How Leaders Can Model Wellness for Their Teams

Teams don’t believe in wellness because of posters — they believe in it because of their leaders. Host Russel Lolacher is joined by executive coach Stephen Kohler to discuss why role modeling matters, how leaders can reinforce wellness with consistency and empathy, and why even small actions — like encouraging a teammate to take a walk — build trust and resilience across a team.

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Transcript

Russel Lolacher: So we figured it out, Stephen. We've got wellness figured out for us. We know what it is. We we're, we're, we're doing the work. We're committed to the work. And then we show up into the workplace and we're responsible for other human beings and their wellness to some degree. Even though I know we are responsible for our own wellness as leaders, that is the human component, that is the human centricity in the workplace.

So as a leader coming into the workplace, looking at these individuals that are the team, how do we introduce wellness into that environment?

Stephen Kohler: I love it. And this is again, kind of where we as leaders have to walk the talk. So what it looks like as cliche as the sound is role modeling and being a role model. So I've seen a lot of examples, both good and bad, where a leader will say, I believe in work life balance and I believe you should take care of yourself and go exercise and be at home with the children and things like that.

And of course they never do it, so the silence or they'll say something. Yes, we, we shouldn't be emailing each other the weekends, but of course, they are the ones that then do that very thing, which create this whole culture and the signal. So we have to walk the talk. You know, one of the things I'll give you simple examples that I, in my team, I will say something like somebody will say something to me like, I'd like I, I'd love to go do X, but I have this, this meeting or something. You know, I'd like, I'd like to be able to, to go exercise, but I've got this client meeting and I say, go exercise. Go do it. And, and I'm the, the boss, so to speak. And, and so it's about reinforcing and role modeling the very values that we established and then reinforcing. And here's the trick, saying no to something, you know, wellness, ultimately for the sake of this podcast is about trade-offs.

And so if I'm in a work setting and I'm a leader and I'm managing somebody else, rather than just giving lip service to wellness. I am willing to support you, let's say my direct report by making a trade off. I'm saying I'm, I want you to go do the thing that you will make you well in favor of, quote the work thing.

I'm endorsing you, I'm sponsoring you thing, and I know that's gonna have an impact, but I know in the end, it's gonna make you be more productive and more engaged, which will make you ultimately be able to, you know, show up best as a leader at work.

Russel Lolacher: I know there's some teams though that will still be operating at a high level because they're throwing themselves into the work. Their productivity's fine, but their wellness is still not great because maybe something's horrible at home,

but if they focus on work, it's okay because they can put that outta mind, but they are not in a good place.

Is there any, and I use that as an example, but is there anything a leader should be looking for, for a team to show, you know, these are some signs that we might, regardless of productivity being as great as it is, that we may need to dig a little deeper?

Stephen Kohler: Absolutely. The first thing, again, one of, one of the, the areas I talk a lot about is this idea of listening with a capital L. And as leaders, one of the things we have to listen is with our eyes. We listen with our ears, but our eyes and our heart. So what does that mean? In this case, let's say I'm leading a team or I'm a colleague to a team member.

I hear when I'm working with somebody, stress in their voice, maybe, maybe they snap back at me over something trivial. And I get curious and I'm like, that's interesting. I haven't heard John kind of snap at me like that. I wonder what's going on. I see their body language and I can see after weekend, you know, maybe they didn't get enough sleep 'cause they see bags under their eyes.

I feel the tension, right? So all of these are signals that I can then use to say, Hey John, you okay man? I want to let me take you off for beer, man. Let me take some coffee. I'm 'cause, 'cause I care about you. How are things at home man? And they're like, oh yeah man, things are not good. Things are rough.

I'm like, talk to me. And so we can use all of these kind of listening senses to be there with others and then support them, whatever a relationship with them is to get to a better place. So we might say, Hey man, I know you're overwhelmed. Why don't I take something off your plate? You've got way too much on your plate.

What can I take off your plate, man? So you can get outta here at two o'clock, whatever. Yeah