Do you know companies with a self-care culture are more likely to experience prosperity & employee engagement? The question is how self-care culture is created in an organization. Well, the short answer is “leadership can foster a self-care culture” because leadership and self-care culture are directly linked.
Building a certain culture in any organization always starts with developing a certain environment. This includes holding yourself accountable as a leader to create an environment and foster a culture. Over time, with your experience, skills, and continuous effort, you can retain & attract a talent pool whose values align with yours.
However, there are certain steps that you need to take as a leader to influence your organization’s culture and foster a self-care culture. Let’s look into these steps.
- Leaders should be self-aware
The first & foremost requirement is that leaders should be self-aware of their emotions and trigger moments. When leaders have self-awareness, they have a huge amount of understanding, wisdom, and emotional intelligence. Self-awareness enables leaders to engage themselves selves investing in others (employees).
Self-aware leaders communicate more effectively with their employees and therefore tend to transform the environment. Self-aware leaders create a safe work environment and encourage employees to make mistakes and learn from them, which eventually helps employees to become a better person & professional.
- Leaders should lead by examples
Effective leaders always lead by examples, not by explanations. As a leader, you’re responsible for fostering a self-care culture in your organization. One way to do this is to introduce an environment of self-care in your workplace—set examples for your employees to follow. Adopt self-care strategies and effectively perform them at your workplace. If you’re an effective leader and perform those self-care practices creatively, then your employees will learn and adapt as well.
Leadership and self-care culture are directly linked to each other.
Some practices include:
- Encouraging your employees to take lunch breaks away from their desks.
- Give them enough time to visit a nearby café alone or with their colleagues so they can divert their minds from work for a little time.
- Encourage staff to talk short breaks during the whole day to keep their mind & body refreshed.
- Teach self-care to your employees
When leadership is aware of the importance of self-care, it is more likely that employees will feel secure & safe because leadership and self-care culture are directly linked to each other. It all links to building an environment where employees can practice self-care. One way to foster a self-care culture is by sharing self-care tips with your employees. Leaders should share their personal self-care practices and the following as well.
- Encourage employees to take time for activities they enjoy.
- Enforce them to stay hydrated throughout the day and ask them to eat their meals on time.
- Teach them the importance of incorporating physical activity into their lives – set up a gym in your company as well.
- Encourage them to be more open and share their feelings with a friend whenever they feel overwhelmed and anxious.
Incorporate mental health sessions in their workweek or month.