Training Journal

“promoting excellence & ethics in coaching”

SUSTAINABLE WELL-BEING – MARTHA SIMPSON

Workplace well-being has never been higher on the agenda as businesses seek to squeeze more
and more output from their employees from reduced costs and resources. As a consequence
they risk squeezing their people resources to breaking point, making it more likely that
employees will succumb to absence from unrelenting stress at work. Ironically, employees are
either fearful of having no job, or are unable to cope with the highly pressured environment and
unrelenting demands of having a job.

Stress related absence from work is at an all-time high and almost half of middle managers say
they are under excessive pressure either every day or once or twice a week . The Association
for Coaching UK (AC UK) believes that coaching has an important role to play in building
resilience and well-being at work, particularly at this time when employees are feeling under
more and more pressure.

The link between being happy at work and high productivity is well established, yet if the
demanded level of high productivity is unreasonable and unrelenting it has quite the opposite
effect, causing increased disenchantment, reduced motivation, absence as a result of stress and
ultimately resignation. The likelihood of sustainable high performance and happiness at work is
increased if certain conditions are met, but first of all let’s look at the forces that mitigate against
well-being at work.

THE FORCES THAT MITIGATE AGAINST WELL-BEING

An estimated 134 million working days were lost to sickness absence in the year to June 2011 ,
which equates to 2.1% of all working time. Since stress is now the number one reason for
absence let’s consider some of the commonly recognised causes:

Too much work and not enough time

Whatever the performance arena, whether that is the office, the mountain or the racetrack,
people can normally exhibit high performance in their area of expertise for short or even medium
term bursts of output. However, it is obvious that if this high level of output is required over an
excessive period the performance will drop or the performer will simply not have enough time for
recovery between expected outputs and will burn out. Terry Orlick, describes this well in his
book In Pursuit of Excellence, when he exhorts readers to remember that recovery time is as
important to high performance as practise and training.

For someone with high expectations about their own performance and for high achievers, loss of
excellence in performance is particularly stressful. It is also very demotivating and the longer it
continues, the greater the demotivation and sense of defeat. This puts stress on both body and
mind.

Loss of confidence

One of the impacts of unrelenting pressure which leads to a drop in performance is loss of
confidence. People start to question their abilities and commence a self-dialogue which
questions whether or not they were all that great at delivering performance in the first
place. This can also include a slow burning anger under the surface relating to the unfairness of
the demands and a general frustration at work. The factors which impact negatively and
positively on confidence are shown below.

Factors which affect confidence – Simpson, 2008

We will look at the positive impact factors below.

Poor relationship with ‘manager’ or ‘leader’

Apart from sole traders, all other people engaged in a business have internal relationships as
well as external facing relationships, the majority of people as employees. A high number of
absences and departures relate specifically to human relations within the workplace and the
CIPD has reported that four in ten managers are ineffective . It is critical that line managers pay
attention to the impact of their behaviours and requests.

Interestingly enough the factors stated as increasing confidence in the model above reflect
behaviours which a good manager will demonstrate to staff: listening, supporting, providing
feedback and appropriate self-determination.

Uncertainty about job security

In the recent environment, this has created a wave of anxiety among various sectors of the
working community. As unemployment and inflation have risen, greater pressure has been
exerted on those whose job security is fundamental to the happiness and security of themselves
and their families.

In the recent economic environment job security has become tenuous, but perhaps creating a
culture of high trust and openness is still possible in many companies.

Environmental stress

Spending long hours in a place which is not conducive to the required work is stressful. Open
plan offices which save space and are reputed to give employees better opportunities to build
relationships can be noisy and stressful. It’s difficult to find an article which argues for the
benefits, but many thousands on the negative impact.

CREATING SUSTAINABLE WELL-BEING AT WORK

So with all these factors mitigating against well-being at work what can be done to create a
sustainable agenda for well-being and to help people to be happy at work?

The Association for Coaching believes that coaching provides just such an antidote to enable
sustainable well-being, when used as part of an overall well-being strategy and last year’s
conference was devoted entirely to resilience and well-being.

The links between mental and physical well-being are now taken for granted. The best
conditions for mental well-being include the ability to develop one’s potential, do productive and
creative work, build strong and positive relationships and contribute to community. It is
enhanced when an individual is able to fulfil their personal and social goals and achieve a sense
of purpose .

Coaching resides in the arena of such goals. In one study that looked at the impact of coaching
on 19 senior women, even a short coaching programme of three sessions with an external
qualified coach increased their satisfaction by 100%, in the topic area which formed the
coaching agenda.

Pre-Coaching and Post-Coaching topic satisfaction levels across 19 participants – Simpson, 2008

In addition to supporting satisfaction levels, how else can coaching contribute to sustainable
wellbeing? Here are three areas where coaching has proven impact.

