Naomi Dake, a wellbeing, leadership, and organisation development specialist, explains how to use stress as a tool to develop professionally, induce curiousity, and improve performance at work.
Dake also discusses the relationship between stress and mindset and the nonfinancial ways leaders and managers can invest in teams and employees to prioritise growth and wellbeing.
What you’ll learn from this episode:
- The core attributes of a wellbeing culture.
- The distiguishing factors between a healthy and unhealthy work environment.
- Leadership practices that can inform a healthy work enviornment.
- Psychological traits and tools that can help us work better under stress.
- Why role-modelling is key to building a culture of growth and safety.
Play the episode below or read the edited transcript:
— To comment on this episode or to suggest an idea for another episode, contact Steph Brown at
Stephanie.Brown@aicpa-cima.com.
Transcript
Steph Brown: Welcome to the FM podcast. I’m Steph Brown. I recently attended UK and Ireland ENGAGE in London, and in the coming months you’ll hear several FM episodes recorded at the event. This one marks the first in that series, and it is with Naomi Dake, a well-being, leadership, and organisation development specialist who was a speaker at ENGAGE.
Naomi took time out of her schedule to talk about stress as a tool for performance, how leaders can encourage a growth mindset, and other timely topics.
Here’s the coversation with Naomi:
Thanks for being on the podcast today.
Naomi Dake: Thanks for having me.
Brown: In your mind, how would you define well-being culture?
Dake: For me, there’s lots of things that go into a well-being culture. But if I try and distil it down, what I would say is that people feel safe to be themselves. People feel that it’s okay to ask for help, to say when they’re struggling. There are mechanisms and support, some processes and systems in place, to enable individuals to show up as themselves and to contribute, and to know how they play a role in achieving whatever the organisation’s vision or purpose is.
The other thing I would add there is that if people can play to their strengths and be able to work in a way that suits them and allows them to be as healthy and well as possible, then you’re doing something right. That’s probably what I would sum up if I had to.
Brown: That’s great. Thank you, Naomi. From your perspective, what are some factors which separate a healthy work environment from an unhealthy one?
Dake: I think, for me, some of the things that are at the core to distinguish between those would be trust, respect, and an ability to be able to handle conflict effectively. That can be at a team level and an organisational level, and also in a one-to-one relationship between an individual and their line manager. I think if you have trust and you have respect, and you can handle difficult issues or conflict well, then I think that that really helps to set a well-being culture.
I think, conversely, if you don’t have those things, that’s when we start to see a lack of trust. We see a lack of ability to either have conflict or to handle it well. I think that’s where you start to see organisations or teams struggling, and you start to see a lack of psychological safety. It also affects the performance, the engagement, the bottom line, if you’ve not got those core ingredients in place.
Brown: Stress is something that we often view quite negatively. In what ways can it play out [in] more of a positive way in the workplace?
Dake: Often the cost or the negative impact of stress is the one that’s in the media, the one that we hear most about. But actually, stress is a very natural response that, as humans, we’re wired to have and it keeps us safe. In acute situations of stress, it might keep us alive. It’s that fundamental.
But also in noncritical situations, stress can be something that helps us to perform. That helps us to have a sense of stimulation or challenge. It can stretch us so it can take us out of our comfort zone. But when we go out of our comfort zone, that’s how we learn and we grow and we develop. Otherwise, if we stay in our comfort zone, it might feel comfortable. But we’re not learning. We’re not growing. We’re not changing.
Stress is often associated with bad things. But actually, if you use the word “stimulation” or “opportunity” or “motivation” then it starts to become something that’s not scary. It starts to become something that we can potentially have a positive experience with.
Brown: What needs to take place for people to work with stress rather than avoiding those feelings?
Dake: For me, I think what I’ve seen working with clients both individually and in teams and my own journey. I think what I’ve learned is that the more resilient you are; the more resourceful you are. The better you know yourself. The more tools, strategies that you have that work for you, then the better able you are to deal with stress or change or challenge.
Because you’ve got things that you can draw upon. You’ve got evidence of having dealt with difficult things in the past, of having overcome obstacles. That gives you a sense of confidence. Even if it’s only in the slight sense of: “This will pass,” or, “I’ll get through this.” I’ve dealt with something more difficult or equally as difficult in the past, and I know that I’ve got a support network. I’ve got people I can turn to and talk to. I’ve got strategies that work for me that help to keep me in balance or to offset those times when stress is difficult.
