In today’s fast-paced business environment, effective leadership is not about doing everything yourself. Leaders who try to take on every task risk burnout and miss opportunities to inspire positive change.

Instead, successful leaders know that focusing on the bigger picture, empowering others, and cultivating the right mindset are the keys to long-term success. As A.G. Lafley and Roger L. Martin wisely said, “Many important tasks can be done by other people. Focus on what you can do a lot better than anyone else.”

Embracing a Growth Mindset

One of the most powerful tools a leader can use is a growth mindset. This mindset encourages leaders to embrace learning, development, and adaptation, rather than trying to control every detail. Leaders who delegate effectively recognise that others bring valuable skills and perspectives that can drive positive change.

The Power of Delegation for Performance

Effective leadership isn’t about doing everything yourself—it’s about creating a high-performance environment where team members feel trusted and valued. Delegating tasks with the right optimist mindset encourages collaboration, fosters innovation, and enables individuals to contribute in meaningful ways. When leaders try to do everything, they limit the potential of their team. Delegation not only eases the leader’s load but also builds trust, allowing team members to grow and demonstrate their strengths, ultimately leading to better results.

Maximising Strengths and Driving Positive Change

Leaders who focus on their core strengths—such as strategic vision, relationship-building, and inspiring others—are best positioned to drive positive change within the organisation. By not spreading themselves too thin, leaders can focus on the bigger picture, providing direction and motivation while allowing others to manage day-to-day operations.

Building Trust Through Empowerment

When leaders trust their teams and delegate effectively, they foster a culture of empowerment and growth. This trust-based environment allows team members to step up, share their ideas, and take ownership of projects. The result is a more motivated, engaged, and high-performing team. Leaders who try to do it all risk diminishing their team’s confidence and engagement, whereas those who focus on empowerment create a mindset of collaboration and shared success.

Executive Coaching: A Valuable Tool for Leadership Growth

Leaders looking to refine their ability to delegate, build trust, and focus on what matters most can benefit immensely from executive coaching. Executive coaching helps leaders develop a deeper understanding of their strengths and areas for growth, enabling them to lead with clarity and confidence.

Coaches work with leaders to shift their mindset, improve communication skills, and enhance their ability to empower their teams. With guidance, leaders can identify where they should focus their energy and learn how to let go of tasks that don’t align with their strategic goals.

Coaching also provides a safe space for leaders to reflect on their challenges and blind spots, offering personalised insights to help them overcome obstacles and drive positive change.

Conclusion

True leadership is about guiding others – not about doing everything yourself.

By focusing on what only you can do best, and fostering a mindset of trust and collaboration, leaders can create an environment where everyone thrives. Empowering others and maximising individual strengths leads to higher performance, stronger teams, and more meaningful impact.

Related Articles

“Leaders Shouldn’t Try to Do It All“ — Harvard Business Review
Read more

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“The ideas that coaching is a spend rather than an investment, or a nice to have, not a need to have, are two of the biggest misconceptions about executive coaching.” – Lara Milward. 

This month, we talked to Lara Milward, one of our Eternal Optimists, about executive coaching and our unique Optimist approach. So, if you’ve never done coaching and think it’s not for you or your team (another misconception), keep reading. We’ll discuss the benefits of coaching and why coaching is now more important than ever for leaders and organisations. 

About Lara Milward:

Lara is a NeuroLeadership coach who works with individuals and teams to strengthen their mental muscles. Just like physical muscle, your brain needs challenge and fuel to be stronger. 

Lara loves supporting people to achieve what they didn’t believe was possible. As a former athletic coach, she understood that by knowing how our body works, we could improve our performance, and she wanted to do the same with our brains to enhance our personal and business performance. 

“I don’t believe in a self-made man or woman, we all need at least one other person, a coach or mentor or a team. I love being that trusted advisor who helps individuals and teams go from great to world-class.” – Lara Milward. 

How would you describe coaching? 

“Coaching is fuelling performance and confidence through improved thinking.” As coaches, we create a safe space where people can work things through, think out loud, gain insights, and create new habits & behaviours. We help them by being their trusted advisor and thinking partner. 

“There is no more thrill for me than seeing someone achieve more than they thought they could.” – Lara Milward

Coaching is also about transformation. As coaches, we help our clients reframe their view of their situation, their abilities, and their agency in order to play to their potential. During our sessions, we turn obstacles into opportunities and challenges into learning, which in turn supports their behaviours and performance. 

Why is coaching more important than ever for leaders?