Personal values

A mismatch between organisational culture and personal goals, values and purpose can create
stress and tension in the workplace. Working with a coach can help people to think through and
identify points of conflict and take steps to resolve it. Personal values, if harnessed, can be a
tremendous motivation but, if these are contrary to the behaviours expected in the workplace, or
are polar opposites of the culture within which someone is working then sustainable well-being is
placed in jeopardy. Clarifying a sense of purpose, personal values and personal goals are often
at the heart of Professional Coaching. These areas are much more critical to the sense of being
happy at work than lower level areas like physical environment, behaviours or skills. History is
populated by examples of people working in difficult environments with poor capabilities and
tools, who are still able to complete incredible feats because they are driven by a sense of
purpose and what is important.

Coaching can help individuals to be clear about their values and explore the match, or mismatch,
between personally held values and the values of the organisation. Work and dialogue can then
begin on whether or not it is possible to align the values of the individual and the organisation,
and clarify any points of conflict. This clarity and alignment of values is a positive contributing
factor in improving mental well-being in the workplace.

Work life balance

The balance between work and other parts of life is delicate in a society which sees workers in
the UK working longer and longer hours, many of them longer than our European
counterparts. It is critical for people to be able to balance the needs of self, family and the
workplace in a way which is sustainable over the longer term.

Traditionally, we thought of work life balance as the domain of women, but experience and
discussion with coaching clients confirms that it is every bit as challenging for men, who also
want to balance the demands of work with a satisfying personal life.

Many companies are now offering flexible working as a means of giving people as much choice
as possible over their working lives. Where this includes working from home it is important to
monitor the volume of work which is being done outside of working hours. Technological tools,
such as smartphones are becoming a must have, but can soon creep into every life space: the
dining table; the bedside cabinet, the shower room. This was not the intention of flexible
working. Again, working with a coach can offer people an opportunity to think through the best
approach to keeping a balance over the demands of varying aspects of life, with someone who is
non-biased. Sustainability is crucial to this conversation, as is boundary setting which allows
employees to have structured time when they are fully ‘at work’ and other times when they are
fully ‘at play’.

Building resilience

Sustainable well-being in the workplace will also be influenced by an individual’s resilience and
the behaviours and tactics people adopt to minimise the risk to their health and well-being from
a long hours culture. However, while some people seem to have an innate resilience, there is
evidence that resilience can be developed and coaching can be crucial in helping to achieve this.
Music is a great example of an area where there are those who can excel because they are
‘gifted’ and those who can excel because they have support, dedication and commitment to
being the best musician they can be. The same is true of resilience. Clearly there are those
whose make up enables them to be naturally resilient and there are those who with support,
intention and commitment become more resilient.

Resilience is about the ability to adapt rapidly to change: it is about living in the ‘here and now’,
rather than regretful yearning for ‘what was’ or ‘what may be’. At an organisational level
resilience is about the ability to quickly assimilate environmental information and build empathy,
trust and commitment in the organisation using excellent communication skills. At a personal
level, it is about building upon a foundation of emotional competence which includes self-
awareness, confidence to act decisively and a high degree of self-belief based on a clear sense
of identity, values and beliefs.

Coaching can help people explore their current levels of personal resilience and develop
strategies to improve and develop their own resilience. Working with a coach supports people in
facing their own vulnerability and is often the starting point for moving forward confidently
having cleared their headspace and given themselves the opportunity to move beyond limiting
beliefs into the arena of confident and resilient action.

The Model of Coaching Impact below shows the outcomes possible from coaching that can be
applied to generating a more sustainable agenda for workplace wellbeing. Coaching impacts
positively on confidence, enables people to develop different perspectives, gives them new tools
and strategies all of which support and sustain new behaviours.

Model of Coaching Impact© – Simpson, 2008

In short, sustainable well-being at work is possible. However, it requires positive action on the
part of both employer and employee. More and more people are leaving their current workplace
as a result of excessive stress at work and facilitators and coaches are well placed to modify this
trend. Wise employers will recognise the value of resourcing existing employees through
coaching initiatives, rather than continuing to spend increasing sums on recruitment and staff
absence.

For individuals it is important, whether your organisation provides it or not, that you take
responsibility for your own well-being and invest in your mental and physical health. Even a
short coaching programme or on-going low frequency programme can make the difference
between being happy and well at work and being one of the stress statistics.

As one person who experienced coaching has said about sustainable well-being: “I found the
key to the door, the game has changed!”

Martha Simpson – Association for Coaching UK, [Link]

About Martha Simpson

Martha Simpson is former Head of the Association for Coaching Scotland and runs an Executive
Coaching business. [Link].

Martha is also the founding Director of Harvey McMillan Associates Ltd, a strategic HR Company
and is a Fellow of the CIPD. [Link].