Wellness At Work: Grand Slam Boxing with the SPIRIT team

On a sunny Friday morning, April the 20th, the team from SPIRIT's Shanghai office gathered together in the center of a sports field, in the middle of Xuhui. Why did we get every department to congregate here on a workday? (including my most diligent account manager whose left arm, by the way, is still in a cast), why did I bother to meet them outside of work? and why did I agree to let one of them punch me?

Well, it’s because business is about people and if you don't understand people, you don’t understand business.

The first thing I make very clear when I’m consulting or speaking about Employee Engagement is that people are assets. Bottom-lines don’t fluctuate at random, they’re determined by the level of resonance an employee has with the company’s objectives and by their quality of engagement.

People design strategies, people execute them and its people who deliver the numbers, so it’s always people first for me - that's how I choose to lead.

Forward-thinking companies today are turning conventional business planning on its head to deal with people as “valuable human capital”. This is the reason why Wellness is now being recognized as the third metric of success in business and this is why SPIRIT's Shanghai team was out of the office and on a sports field on a workday. It was SPIRIT’s very own Employee Engagement session!

Helmed by our Wellness Program Designer, Sihao Kuo, the program was a much needed mental, physical and social recharge that covered the following:

Energy Renewal

We started off with an intense warm-up, which exploited all physical energy reserves of the team. Contrary to common understanding, physical exertion in the right amount won’t deplete one’s energy but will support in energy renewal and increase work capacity - which in effect increases productivity and engagement for employees who mentally and physically flatline at work.

Mind Management

The warm-up was followed with an extended recovery phase that focussed on posture practice and a form of mental gymnastics (SPERA technique) which is customized to train the mind for focus, cognitive awareness, internal balance and optimize one’s attitude for performance.

Boxing serves as a great training ground for developing mental strength - especially to train the mind to focus at will and relax in spite of adrenaline rushes - which is key to combating attention deficits, emotional distractions, and stress at work.

Social Integration

Next, teams are created for practice based on recorded diagnostics (The SPIRIT Checkup) to maximize interpersonal support and social integration- for example, based on personality, individuals with strong leadership qualities were paired with individuals whose results indicated very low levels of engagement and connectivity.

To circle back, we covered all the bases and practiced the jabs, the hooks, and the undercuts, which was 80% mental work. Putting it all together, the program provided a holistic boost of energy, that activated us mentally, physically and socially. I could easily spot the difference in the team’s energy levels, connectivity, and enthusiasm.

Even the more reticent members were now actively engaged and coming up to me. Although, this only occurs when the workforce is given the right environment to elevate their engagement.

Personally, I believe the role of a leader has evolved to require each one of us to create and sustain the perfect habitat where actively engaged employees can thrive. Like any CEO, I have a whirlpool of commitments, meetings and appointments that keep me away from the office, but this is where I choose to smartly invest my most limited resource - my time - because I know it can yield long-term benefits and returns. So, if this requires me to get punched, I’m all for it!

Getting punched in the name of core strengthening isn’t much of a cost if in return you can create an exchange of authentic trust. By trust, I’m not talking about mere reliability, like when we talk about whether someone is reliable enough to report on time and deliver. I’m talking about creating a space in the workplace in which an employee feels empowered enough to explore, take risks, fail and most importantly take initiative - this is what takes a company forward.

?I believe creating this space is my real work and SPIRIT is the name I give to this endeavor. SPIRIT's mission to create a world-wide awakening in Wellness & Engagement is a grand one but it's also personal because I believe that fundamentally every person has the right to wake up looking forward to their Mondays. I know that I do!

So, I’d say our engagement session for the team was extremely rewarding, as all this energy and enthusiasm actually followed us back to the workplace. I couldn’t ask for more! By the way, in case you were concerned, I’m actually an avid boxing enthusiast and I've trained quite a bit, so a punch to the gut doesn’t even phase me and I have a picture to prove it ;)

Coming Up Next Week: Aligning employees' values with the company purpose is the foundation for creating authentic engagement. So to get those resonance levels up, next week my post will be covering the power of meaning and “purpose crafting” for your team. So stay tuned & watch this space: SPIRIT Wellness & Engagement

About the author

Jordan Campbell is the founder of the multiple award-winning Corporate Wellness & Sports provider, SPIRIT and he capitalises his vast industry experience as a keynote speaker on Corporate Engagement, Wellness & Leadership.

SPIRIT - partnered by Reebok, provides In-Office Engagement Programs and Corporate Wellness Events to enhance productivity and creates true work communities across Greater China.

Jordan is also the proud founder Verve International, a leading Events Management and Exhibition Staffing Agency that covers events and exhibitions across the Asia-Pacific region.