71 % of CEOs in the US have reported feelings of imposter syndrome. Being a leader doesn’t mean you aren’t human! We live in a world where we are all dealing with constant information overload and the pressure of being constantly online. This is overwhelming for the prefrontal cortex of anyone’s brain, including leaders.

They are not only dealing with that overwhelm, but they are also the ones who everyone looks to for answers, solutions, and clarity in an uncertain world.

Additionally, leadership positions can be lonely at times. The fact that leaders want to show their best selves to their teams means that they might not have anyone they can confide in and who can help them sort their own challenges out. 

This is where executive coaching becomes invaluable for leaders because it gives them the space and time to think things through, work on problem-solving, and enhance the confidence they need to lead their teams in the best way possible. 

It’s important to note that we don’t come to new insights and ideas when the brain is in gamma wave, on task, at the computer. We only come to insights and new thinking when we are in the alpha wave. This makes coaching time even more valuable for leaders as it diarises space to slow down and work through their challenges and struggles. They can also work on themselves and how they want to show up for their teams, which in turn, allows them to be better leaders. 

What are the main benefits of coaching you’ve seen in your clients?

We asked Lara about the benefits of coaching. These are the ones she mentioned as the most valuable for her clients: better solutions and better thinking, transforming fears into confidence, clarity of thinking (seeing a way through), validation (understanding they are not alone and that it’s ok to feel the way they fell), ideas generation and dissolving stress 

Other benefits identified by our clients are improved communication and feedback, reduced stress and feeling less anxious, increased self-awareness and learning to manage themselves and others better. 

The link between executive coaching and well-being. 

It can be easier to think that our personal lives don’t have a space within executive coaching, but there is nothing further from the truth. The reality is that we are all humans and it’s impossible to separate our personal and professional lives. 

When we go to work, we are still the same person. This is why, as Optimists Coaches, we take a holistic approach and work around the full individual and not only their professional lives. If we want to achieve our full potential, it’s important that we look at ourselves and our lives as a whole and deal with it accordingly. 

Part of this holistic approach is to work on emotions and more specifically “affect labelling”. This is the process of identifying and labelling our emotions to be able to deal with them better. 

Research shows the importance and benefits of labelling our emotions. By naming our emotions, we can understand and work through them. It also allows us to cope better with stress, adversity and negative emotions. Some of the benefits are reduced emotional reactivity, enhanced problem-solving skills and improved emotional intelligence. 

Read “The Human Behind the performance” here.

What makes the Optimist Performance approach different from other executive coaching programmes?

At Optimist Performance, we use experiential learning and coach the whole person, physically, personally, and professionally. . . Through our other services (group coaching, leadership training and experiences), we support both the individual and the team to shift mindsets and behaviours so that they play to their strengths and enhance their adaptability to change, challenge and opportunity. As we know from high-performing athletes, the ability to adapt is what will help you thrive in a VUCA world. 

“I love that our way is right there in the name – Optimist. With the mindset and behaviour of an Optimist you can play to your potential whatever life throws at you.” – Lara Milward.

Another unique characteristic, according to Lara, is the mature and experienced team of coaches or Eternal Optimists (as we call them). At Optimist Performance, we bring our sports background into our coaching and the business world. Additionally, all our Eternal Optimists have been through coaching themselves (both in their sports and business careers), they have been there and understand the power of coaching and the impact it has on performance. 

“We have all just seen it at the Paris Olympics and Paralympics none of the athletes were alone. They all have coaches.” – Lara Milward.

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Many leaders nowadays take into account the well-being of employees. However, we might be missing the first step; awareness. A poll conducted by Nuffield Health shows that two out of three people won’t share their mental health issues with their employer. 

It’s common practice now to have well-being and mental health policies, but looking at those numbers, we still need to consider if, as leaders, we’re creating a space where people feel comfortable and safe to share those issues and benefit from those policies. 

Read “What I have learned about stress and mental health since quitting rugby – By Ollie Phillips” here. 

Why will this disconnection cause issues?

Even when leaders have the best intentions, it’s impossible to solve an issue if we’re not aware of it. 

Due to the fast-paced environments we are accustomed to, it can be challenging for many people to address well-being issues. A culture of urgency, increasing workloads, and blurry boundaries can all contribute to our team not finding the space or not feeling comfortable to bring up their well-being.

This is why focusing on our team’s well-being is not only about policies, but, even more importantly, about reflecting on the culture and environment we’re creating for our teams. 

Why should leaders focus on well-being?

