2.148 Leader Wellbeing: How To Turn Stress Into Performance with Jess Jasch

If you are hearing “I am so stressed”, you are not alone. Today I am joined by Jess Jasch, a Wellbeing Consultant and Embodied Leadership Coach who helps leaders and teams build real stress resilience with practical mindfulness. No hours of meditation. No fluffy language. Just simple habits that actually work at work. 

In this episode you will learn 

• The difference between healthy stretch and system stress 
• How to spot early warning signs in yourself and your team 
• A gentle check in script leaders can use today 
• One minute micro practices that regulate the nervous system 
• Easy team rituals to reset between meetings 
• How to support without becoming a counsellor 
• A two week reset for stressed leaders that builds sustainable performance 

Who this is for 

Managers and business owners who want practical tools to reduce stress, prevent burnout and lift performance without adding more to the to do list. 

Make sure to subscribe to stay updated with new releases on Mondays!
 
Visit https://www.amplifyhr.com.au/ for more insights and resources.  

Book a free discovery call with Amplify HR https://meetings.hubspot.com/ronita-fourie 

Connect with Jess on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessicajasch/ 

Visit Jess’s website  https://j-leigh.com.au 

Transcript

Karen Kirton   

welcome. Jess, hi, thank you. It's great to have you here today. Now, wellbeing has come up a lot, and even more, I think since covid, it really hasn't come out of people's terminology in the workplace. But what are you hearing right now when it comes to stress, oh, 

Jess Jasch   

boy, this is you've mentioned some key words there that have, like, triggered parts of my brain that are like, Oh my God. It's this as well. But what I have seen since covid is a bit of a divestment from well being, even though it was a really strong element in across a lot of workplaces in covid or on the during covid, or at least that first year. But what am I what I'm hearing about stress is it's literally that. It's Oh, wow. We're so stressed. Everyone's so stressed. We're just it feels like people seeing it as this insurmountable mountain that's almost too big that they don't even want to start trying to climb it. It's it feels so big and so uncertain of well, what are we meant to do? And people want to do something, but, you know, stress. 

Karen Kirton   

Because for some people, stress is actually a good thing, like it makes them perform more, and it may actually, you know, get motivated. Yeah, it's that tipping point, isn't it, when it goes from stress into burnout. So, you know, what does that look like in a team? It's really high stress to the point of getting to burnout. 

Jess Jasch   

Yeah, I think the difference there is, like, systemic versus almost flow state kind of stress where it's like, Oh, I've got this, this energy, this drive, and usually it's the systemic elements that impact stress and then burnout within teams and within organisations. And it could be a host of things. It could be, you know, it could be stuff that people are going on personally, because I think we have to remember we're all human and we and sometimes that gets forgotten a little bit, we maybe treat ourselves like robots. But I think a lot of it presents as it presents as things like disengagement, like people really trying, and maybe their executive functioning has just disappeared out the window, and they're like, what happened? I used to be so good at being able to, like, you know, get on to this. And so it can be engagement, it can be all the usual things, really, that you might see at home, like, you know, or with your partner, like it's snippiness, or people are just more sensitive to things, and it's it. I think it really shows up in in our ability to be in relationship with other people. And I don't like of any kind of relationship, like working relationship in interaction with other people. I think that's where it shows up the most, because other people are usually our mirrors, like we reflect onto each other back and forth all day long. So yeah, and, and usually, like, from a business sense, it it can be that that loss in like all the buzz words, but it's all true, the loss in productivity, or the staff absenteeism or the turnover, because people are stressed and they're burnt out, and they think that their only solution is just, well, I've got to leave This job because I don't know what else to do, like I've tried and or I don't know what to do, and I wouldn't know where to try. So, yeah, it's, it's all of the obvious things, but then it's also in the subtle, in the subtlety as well. 

Karen Kirton   

Yeah, some of the things that you mentioned, I think, particularly that change in your team members and sometimes leaders, they notice the change, but they they don't want to open the door, they don't want to ask the question, because they're like, actually, I'm not a counsellor. Yeah, I don't know what to do with the answer if I ask the question. So what would you advise, if someone's listening, that they've got a team member who used to be great and their performance is slipping. There's obviously something happening, yeah? What do they do? What's the best steps?  

