Member Article

Housing executives told wellbeing key to leadership success

Senior executives operating in the UK’s housing sector have been urged to embrace a portfolio of innovative skills and tools to optimise their wellbeing, performance and organisational impact to engage and motivate their teams.

The pioneering leadership techniques were unveiled by representatives of leadership and management development and coaching firm, Awbery, at a hands-on, interactive session led by Olympic gold medallist Sally Gunnell OBE, a corporate wellbeing advocate.

Awbery has developed the innovative leadership development programme, ‘Fit to Lead’, in its latest step in a programme of assisting senior executives, business leaders and workers by giving them fresh knowledge and skills to facilitate their wellbeing at work, and in turn effectiveness and results for their organisation.

The event tackled complex issues such as corporate burnout that is a serious and growing problem amongst senior executives in highly pressurised roles. Awbery says its prevention is vital to safeguarding the talent within an organisation, its brand and ultimately its bottom line.

Mary Sisson, a Director of Awbery, has played a critical role in developing the firm’s new wellbeing and leadership fitness programmes. At the event, she explained:

“To motivate and create resilience within a workforce, consistent messages are key as it helps people understand the ‘how’ and ‘why’. By giving leaders the knowledge and skills to support their leadership style, they are more effectively placed to help accelerate their own performance and that of their people too.

“Small changes can make a big difference and have a significant, lasting and positive effect,” she explained. “The key is finding what the small changes should be and how they can be made to work. By getting over the barriers in our mind, we can be the best of ourselves and take control of our minds to make this happen.

“Visualising is a key tool to make this happen – start by asking ‘What does the end goal look like?’ and ‘How can this be done?’. In this way your mind can engage with the vision.”

Awbery believes that being mindful and taking time to ‘simply think’ is important in the fast-paced environment today, as Mary said: “Positive words will have a positive impact and taking a mindful moment can help make everything seem clear. Employee engagement is crucial, and by working towards totally understanding what wellbeing and mindfulness can do for an organisation, a turning point will be reached and the workforce engaged and on board.”

Awbery has conducted a five-year scoping study into the evolution of leadership, alongside its own research into the spiralling problem of corporate burnout and the role of wellbeing in the workplace.

“Collectively, the findings underpin our belief that leadership wellbeing at work, in physical, emotional and personal development capacities, have a huge impact on individual performance, and a profound influence on the culture they create,” Mary comments.

“The housing sector is one of the public sector’s most highly pressured and stressful work environments, with recent research* revealing that 92% of social housing professionals regularly work over their contracted hours – by an average six extra hours each week. 65% said they need to stay late to keep up with their workload, and 37% said their family life suffered as a result.

“The Fit to Lead programme addresses all the vital components of how leaders in the sector can ensure their minds and bodies remain in the very best of health in the face of such pressure and long hours, to achieve enduring and successful leadership. It addresses how resilience, stress management and sleep effect mental wellbeing, the importance for the body of nutrition, exercise and sleep, and the role of coaching, performance and motivation in supporting and nurturing leaders.”

Sally Gunnell, a highly respected corporate wellbeing advocate and coach, and a supporter of Awbery’s Fit to Lead programme, was guest speaker at the London event.

Awbery has its head office in Derbyshire and delivers high-impact leadership and management development programmes, HR and coaching solutions to multi-national organisations across the UK. For more information: www.awberymanagement.co.uk, Tel: 01283 703828, and follow @AwberyTweet .

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Awbery .