Well-being must be well maintained. It’s crucial for leaders to keep a healthy working environment where everyone can perform at their best for desired outcomes.

Failing to achieve this, can have huge implications for the team and the overall business. Our environments and workloads can directly link to stress and burnout. This, in turn, will influence your team’s performance, and can even make you lose great talent. 

However, leaders can be role models and demonstrate attributes of open and positive well-being for their employees. Starting with non-judgmental catch-ups, taking time and breaks for yourself, and reassuring employees about these healthy actions can all be successful ways to start. 

Through these good examples being set, employees will be encouraged to follow, allowing an increase in well-being advocacy and positivity.

How can we as leaders build a culture of well-being?

There are many ways of doing this, and for each leader and business, it would be different. However, we can start with some non-negotiables:

• Create a safe environment where people can openly talk about their well-being, their professional and personal lives, and how they might be impacting each other. Once people feel comfortable and safe to talk about an issue, we can start putting strategies and policies in place to help them get better. 
• Reflect on your culture. Cultures in the workplace are created by the behaviours we demonstrate day in and day out. Taking the time to reflect on what those behaviours are and what they are communicating to our teams is a great first step towards a healthier culture and workplace. 
• Allow flexibility and boundaries. These two can seem opposites, but they don’t have to be. Now more than ever, the lines between work and life are getting blurrier and blurrier. This is why it’s also more important now to create boundaries that help us achieve balance. This is an extremely hard task because it completely varies from person to person. Nonetheless, just having honest conversations about it can benefit everyone in our teams, including ourselves. 
• Lead by example. More important than what we say, it’s what we do. This is why as leaders, we need to lead by example. It’s not enough to tell your team to take time for themselves, if they don’t see you doing it, they will assume that it’s not okay. A great example of this is how we behave during holidays, are you still sending emails? If so, you might as well be telling your team that it’s not ok to truly disconnect while on holiday. (Read more about disconnecting while on holiday here). 

By creating balance and support, individuals can enter and stay in their optimal zone of functioning, which is a healthy and stable state of well-being.

Read “Why daily exercise should form part of your corporate strategy – By Ollie Phillips” here.

Optimist view:

At Optimist Performance, we believe that great individuals and teams start with well-being. This is why, in our leadership and coaching programmes, we not only focus on business issues but also consider how personal challenges could be impacting our professional lives. 

Learn more about our coaching programmes and book your free call to see if we are the right fit.

Are you ready to get the best out of each person on your team, including yourself? Then you need to start looking at the human behind the performance. Get in touch with us today to learn more about how we can help you and your team become the best versions of yourselves.

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This is where Spotlight and other personality profiles can help. Personality profiles help to raise our own and others’ awareness about our preferences, our strengths, our view of the world, styles of communication and more. This awareness will, in turn, enhance our team performance.

Understanding Spotlight Diagnostics and Personality Profiles

Spotlight will give us a much better understanding about our mindsets and behavioural styles. It will bring awareness about our drivers, strengths, stressors, coping mechanisms, how we deal with challenges, and much more.

There are 4 main styles, and we all have a combination of all of them. The difference is that for each person, the intensity of each style will change. 

While identifying our preferences can be incredibly helpful, it can also lead us to limit individuals to simplistic categories, which is the complete opposite of what personality profiles should be about. 

So, it’s important to remember that every person is different and that while we may share some personality aspects, there are many individual nuances to each one of us. There is no right or wrong, no one aspect is “better” than another…it’s all about how we utilise different elements across different situations. In simple terms, when we need to dial up or down our natural preferences for the good of the team. 

How can we enhance Team Performance using Personality profiles?

Now that we have clarity on what personality profiles are and that they are not about putting people in boxes, let’s focus on how they can help enhance our team performance. 

Sometimes, it’s easier to fall into the trap of believing that everyone ‘thinks, feels and does’ the same way we do. This in turn can lead us to see people’s behaviours and comments as an attack on ourselves when, in reality, it just means that they are different. 

The way personality profiles help is by raising awareness about ourselves and the rest of our team. This, in turn, can help us:

Improve our communication

Knowing how each person prefers to communicate can help us adapt our communication style to the person that we’re talking to. This can help us with feedback, challenging conversations, and overall communication with others.

For example, if you know someone has a direct style of communication, you can lead the conversation with facts and clear points, rather than use a ‘story-telling’ approach. 

You can also read more about styles of communication here. 