I think those are the things: resilience; reserves; and having your own resourcefulness. I think those are the areas where I’ve found, with myself and with clients, better able, better prepared to deal with stress when it happens.
It takes some of the worry and anxiety away because we don’t need to be on alert with our nervous systems anticipating threats and what might go wrong in order to prepare ourselves. Which actually just steals our energy and our attention away from the present moment. But if we can trust ourselves that we will deal with it, however and whatever it may be, then actually we can save that energy and put it back into what we enjoy and be more present in the moment.
Brown: Going back to more healthy versus unhealthy work environments, healthy being where that stress might be turned into some form of stimulation and something that someone can work with.
Does stress change its meaning or its experience when it comes out in a much more negative or challenging environment in the workplace?
Dake: Yeah, I think so. This, for me, is probably where the fixed and growth mindset comes in and there’s a lot around that, that Carol Dweck talks about, and a lot of other people out there are talking about. I think if we come from a growth mindset or if we take an approach that I often use which is a strengths-based approach, then we can stay open to the possibilities and the opportunities that might present themselves. We can trust ourselves that we will have a decent way of dealing with stress. I think that then keeps us open to exploring and curious, and able to learn and put into place strategies that might work.
I think when we’re coming from more of a fixed mindset, we don’t have that same level of trust. That can work the same in an organisation as it can in an individual. A fixed culture, for example, might tell us that we’ve always done it this way and that’s how we do it, or it won’t work for these reasons, or we’ve tried that before and it doesn’t help. I think that then closes us down and makes us less resourceful and it makes stress more challenging. Because we haven’t got the options to consider, or we’ve closed those down, or we just don’t see them, or they’re not encouraged. I think that’s where you end up in a different place with stress, and with change, and with challenge, equally.
But I think if we can come to the growth mindset, then we bring learning and curiosity. Inevitably that helps us to respond in a calmer way when stress does inevitably happen.
Brown: You mentioned in the panel discussion that time and compassion are really great ways for leaders and managers to invest in employees.
What other things do you think, outside of financial investment, that leaders and managers can do to encourage this growth mindset and make it a comfortable environment for employees to thrive and grow in their roles?
Dake: I think, for leaders and managers, role modeling consistently a value on people and well-being is so key because what they demonstrate consistently over time is what people will believe and value and expect from them. That will either grow a culture of psychological safety and trust, or it’ll do the opposite and it will grow a culture of mistrust. Because people learn how you behave and how you show up and they learn to expect that.
I think being consistent in your role modelling as a leader is key. I think giving time and space and making well-being a priority day-to-day is absolutely key. I think helping people to feel a sense of purpose and a sense of connection to what’s important to them is really important.
In our breakout session, we looked at the PERMA model, for example, as a way of leaders helping teams to be more well, to be healthier, more engaged, more productive. I think something like that is a great way of connecting leaders with their teams and connecting individuals to their own sense of meaning and purpose and happiness. I think when you do that, that doesn’t have to cost money. That can be simply dedicating time, investing energy in it, giving focus to it.
Encouraging people to own their own well-being, I think is really important. That’s not copping out as a leader. That’s absolutely recognising that people will have a life outside of work. They’ll have things that are important to them to be well and giving them balance and time, and encouraging them to talk about that at work as well is really important. I think those are ways in which all leaders can encourage people to focus on their well-being.
Brown: Thank you so much for those insights today, Naomi. Is there anything that you would like to add in closing today?
Dake: I think I’m just really grateful that well-being is on the agenda here and that CIMA are leading the way in having the dialogue and the conversation about it. The more that we can do that, the more permission it gives to people to say when they’re OK and to say when they’re not OK. And to look at ways in which they can support their own well-being, and that we can support each other’s well-being.
I think growing that more and more is really important in a business context so it’s not seen as something that’s fluffy, or woo, or out there. It’s just part of the normal expectation that we all have a mental health, we all have a well-being, and we’re all going to struggle at one point in our lives or another, and that’s OK. It’s not easy to go through. But knowing that everybody does at some point and knowing what you can do about it, and that there are people that care around you — I think that’s massively helpful when we all come across those challenges in life.
I’m just really grateful that CIMA have invited me to be part of this event and that well-being is seen as a really important aspect of the world of finance and leadership in general.
Brown: That’s great. Thank you so much.
Dake: Thank you.