Jess Jasch   

Oh, I love this question, because you're right. Like a lot of people, whether it's at work or otherwise, if they see something wrong, sometimes we feel like or we put the pressure on ourselves to feel like we have to have the answer or the solution or the fix before we actually open up the conversation. And like you said, in most cases, those people aren't actually therapists or, you know, like mental health or emotional health professionals or anything like that, you know. So why would or why should they have those particular skills? But I think it's more about recognising that we actually. Don't have to have the solution before we start. And sometimes the solution presents itself just by starting the conversation. And sometimes the solution as leaders isn't actually ours to enact or carry out. So you could start the conversation with someone. And you know, I always say like, if you're going to be like, be like, Hey, can we catch up for a quick minute? Add a little addendum that says, nothing bad. Like, that's just, you know, my preference maybe. But you know, you could just be like, Hey, I just wanted to check in. I've noticed that, you know, God, whether you say you've been a little different or, like, you know, I've just noticed, yeah, you know, depending on what it is, without making an attack, but just say, like, I just noticed there's been a bit of a change in in your demeanour, or whatever it is. I just wanted to check in is, is everything all right? Are you doing okay? And that, that sounds very human to human, rather than boss to employee. Or, you know, but that is a really good start, because it gives them a space to go. Oh, maybe I didn't realise. Oh, what is that? Oh, actually, you know, I've just got this that the other going on, or, you know, I've just been whatever it is, and then sharing that can often be helpful in itself. But then again, going back to what do you do with that? All you need to do all, I mean, it's not the magic solution, but it's such a good start is you could refer them, depending on what it is, and we say this in the mental health space as well as you you refer on to support, because no one's, like, I mean, generally, like, not many of us, comparatively, are therapists in that scenario. So, you know, go, Oh, do you want help booking this appointment or you've got this but really it's, it's keeping that in mind. If it's a support, you can refer them on to or say, hey, like, if you need to take 20 minutes to make an appointment, or whatever it is you need, and alternatively, or sometimes at the same time as that one of my favourite questions, and I've asked this during like, interviewing processes and even onboarding, and I'm not like a HR professional like you. But you know, just in that lens of my lens of well being is, oh, if I'm in this position and it's asking them some variation of or some version of, what is it that you need to be successful? And if it's more of this conversation in response to a change in demeanour or behaviour or whatever. And so what do you need? Because it actually involves the person in their own solution. And sometimes they've thought about it, sometimes they haven't, and either way, they need to consider that like it needs to. They need to be involved. We can't just be trying to fix everything for everyone, without their involvement, but asking them, What is? What do you need? And then seeing what they say, because the response might be something that totally works or is feasible given the role or the workplace or the whatever it is, and it may not be something you already have in practice, but it may just be your ability to even go, oh, actually, yeah, I guess, like, that's actually no problem if we do that this way, you know, as long as it works for you, and as long as that helps you, you know, show up, but as long as that helps you feel better about showing up, because then it becomes this two way conversation, rather than Just, oh, I'm here to solve your problem, even though I can't, or it's not just on me, or I'm trying to solve my own problem, but I don't have support from my my manager or my leader or whoever, as well. 

Karen Kirton   

Yeah, I think that's great advice, because something that I've come across over the years is that often, if you ask people the question, just say, Look, I've noticed this. They're like, Oh, really, because they have spent so much mental energy masking and trying to turn up to work, you know, inverted commas normally. And it can actually be really important for the person to realise that, you know, their mental health is possibly deteriorated more than what they had noticed themselves, because when you're in the situation, it's hard to know how you're showing up. 

Jess Jasch   

Oh, it's so hard. And you know, even masking is exhausting. Yes, you know, as as a neurodivergent person, it is exhausting, and it does make everything seem harder. So the more you feel like you have to mask, like neurodivergency or not like, you know, whether you're struggling or whatever it is, the more that you feel you have to mask, the harder everything actually does become, because it's just extra, extra energy expenditure. 

Karen Kirton   

It's hard. So sometimes, when we're talking about, you know, stress and. Burn out the workplace, we start to look at, what can we do to help relieve stress? And mindfulness comes up a lot, and I often see people then roll their eyes because they feel like it's a buzz saying, so how do you explain mindfulness to someone that's heard the word and just thinks it's Woo, woo, and I just don't get it. 

Jess Jasch   

I've had so much practice answering this question. This is great. I feel I've never felt more prepared in my life. I in sessions I've run with different demographics, including, you know, soldiers who roll their eyes at Woo, woo, in most cases, but in anyone it's giving them permission to be like, hey, like, you may have an allergy to this word, but just give me a moment to just explain. And really I just, I describe mindfulness as the very initially, I describe it as what helps you just be present, right? You know, it doesn't have to be this Zen state that we all put pressure on ourselves to feel when we practice some kind of mindfulness, but it's literally just a practice. We're not trying to perfect anything, but it's a practice of what helps you just be present right now and then. I usually, if given any opportunity, I usually dive into the science and be like, This is why and but that's kind of it's just this practice. You know, whether it's if you take three to five slow breaths, you're practising focusing on the breath, which is happening in this moment, for example, or if you run through each of your available senses and just notice something with each sense, one after the other. You're practising what's showing up in this moment. So I, that's how I describe it in the very initial you know, if I have to gently open the door for them in that way, that's, that's how I start. 