Enhancing collaboration

Understanding how people like to collaborate and what their preferred behaviours are can help us align roles and responsibilities, assign projects, and create ways to collaborate that best suit the people in the team. 

For example, if you have people who are highly creative and need time to explore different ideas, maybe you can organise creative meetings, and let people know in advance what the meeting is about, so those who need time to plan and reflect as opposed to ideate ‘in the moment’ can fully engage in the conversation too.

Avoid conflict

As we mentioned above, it can be easy to misinterpret other people’s behaviours and comments. However, understanding people’s preferences can help us see their behaviours as just different from ours, rather than a criticism. 

For example, on a team, you may have some people who prefer details and others who are more of a big picture. By understanding these dynamics, the team can address potential friction points proactively and find common ground. 

Increase empathy within the team

When team members learn about each other’s personality profiles, they gain insights into their colleagues’ behaviours and reactions. This deeper understanding can cultivate empathy, patience, and a more supportive team culture where people are more likely to accommodate each other’s working styles. 

Enhance job satisfaction

When people feel understood, they are utilising their strengths at work and they feel more connected to the team, they will have higher job satisfaction. This will, in turn, impact their individual performance and, ultimately, enhance our team performance too. 

The Optimist View…

A great leader is one who is self-aware, who knows themselves and the people in their team too. 

In the fast-paced environment we work in, dedicating time to understanding ourselves and others better can be seen as something not critical for our overall success. 

However, a team is a group of people working together, which means that if we want to enhance team performance, we need to get the best out of each person in the team, and the only way to do this long-term is by focusing on the person behind the job rather than on the job itself. 

This is why at Optimist Performance, we focus on people and people’s behaviours to increase their performance. 

If you want to know more about how we can help you and your team, get in touch with us today for a free consultation. 

Check out what our Eternal Optimists say about Spotlight here. 

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Welcome to this month’s Optimistic Insights, where we’ll delve into the intriguing topic of ego in leadership and the journey towards authentic interactions with others.

Introduction:

Have you ever found yourself in a leadership position, surrounded by success and accolades, only to realise that there’s a sense of dissonance? Perhaps you’ve noticed how easily people laugh at your jokes or agree with your decisions. The truth is, success can inflate our egos, leading us down a path of illusion rather than authentic leadership.

The Illusion of Success

The inflated ego that often accompanies success—the corner office, the higher salary, the easy laughs—can lead us to believe we’ve found the ultimate key to leadership. However, this perception can be deceiving. As we rise in the ranks, we acquire more power. And with that, people are more likely to want to please us by listening more attentively, agreeing more, and laughing at our jokes. All of this tickles the ego. And when the ego is tickled, it grows.

Deflating the Ego and Journeying to Authentic Leadership

In our fast-paced professional environments, the ego can often wield significant influence, shaping our interactions, decisions, and ultimately, our leadership style. However, left unchecked, our ego can hinder our ability to connect with others authentically and lead with integrity.

In a 2018 Harvard Business Review article (read the full article HERE) the dangers of an inflated ego were explored, shedding light on how it can narrow our perspective, distort our behavior, and erode trust within teams. But it’s not all bad, because recognising and managing our egos is the first step we take in cultivating authentic leadership.

Self-Assessment: How Does Your Ego Show Up?

To help you on this journey of self-discovery, we’ve included a brief self-assessment for you to reflect on how your ego manifests in your daily interactions. Take a moment to consider the following questions:

1. Do you find yourself seeking recognition or validation for your accomplishments?
2. How do you respond to feedback or criticism? Do you tend to become defensive or open-minded?
3. Are you able to acknowledge and learn from your mistakes, or do you feel the need to always be right?
4. Do you prioritise collaboration and team success, or are you primarily focused on individual achievements?
5. How do you handle situations where others outshine you or receive praise for their contributions?

Cultivating Authenticity: Practical Tips

As you reflect on your responses to the self-assessment, consider incorporating the following tips into your leadership approach:

• Practice active listening and empathy to foster genuine connections with your team members.
• Embrace vulnerability by admitting mistakes and seeking input from others.
• Prioritize the collective success of the team over individual recognition.
• Foster a culture of trust and collaboration by encouraging open communication and feedback.

Closing Thoughts

Authentic leadership is not about having all the answers or projecting a flawless image; it’s about showing up as your true self and inspiring others to do the same. As you embark on this journey of self-reflection and growth, remember that every step forward, no matter how small, brings you closer to becoming the leader you aspire to be.

