I am no psychologist and I make that clear from the outset, however there are some simple learnings here that I think every leader can truly benefit from. As you consider YOUR return to work 95 % of your teams NOW is going to be dependent on their well-being and feeling good at work. Therefore as a leader the key to your behaviour will be set around modelling a healthy resilience in front of the team.
Part of healthy resilience will be considering the way your speak by engaging in encouraging dialogue in front of your team. Visible action at work will be about making the moment about work but also caring for them in the downtimes. This is found in ensuring you can engage them in fun conversations and talk about them and their interests. As an aside, it is also important for you to allow them to do the same for you. Building resilience is reciprocal!
I have come to realise that well-being in our brains is dependent on how well we control our emotions.Thinking simply about the brain there are several questions we will all consider as we return to work. Is my future secure? Will I still be getting paid? Will I be safe at work? These and many other questions reside in the survival part of the brain. Our brains will focus on survival until we feel these questions and feelings of insecurity are put to rest.
However when our well-being is taken care of then the survival part of the brain won’t come online and actually goes to rest. Our minds can be like a set of scales and essentially the set of scales need to be in favour of the wellness brain. It is as simple as this, our survival brain at work needs to be saying all is well at work, I have my job security, I am being paid and the team are happy . If you are modelling resilient behaviour and are able to answer these types of questions, it produces that lovely feeling of ahhhhh or soothe in our well-being brain. Our scale is brought into favour of the well-being brain and you will have a team prepared to work and function to the fullest capacity. In short, your well-being and your teams is all about your well-being brain being able to calm the survival brain.
