Ronald Abvajee | Founder | Owner | Healthy Living Consulting (HLC) | mail me |
A year ago, I won CEO of the Year at the Future of HR Awards. That same year our business won Best Health and Wellness Strategy of The Year, and the year before that we’d won Corporate Wellness Champion of the Year. My team and I were on a high – thrilled to bits with our company’s success and recognition.
We were riding the crest of a wave when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit and ironically this experience has resulted in some even more remarkable and enriching lessons in leadership for my team and I. This just goes to show that growth never stops, one of the principles I subscribe to wholeheartedly through the example of the remarkable Japanese art of Kintsugi, which inspires me and is in effect my life’s anthem.
In a nutshell Kintsugi is taking the experiences of the past, both good and bad – occurrences that might’ve caused cracks and damage and left you feeling a bit broken – and reflecting on how to heal, how to put things back together with some glue and perhaps even a little gold dust to make them more valuable.
It’s thinking about how to gain strength from the challenges you’ve faced, as you move towards the next part of your journey. It’s about taking these learnings and utilising them as the fuel – through experience – to not make those same mistakes, but also allowing you to flourish as you go forward.
Practising sane leadership
One of the first lessons I’ve learned is that sane leadership is the unshakeable faith in people’s capacity to be generous, creative and kind. And this was so important for me this last year. It’s the commitment to create the conditions for these capacities to blossom and protect this culture from the external environment.
So although COVID-19 has flipped our lives around both personally and professionally, sane leadership emanates from the deep knowing that even in the most dire of circumstances, more becomes possible as people engage together with compassion and discernment, proceeding forward with self-determination.
In order for leaders to skilfully and intentionally create thriving cultures that sustain strong performance, they must be willing to lean in to the hard conversations about the things that threaten their people’s sanity.
I have found that as we lean into and address those difficult conversations, it builds a thriving culture and environment within the business.
Embedding wellbeing at the core of our definition of wellbeing
The second lesson is all about the importance of embedding wellbeing at the core of our definition of success. And most importantly, to move beyond the redundant and dangerous belief that success equals money plus power. This has been a momentous mind shift for us within our business.
More than a culture shift, I would say it’s been shift within our organisation’s DNA. When we did that we allowed for the individuals to achieve personal success because we were giving them an environment in which they felt safe, fuelled and fulfilled, letting us achieve success as a both a business and a team.
Moreover, it created a beautiful culture of really being connected to common purpose of being well and each contributing to that environment.
Creating micro-moments of connection with colleagues
Thirdly, as a leader I look to create micro moments of warmth and authentic connection with each of my colleagues. Defined by Dr Viktor Frankl as being ‘love’, this practice achieves personal connection in a time where bonding is more important than ever.
Focusing on the success of the collective through a benefit mindset
The next lesson is the opportunity to evolve beyond the individualistic concept of a growth mindset and to focus instead on the collective through a benefit mindset. In benefit mindset, we not only seek to fulfil our potential, but choose to do so in a way that contributes to the wellbeing of others and society as a whole.
Surrounding yourself with diversity of thought
I also had to learn the next lesson – unleashing the collective genius of my team, thereby surrounding myself with diversity of thought.
As part of leading a team, you and your colleagues should act as sparring partners for each other – challenging each other to do the best thinking, to be your best selves.
This pandemic demands that we all go beyond what we should ordinarily be doing and what we think we’re capable of. We need to go beyond our regular parameters and together, this is possible. It requires innovative problem-solving.
It’s not about some individual having aha moments; it’s about collective genius, unleashing the slices of brilliance on your team and harnessing them to fulfil the collective good.
Taking care of each other
Share not only what you’re thinking, but how you’re feeling. Your team know that you as a leader are anxious and perhaps even fearful – trust them with your emotions and commit to taking care of each other. This contributes and builds in that principle and quality of vulnerability.
While I always thought vulnerability was a weakness, I’ve come to recognise it’s actually a phenomenal strength; it’s a demonstration of courage that again helps build those micro moments of connection with your team. Because guess what, it’s not a matter of us and you. It’s a matter of together, let’s do this.
Leaders remember, that this is no time to go it alone. The past two years have demonstrated to us us that uncertainty and social invalidation are not limited to the personal spheres of our life.
Our personal and professional selves have never been more intertwined. We need managers who engage in dialogue and develop practices to bridge that wide crevice between how different people experience the same world; these are the people that can help to begin rebuilding and healing our sense of self and community.
Direction and balance: running a business is like walking a tightrope
I had to give special attention and care to work relationships. And this was all about direction and balance.
Running a business for me was like walking on a tightrope this last year. As uncertainty continues to loom large, leaders may keep both direction and balance by focusing on deepening pre-existing and nurturing new high quality work relationships, while embracing experimentation. Why? Because high quality work relationships help individuals feel safe and supported.
In addition they can enable workers to be more discerning in their choices, anchor their organisational commitment and fuel their desires to reach high standards of performance. We should embrace experimentation. Leaders will then learn how to meet the fluid needs of both their colleagues and their customers.
Walking a tightrope requires attention and care and it is this very attention and care that will be especially critical for leaders in the forthcoming year.
From being a knower and being right to being a learner and getting it right
Ultimately, I learned that I need to choose to move from being what I was -which is was a know it all – encouraging my team to approach me for the answers and guidance. Now I’ve realised the need to shift to being a also being a learner and getting it right.
I’d love to know what lessons you’ve learnt this last year about being a leader. Let’s connect and let’s create the community of leaders that begin to share the lessons we’ve learnt and start opening up so we can take from that wisdom to plug into our businesses.
We need to be taking care of our own wellbeing to thrive and champion the people in our organisations to flourish.
Through the experience of sharing, we can reap the rewards of collective wisdom as leaders. This will help us lead our organisations to thrive and succeed with the most amazing people who feel safe, who are looking after their wellbeing and who will fight for you and the business tooth and nail. Because why? Because you care.