Thank you for joining us on this exploration of ego and authenticity in leadership. We look forward to continuing this conversation with you. Drop us a line via explore@optimistperformance.com or start a discussion on social media; Twitter or LinkedIn. 

Let’s make sure you’re smashing it. 

To thrive together, The Optimist Team 💪

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In this article, we delve into this distinctive feature, unravelling the synergies between high-performance sports and business. With insights from the recent Forrester Tech & Innovation Forum 2021, we’ll uncover the valuable lessons applicable to high-performance team development.

Parallels Between Business and Elite Sports Leadership: A Unifying Thread

Leaders in both business and elite sports share commonalities in creating vision, strategy, and assembling successful teams. The defining link is understanding people—an element crucial for inspiring and empowering individuals to achieve outstanding results. Great leaders, in sports and business, act as connective tissue, pulling together diverse talents into a team that produces extraordinary results. Authentic leadership, fostering an environment of trust, loyalty, and empowerment, is paramount.

The Public Eye: A Notable Distinction

Unlike executives who operate behind closed doors, athletes, team captains, and coaches face constant public scrutiny. They navigate media attention and criticism, a unique challenge absent in the corporate realm. This distinction highlights the need for resilience and confidence, qualities crucial in dealing with external pressures.

Leadership Parallels: Navigating Two Worlds

In both business and elite sports leadership, a shared goal emerges: understanding people and inspiring collective success. Join us as we navigate these parallels connecting seemingly distinct worlds.

The Leadership Factor: Drew Povey’s Blueprint

Drew Povey introduces the “leadership factor”—a blend of curiosity, changeability, charisma, connection, confidence, collaboration, and courage. In the upcoming sections, we’ll delve into each characteristic, uncovering its role in fostering exceptional leadership.

Curiosity: The Cornerstone of Effective Leadership

Leaders in sports and business continually seek new ideas, making curiosity a cornerstone of effective leadership.

Changeability: Navigating Organisational Fitness

Effective leaders navigate change, ensuring organisational fitness by fostering resilience and adaptability.

Charisma: Beyond Inherent Quality

Charisma involves practices aligned with one’s personality—focusing on a positive demeanour, caring about others’ opinions, and being influential.

Connection: Paramount Purpose Alignment

Building a connection with the team’s purpose is paramount. Business leaders can draw inspiration from sports, focusing on values, heritage, and the team’s role in a wider context.

Confidence: Instilling Belief in Strengths

Leaders build team confidence by removing internal barriers and instilling belief in strengths with a motivational style that inspires confidence in others.

Collaboration: Building a Culture of Trust

Success in sports and business demands collaboration. Empowering team members to make decisions builds a culture of trust and collaboration.

Courage: Mark of Authentic Leadership

Courageous leaders stand by principles in high-pressure situations, embodying authenticity, resilience, emotional intelligence, and commitment to purpose.

A Conceptual Playbook for Effective Leadership

To achieve high performance, leaders must be intentional, consistent, and continuous in their efforts. Success lies in inspiring, motivating, and encouraging teams.

While this article provides a conceptual playbook, Optimist’s coaching methodology goes further, creating highly individualized playbooks tailored to each team’s unique needs, challenges, and goals.

Ready to Elevate Your Performance? Explore Your Leadership Playbook with Us.

Are you ready to transition from great to world-class performance? Reach out to us, and let’s embark on a journey to explore your leadership playbook and kickstart your high-performance ascent together.

The post Unlocking High-Performance Leadership: Insights from Elite Sports – By Optimist Performance appeared first on Optimist Performance.

Are you familiar with the saying “people leave managers, not companies”? Having competitive salaries and perks is important, but money is not everything. Additionally, it is essential to think not only about keeping your employees in post but also about keeping them happy and engaged. This is where a coaching leadership style can help you reduce your turnover and increase long-term employee satisfaction and engagement.

What are the main reasons for people leaving their jobs?

42% of respondents to the IIP survey stated that having a bad boss was their primary reason for leaving their job.

According to a survey conducted by Investors in People (IPP), the main reasons for people leaving their jobs in 2023, after money, are management, being valued, career progression, and working hours. 

Check out our article about how poor managers can hurt your team morale.

Consider factors in your organisation that could be adversely affecting staff retention rates – these might not be immediately obvious but employee engagement survey results can be one way of identifying priorities or pinch-points for organisational culture.

What is a coaching leadership style?

A coaching leadership style is centred around people and their needs, and when done well, can help people feel more satisfied, engaged and connected to the organisation and the team.