Karen Kirton   

So people listening might be thinking, Okay, well, how on earth does that impact on stress? So without going down the rabbit hole too far in terms of research, I know there's lots there, but how would you answer that? 

Jess Jasch 

To go if you, let's say we're not adding a lot of things to your to do list every day, to spend a few months you're present within yourself and understand what your senses are doing. How is that going to impact on my stress levels? So okay, let me summarise this as best I can, which is good practice. So it's it's what it's doing is happening internally with your nervous system, and it is help. It's a form of regulation, or co-regulation, if you're doing it with someone else as well, but it's this form of regulating your nervous system so that your body has more practice accessing states of presence. And the science does say that at any stage it is helpful, but when you practice it, even before you're in moments of stress, that is actually where it's really, really helpful, and has been shown to reduce the effects of stressful events, not make it go away, but reduce the effects of stressful events when they do happen. So I a lot of my research is in military and soldiers and well being and mindfulness in that way. But I think if it's that extreme, it can apply very easily to workplaces which sometimes feel like a battle zone, you know, so it is, you know, there's a piece of research I can think of that really found that the participants in mindfulness programmes, which is just regular, consistent practice, they were better able to handle significant stresses when those stresses did happen, versus participants that weren't practising that and you know, and then were more affected. And again, it doesn't make everything magical rainbows and unicorns, but it what it does with our body and our brain is it helps us to practice something more mindfully, but helps us to practice something like a muscle so then it's more easily accessible when we do need it. 

Karen Kirton   

Oh, that's an excellent answer. 

Jess Jasch 

Thank you. I tried really hard. 

Karen Kirton   

Because, yeah, it could be very easy to go to well, this study on this side, but at the end of the day, I think that connection, and we don't realise that the connection between our brain and our body is so intertwined, and it's easy to forget that if we're stressed, it's actually having a physical impact and limiting us physically. 

Jess Jasch 

Yeah, and even with burnout, you know, there's research that has found that the most common form of burnout is emotional burnout, in the sense of not. Allowing us, our body's stress response to complete itself. And if we think about what our body's stress response is, it is physically a chemical reaction in the body. So if we're not letting it move and complete its reaction like because often we try to stuff it down, or we have to compartmentalise sometimes, but then we have to come back to it, you know, but we live in a culture that for a long time has tried to not give us space to do that, especially when it comes to workplaces. And obviously there's an appropriate way to, you know, manage that or handle that, but yeah, a lot of the cause of burnout is actually, in short, due to incomplete stress responses that we've just say, like allowed to stay stuck in our bodies. 

Karen Kirton   

So what about when leaders are experiencing stress? Yeah, so what does that look like? How does that show up in communication, in the workplace, you know, what does that look like for them? Like, obviously, with employees, we talked about, you know, productivity, those sorts of things. But if I'm a leader feeling stressed, and I might think that, you know, culturally, I need to feel stressed, because that's what it's like to be your job. Yeah, but what do you see that show up? Like? What kind of leader does that look like? 

Jess Jasch 

I think it's leaders. I mean, it can show up in all different ways that it's very unique to, you know, the individual or even the industry. But it's leaders who don't have much capacity beyond just that narrow focus forward. And, I mean narrow, not not focus, and, you know, and the useful kind of focus that's like, All right, let's go. We're hyper focusing, like we're just getting this done. This is what we're doing. Let's go team. It's leaders who don't really have capacity, whether they consciously or unconsciously, allow themselves to see any other perspective or hear anything else, they're just like, No, it could. So that can just overload, yeah, so it can show up in, like, you know, my way or the highway, because they just don't have the capacity or will or willingness, because they don't want to, because of the stress, to allow any other information in. Like, I know when I'm stressed in different ways, and it's like, oh, yeah, I can definitely if something else changes. It's like, oh, I don't want to. But that's with awareness of that. So it can be very regimented and rigid viewpoints that don't allow for other people's perspectives, especially in a workplace, based on what they are aware of, or their experience, or, you know, in their role, or whatever that is, or even the feedback of, hey, this isn't working for us. It is. It can be, you know, the normalisation of overtime, or working at your desk over lunch, like even behaviours like that that then normalise it, which isn't healthy. It can be, oh, it's, it can be in communication where, again, they don't have capacity to, you know, consider other people might have, or themselves might have stuff going on personally that's impacting that. And, you know, try to do that. But then there's also the health implications that I don't know if we need to really go into, because we kind of know, you know, like, the the health implications of of chronic stress and how that can show up. But, yeah, I think the experience with, like, with having a leader who is stressed, it makes it so much harder to work in a collaborative environment, which is even if the roles aren't quote collaborative themselves, but the running of the business might be, or the running of the team might be, it makes it so much harder to work in a collaborative environment that actually moves the business or the team or the you know, whatever it is forward. It just keeps it stuck in the status quo. And when we're stuck in the status quo, that may be sometimes seen as like sustainable, but it's not necessarily at us at a sustainable point that is actually good for us, and it's not necessarily regenerative where, you know, where what we're doing is fulfilling or expanding our capacity as a business or as an organisation or as a team or as an individual 

Karen Kirton   

as well. How do I break out of that, if I'm seeing myself in that right now and go, Oh, maybe I'm more stressed than I thought. Is there one thing that I could do to try and release that stress valve? 

