There’s a simple way to help your team be more productive, and it’s not through new tools or tech. More often than not, companies are missing it. It’s a huge area of opportunity that’s not being taken. It’s not that it’s a secret, it’s just such a simple concept that it often gets overlooked. It’s easy to do, and the results are more energy, higher motivation and better focus, helping your employees to be far more productive.
So, what do you need to do? Support your team to cultivate healthy habits. We call these our Healthy Lifestyle Guidelines: better sleep, more movement, more sunlight, good food and plenty of water. All of these things will have a huge impact on mood, energy and focus. Those are the attributes that underpin success in any team.
As a leader in your business, I highly encourage you to consider how you can help to educate and inspire your employees to start to focus on these steps. It is transformational for the individual and will have a really positive impact throughout the business.
How can you put this into practice? Here are 5 ways leaders can cultivate healthy habits in their team:
Educate
It’s really important to help your employees to understand the benefits. Most people could tell you that sleeping well or drinking enough water are good – but they probably couldn’t tell you why. Once they start to see how these simple steps can have a huge impact, you’ll see more and more members of your team taking action. You could do this through companywide training, at the team or individual level. If you have a platform for training content, this would make a great addition, as it is information that will be relevant forever.
Inspire
You need to be seen to be doing it yourself. Employees need to see their leaders stepping up and setting an example.
Embrace it
It needs to be something that is spoken about often.Whether that’s at the whole company level or as a discussion topic in employee’s 1:1 meetings with their managers. Task your managers with spreading the message and leading by example.
Set up for success
Make sure employees have a set up that allows them to take calls away from their desk. When you don’t need to take notes, this is an ideal time to get some easy movement in. Do you have a breakout area where employees can take time away from their screen and recharge a few times a day?
Consider your employee’s energy
Work takes a lot of energy but what can you do as a leader to help protect your employees’ energy levels? Do they need to be working late to hit that deadline, or is it better for everyone that they get home at a good time, rest up and come back in on top form? Leaders can’t be seen to be talking a good game about healthy habits and energy but then giving employees unmanageable workloads. If they do that they will quickly lose trust and this initiative will be dead in the water.
It really is an easy win. The effort is minimal but the effects can be transformational. It’s great for your employees but equally great for the company.