This leadership approach aims to bring the best out in teams by guiding them through goals and challenges. The ultimate purpose is to develop people and create a continuous learning environment. In leadership terms, a coaching leader would also act often as a mentor or guide to individuals, Offering guidance and support when needed. 

Sir John Whitmore described it as “A coaching style of leadership requires that you connect at the human level, beyond the task and stop thinking that the leader is “the expert” who has to tell everyone the best way to do things. Coaching is based on trust, belief and non-judgement.” 

A coaching leadership style generates awareness and responsibility in people: 

*The benefits of a coaching leadership style (source: Coaching for Performance book)

There are many skills we can work on in order to become better leaders. Fortunately, studies have shown that managers can improve their coaching skills in as little as 15 hours, provided they’re prepared to invest in how to learn to coach in the first place. 

For a coaching leadership style, there are two skills that are essential. The first one is the ability to ask great questions. Coaching is about self-reflection, and this is something only we can do, we cannot be told to change our behaviours, we need to go on this journey ourselves. 

Read more about “how to use questions to empower your team”  here.

The second skill is active listening. Actively listening to someone instead of just waiting to respond is one of the most effective ways to understand your employees but also to make them feel valued and appreciated. 

You can learn more about active listening here. 

How can you use a coaching leadership style to reduce employee turnover?

Using a coaching leadership style is about helping people with self-reflection and allowing them to come up with their own answers. By asking questions that seek to understand your team and actively listening to their view of the world, you can help them find their own purpose but also align it to the purpose of the organisation. 

You also need to help people recognise the value they bring to the organisation and encourage them to bring the best version of themselves to their job. When we are too involved in our day-to-day tasks this can be challenging, a classic case of not being able to see the wood for the trees. As a leader, you have the responsibility to help them see their positive impact on the organisation, which will help people feel more involved and valued. 

An important part of a coaching leadership style is recognising we don’t have all the answers. This knowledge will help you avoid micromanaging and instead encourage people to find the answers for themselves. This will in turn encourage autonomy and ownership. Allowing people to come up with their own ideas, projects and new ways of working, will encourage them to take responsibility. 

Ultimately, a leader/coach facilitates conversations: using meetings, team away days and 1-1s not only to discuss operational stuff but also to gain a deeper understanding of your team and enhance trust. Knowing your team and their individual needs can help you find the right flexibility and motivation that people need to feel happy and engaged with their jobs. 

Check our article about how to optimise performance reviews here.

The Optimist View…

Ultimately, we all want to feel valued, be part of a team, and feel we contribute to a bigger purpose. And this is where a coaching leadership style can help your organisation. 

It changes the dynamics from telling or dictating to a more collaborative and empowered environment where people feel safe to speak up and share their ideas, which will, no doubt, encourage them to take more responsibility. 

At Optimist Performance, we work with leaders to help them develop the necessary skills to become even better leaders. As we said before, no one has all the answers, and coaching is about continuous learning. This is what we are passionate about, helping leaders become their best selves to in turn get the most out of their teams and ensure their organisation goes from strength to strength.

If you want to take your and your team’s leadership skills to the next level, get in touch with us.

The post Can your leadership style help reduce employee turnover? – By Optimist Performance appeared first on Optimist Performance.

Minding Your Health Each Day

Your health should be a top priority as a business professional. It’s essential to eat healthy, stay hydrated, and get adequate rest every night. Exercise is also crucial.

Form a habit of working out daily, whether hitting the gym or taking a brisk walk during your lunch break. You should also be mindful of your mental health; meditation and mindfulness techniques can help you stay present in the moment while significantly reducing stress.

Watch our video about mental health with Simon Trower; Founder of Brave Mind here.

Prioritizing Your Family

You might be tempted to let work take over your life and neglect your family. But it’s important to place relationships with your loved ones above any work obligations.

Take time out of your relentless schedule to spend quality time with family and friends. A work-life balance is critical to your overall well-being, and your family can give you meaningful support and a sense of balance you may not find anywhere else.

You can also read “7 tips to have a better work-life balance” here.

Managing Your Time Effectively

Time management is key when you are busy. You need to make the most of your time, which means being wise about how you manage it. Prioritize your to-do list and batch similar tasks together.

Also, don’t be afraid to delegate tasks to team members with more experience or time to do them — you can’t do everything and don’t have to. Further, take breaks throughout the day to avoid burnout and gain a healthy perspective on your work. 

Taking Holiday

Holidays are essential to recharging your batteries, and you must make time for them as a busy executive or professional. Take a break from work to enjoy some time with your loved ones (or on your own). 

