency. Based on their feedback we did what we could to make sure their career trajectory was a fit for the client and the firm. As a result, that meant shuffling around responsibilities, creating brand-new roles, or finding opportunities for team members to work on other account teams. More than anything, the team members appreciated that their careers were being thought about first. Host 30-60 minute conversations with your team members every six months specifically focused on their role and how it ladders up to their career ambitions.

It’s crucial to monitor stress levels within your team/organisation on a regular basis. That way you know whether the support measures you are putting in place are actually effective in reducing stress. It’s also important to survey employees about their main sources of stress. Employers and managers often shy away from doing this because they worry about what the results might reveal. But I’m my opinion that’s no excuse! Asking your employees about what causes them stress at work shows you are genuinely concerned and committed to doing something about it. The data produced also shows you where you need to make change.