The following is an excerpt from an interview with Laura Putman, author of Workplace Wellness At Works and CEO of Motion Infusion. Click here to hear the full interview on the Returns On Wellbeing Institute’s Youtube channel.
ROWI: Gallup research shows that managers account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement levels. This shows why managerial support is central to achieving a thriving workplace. What role do managers play in fostering or hindering employee wellbeing?
Laura: A lot of managers aren’t aware of their impact on the wellbeing of their direct reports. Research has found that your boss matters more than your doctor when it comes to the health of your heart. So, when we hear people say, “my boss is killing me,” they actually kind of mean it.
A manager can make or break the workplace culture for their team members. This is something we’re seeing across the board, in employee wellbeing, employee experience and company culture. Managers carve out little micro-cultures for team members which can be either positive or toxic.
A lot of things managers do directly impact team members’ quality of life. It can be something as simple as knowing a supervisor will say hello and make us feel safe and valued. Those behaviors really go a long way.
ROWI: Wellness program participation is low across the United States. What role do managers play in encouraging or inhibiting employee participation rates?
Laura: The largest study to date, the RAND report, found that up to 80% of employees who are eligible for these programs simply opt out. We’re still seeing low engagement rates whether employers add incentives to the equation or try to create more holistic programs.
While senior leaders are the ones who set the tone and allocate resources for these wellness initiatives, it really comes down to direct supervisors or middle managers who effectively give permission to their team members to engage with these programs or their wellbeing when they’re at work.
ROWI: What lessons can you share on why so many managers seem to ignore the wellbeing of their direct reports?
Laura: A manager’s behavior has a ripple effect, for better or for worse. For example, say my employer has decided to implement a walking challenge, and it’s all about getting more steps when you’re at work and throughout the day.
But if my direct manager eats lunch at their desk and never leaves their desk all day, I’ll get the sense that my they’ll frown on my taking a short walk.
Or consider off-hours email. Research shows that every hour a manager engages in after hours email translates to 20 minutes of after hours email time for their team members, which sends the message that, if I want to get ahead at work, I have to respond to those late night emails.
It’s a reflection of the fact that sadly we still don’t value wellbeing. We still collectively, as a society, look at it as a luxury.
ROWI: Many companies promote workers to managers because of their professional skills, but they’ve never been trained on how to be good managers. What training should companies give managers to provide a bridge for this gap?
Laura: We see this over and over. Managers advance because of their technical skills advance, but they sorely lack people skills. What’s needed is helping them understand the importance of people skills combined with actual training.
And it’s not just resistant managers, but also resistant senior leaders.
For example, we were helping a company deliver a two day offsite for their high potential managers. This was all about connecting the dots between wellbeing and building a high performing team and becoming a more effective leader.
So were working with the VP of HR for weeks on her opening keynote to these resistant managers. But, the night before, the CEO pulled the VP of HR to attend another meeting instead.
But the event happened with these 40 high potential managers, who ultimately brought the resistant CEO onboard. So, the lesson is that it’s not just about managing down, but it’s also about managing up.
I think we intuitively understand that if we invest in our wellbeing we will be more productive. We will be a more effective leader and build a higher performing team.
One of the exercises that I have people do is that I show them a series of batteries. On the left hand side, batteries are running on empty, and they progressively scale to a fully charged battery on the right side.
I ask participating managers to position themselves wherever they are on the battery scale, to stand up and move to where they are on the spectrum. We then talk about what’s contributing to either batteries being “fully charged” or your batteries being “fully depleted.” Most people speak about things that relate to wellness.
I then introduce them to the concept of managing your energy, not your time. That’s actually from the book, The Power Of Full Engagement, by ROWI: Lehrer and Tony Schwartz. That really resonates for a lot of managers and leaders.