Remember to plan your trip in advance so you have time to prepare and train any team members who will take on your responsibilities while you’re away. Most importantly, fully disconnect from work so you can genuinely enjoy your vacation!

Truly Disconnecting From Work

Learning to truly disconnect from work is also vital for your health. Turn off your work email notifications on your phone outside of work hours. Avoid bringing work home, and learn to leave work at work. When you’re at home, take time to enjoy a hobby or two, or simply relax with your favourite book or TV show. Disconnecting will allow you to recharge and come back to work with a fresh perspective.

Think about it — how often do you get this uninterrupted time with your family? Make the most of it. Perhaps set a rule to only check emails once a day, or better, yet, switch off those notifications completely! The world of work can wait. Wouldn’t you rather look back and recall the laughter-filled game night or adventure hike instead of another regular day at work?

Stepping away from work not only benefits your familial bonds but also boosts your mental health. It’s an opportunity to rejuvenate and return to work with renewed energy and fresh ideas.

The Optimist View…

Being a busy executive or professional is thrilling and challenging. However, you must remember to take care of yourself and recharge regularly. Be mindful of your health, make your family a priority, learn effective time management techniques, take breaks, and disconnect from your job. Recharging will help you stay on top of your game and be the best version of yourself — both in your personal life and profession!

If you are ready to become the best version of yourself, you can have a look at our Optimistic Coaching here or get it touch with us today to see how we can help you achieve your goals both in your personal and professional life.

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What can cause anxiety at work and what can leaders do to help?

There are many things that can cause anxiety at work. Every person can feel anxious or stressed about different situations.

In the same way, not everyone will have the same needs, so while it would be impossible to offer a one-size-fits-all solution, we’ve tried to compile a list of the things that seem to cause anxiety for a large group of people and think of what leaders can do to help. 

Unrealistic deadlines and work overload 

We live in a busy world, where everything seems urgent. So, as leaders, we need to be conscious of how much we are asking of our team and how this impacts them. 

Having honest and open conversations about time requirements and realistic deadlines is the first step towards avoiding anxiety. 

It can be easy to underestimate the time it takes to complete a task, on the other hand, when we have more expertise, we can assume that people will do things as fast as we would. But we need to remember that it’s not us doing the task. Instead, we need to consider who is completing the job and how long they need to do it. 

This said, there are always going to be urgent matters, but it is our job as leaders to clarify what the priorities are and ensure that our teams have the time and space to carry them out. 

Feeling a lack of control

For people who like to be in control, this can be a really stressful situation. Again, it’s our job as leaders to work with our teams to ensure they have as much control as possible over their jobs. Having autonomy and control is also a great way to increase accountability and motivation.

Trust is a must when it comes to control. As leaders, we need to allow others to take ownership of their jobs by giving them autonomy. However, we can see how this can be challenging for some people, which is why agreeing on deadlines, outcomes, or metrics can help both sides feel more comfortable about it.

Not having enough support, direction or information

This becomes even more challenging when working from home because you can’t just turn around and ask. So, making sure everyone has all the information they need to carry out their jobs is an essential part. 

It’s also a must to ensure that there are enough channels of communication and support between the team, no matter where people are working from. If you work from home and even at different times, how are you ensuring everyone feels supported? This is not an easy task, but the first step would be to understand what people’s needs are. 

This is something we can relate to. For example, we have some people in our team who need more interactions throughout the day, so we ensure regular check-ins with them. 

Uncertainty

This can be particularly stressful when companies are undergoing big changes. As humans, we don’t like uncertainty, but as leaders, we can help our team navigate it in a more positive way. 

(Read our article “looking at uncertainty the Optimist Way”)

We need to be open and honest with our teams in order to help them deal with uncertainty. It’s also important to show our vulnerability and admit that we don’t know it all. And even if it seems obvious, we shouldn’t underestimate the power of listening. Opening channels of communication where people can express their feelings about the situation and ensuring that it’s okay to use them can be a great way to deal with uncertainty. 

Toxic or negative environments

It’s not difficult to imagine how a negative or toxic environment would cause us anxiety. This is why it’s so important to work on our culture and how we carry it out that culture day in and day out. 

We work with clients to help them do just this, and while we know it’s not an easy task, we know it needs to start at the top. 

(Read our article about how poor managers are back for your health)

Real cultures are not the words on the wall, the real culture is how people behave daily within the organisation. Taking the time to work with your team and think about your company’s real values and how each person understands and lives and breathes those values is the first step towards a great workplace. 