Jess Jasch 

Yeah, so blanket, a blanket answer to that, because it would depend on each person differently, is baby steps. It's like some, you know, suggesting someone practice taking a little time away from their phone. It's like, set a timer for five minutes at a time. Yeah? So it's really baby steps. Steps, because we don't actually have to spend I mean, look, I love a long, juicy relaxation session of sorts. Like, I am a fan, but also I am realistic, and I don't have time to do that every day, let alone every week. But what is actually more effective is just this, like what is most consistent rather than what's the longest amount of time spent doing a mindful next exercise or something? So I would say baby steps. It would be set your timer and just practice. And you know, you mentioned before, not adding another thing to the to do list. Do it while you're doing something else while you're driving between your driveway and the end of the street, and just focus on the road, but also on just on your breath, and you're giving yourself just that short amount of time, assuming your street is not a long road, but you know, you're giving yourself just a short amount of time, so then your brain doesn't sort of wander off, because it will, and that's okay, but it just it gives it like a focus. So it's just baby steps of what can you do while you're doing something else? But just allows you to to practice these little things. And if you take public transport and do it on the bus or the train or the whatever, or if you're cooking a meal, practice, noticing, if you have access to this, noticing the feeling of the soles of your feet grounded, and it doesn't like you just still cooking a meal. You're still doing your other thing, but it's just this baby step of just practising, if someone's really, yeah, if someone's really, really stressed, that's where I would start. So it doesn't shock the system in the other direction as well, because we're human, you know, if we start going to the gym, we want to do it full out, and then we end up not necessarily breaking our bodies, but feeling that enough to not just stop, and then, you know, we're out of the practice. So it's the same thing, but mentally, and you know, sometimes that can bring up stuff, because we become aware and make sure that you have support and resources around you. If it is, if it is confronting things, but you know, it's, it's really the baby steps to help your system feel safe in small, consistent increments at a time, because then you're building the habit. And I know that in the business world, we love habits, and we love habit stacking, but it's useful, but you're also building, literally, the safety within your system and your body as it gets used to what this new sensation of presence or just noticing? Oh, I've noticed my shoulders are tense. Oh, okay, you know, so that's the long, short answer. 

Karen Kirton   

That's excellent advice. Thank you. And like, I could sit here and talk to you about this for hours, Yeah, unfortunately, we don't have that. But one final question that I like to ask everybody, if there was one thing that as a business owner or a leader that you wish you knew earlier, what would it be about well being, I guess, anything. Yeah, what would that be?  

Jess Jasch 

it kind of goes across the board. It could be applied to well being, but it can also be applied to, you know, your own business success, or just, I think it's allowing yourself to prioritise what is good for you and and for me, that answer is in the lens of well being. So it's like, Oh, I'm just gonna prioritise, you know, my morning practice every day or or spending 10 minutes before a client call every time for them, but also 10 minutes after for me to just reset like whatever it is, just really allocating and being steadfast with that, but also in the lens of, you know, allowing myself to just be obsessed with the work that I love, like, you know, like without it taking over my life. But it's I found, and this could be the ADHD in me. I found that the more I've just let myself be in it, the easier it's become to be in it and, you know, and I fight against the time, yeah, and I, and I've actually had more energy outside of work as a result, rather than this pressure to balance things, a weird thing that probably requires more time than what we have now. Yeah, to unpack, but like, it's this weird thing of, yeah, I'm not going against the tide, which has actually given me more balance as a result. But that could be a my brain thing. 

Karen Kirton   

I love it. Thank you. And if anyone wants to get in touch with you, what's the best way through LinkedIn as a website? Yeah? 

Jess Jasch 

Yeah, LinkedIn, you'll find me. Jess Jasch, it's pretty easy to find that one. Yeah, I have a website. It's https://j-leigh.com.au/, or my email, which you can email me through the website as well.  

Karen Kirton   

Thank you. It's been great to have you, and for those listening, if you receive value from this episode, I'd love it if you can leave a rating or review over Apple podcasts or Spotify, so someone else can also find the episodes to help with their business. Episodes released on Mondays, so click subscribe, and you'll be notified of when it's available. If you have any feedback, questions or ideas for future episodes, head on over to amplifyhr.com.au, or connect with me on LinkedIn, and we can start the conversation.