We are known to say around the traps of Leadership Space, that “a better How always creates a better What”. This lens on the how, is one of the defining features of a team coach – the strengthening of groups of people to perform. What is sometimes less obvious is the way in which strategy (a ‘what‘) is a critical piece of the ‘how‘ puzzle too, and therefore a lever for wellbeing.
As we all rebuild and find our way in a hybrid world, here are five ways that we find that strategy strengthens your team’s collective wellbeing:
- A concise and mission-aligned strategic plan and theory of change addresses one of the five foundational needs in human beings – our need for certainty. If we fail to wrestle with what this looks like and provide it to the best of our ability, our people will divert their emotional and mental energy to close that gap.
- The approach taken to engaging people in strategy development either supports or drains wellbeing. If we provide an appropriate level of engagement in our design, we’re elevating wellbeing. We are working with the fact that humans experience social pain (being excluded from consultation) as intensely as we feel physical pain.
- By working together on what is core to our business: vision, mission, and priorities, we gain the experience of being united together around common purpose which strengthens feelings of belonging, of being valued, and of being in constructive, purposeful relationships.
- When we work on strategy in person we create healing opportunities – being human together over a cup of tea, or the passing of a glass. An environment that has been curated for psychological safety releases oxytocin into our system, increasing feelings of wellbeing and injecting resilience into our relationships.
- In developing the details of strategy, we’ve lately witnessed more executives sharing their need for self-care and personal sustainability. Strategy is where our sentiments and shifts become writ large, baking wellbeing into our organisation’s decisions and trade-offs.
If you’re kicking around ways to elevate wellbeing and achieve impact and are curious how organisational coaching can help you, we’d love to support your thinking.