The Optimist View…

As we mentioned before, there are many situations that can cause anxiety and there is no one-size-fits-all rule for dealing with it. However, we think it’s the leader’s job to care about their team members and make sure they do everything within their power to ensure everyone feels great at work. 

If you want to know more about how to work with your team to create a great culture, get in touch with us. We love working with companies that care about their employees and realise that investing in them is the best road to success. 

The post Can leaders help with anxiety at work? – By Optimist Performance appeared first on Optimist Performance.

Having formal organisational structures in place helps outline how activities are directed in accordance with defined roles and responsibilities. These structures often determine how information flows between management levels and across different departments.

Organisational structures vary depending on factors such as the company’s stage of development, geography and the verticals they work across. They can range from hierarchical pyramids to virtually horizontal ones. Businesses can be organised across countries, sectors or divisions. They can be matrix-based with team members working across different projects or a networked structure which juggles subcontractors, freelancers and different locations.

Organisational structures according to Frederic Laloux

As well as expressing organisations in terms of their shape, Frederic Laloux takes a colourful look at how groups are structured in his book  “Reinventing Organizations”.

Within the book, he uses colours to illustrate how organisations operate across different kinds of settings, from the Mafia to fast-moving consumer goods brands. Laloux says each of these structures is suited to the context within which it operates, with no one structure being better than the other. And there are advantages and disadvantages to each of the colours:

Red – structured around a strong leader (usually an alpha male) with subordinates jockeying for power. A red structure can be seen in wolf packs, street gangs and the Mafia.

Amber – organisations have both a pyramid structure and a clear chain of command with job titles defining people’s place within the hierarchy. Decisions are made by the upper levels with the lower levels following orders. Armies, governmental departments and the Catholic church are all amber organisations.

Orange  – these still incorporate a pyramid structure but incorporate a greater degree of freedom which helps the organisation pursue greater innovation. Orange is the dominating organisational structure for market-leading brands including BMW, Nike and Coca-Cola. Despite its brightness, orange has a darker side  – corporate greed, short-termism and reckless exploitation of planetary resources are side effects which are fast becoming difficult to ignore.

Green – while green organisations still operate with a pyramid and define staff functions, there is more of a focus on empowering front-line employees. The pyramid becomes inverted with managers at the top and middle encouraged to share power and control to become servant leaders. A green structure is used by ice cream company Ben & Jerry’s

Teal – these organisations are complex with distributed authority and adaptive systems. Teams are self-managing or are organised as decentralised networks. The static pyramid is replaced by a fluid hierarchy with power flowing towards those with the most expertise, passion or interest. Outdoor clothing company Patagonia is an example of a teal organisation.

The top five common roadblocks to performance

While there are differences in terms of the shape – or colour – of these organisations, there are also some commonalities. To achieve the best performance, your organisational structure needs to provide clear and open channels of communication, as well as opportunities for staff across different departments to collaborate to solve business issues.

Similarly, information needs to flow freely between layers, enabling managers to make informed decisions which are beneficial for the entire business.

Removing and redressing the barriers which impede information flow and communication within an organisation are therefore vital for its performance. The top five most common roadblocks to performance that Optimist Performance has identified are:

1. Communication issues (both internal and external) which include ‘silo working’ where a company’s structure impedes the sharing of information between departments 
2. Company culture, including a lack of clarity about the organisation’s mission, values and purposes – all essential to creating a positive culture
3. Issues surrounding change within companies (e.g. growth and mergers, restructure)
4. Collaboration (between management layers, departments and team members)
5. Internal business processes

Just as every company has an organisational structure which works best for them, it can also have its own complex and unique barriers which can impede communication and information sharing. We often see some of these top five roadblocks in companies which are experiencing and adapting to rapid or significant growth. This can be either in terms of onboarding a large intake of new hires or where companies merge with other companies with different cultures or ways of working.

The Optimist View…

Creating change as a driver for performance improvement requires both management and staff buy-in. It’s crucial to make sure that everyone is committed and involved in building structures and processes which will help embed longer-term plans for longer-term success. 

At Optimist Performance, we create bespoke programmes designed to tackle each of the key roadblocks, prioritising the most pressing issue or issues that each individual business needs to solve. We work collaboratively to help a company establish new processes and ways of working to build positive behavioural change in the longer term, factoring in how a company will continue to hold itself accountable. 

If you want to know more about how we can help you and your team, get in touch with us today. 

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