How to build well-being in your team

In order to optimise our health and wellbeing and decrease the risk of negative outcomes, we try to enhance protective factors and reduce risk factors. 

It is like when we hear health messages about exercising more and eating less junk food, we’re being encouraged to increase protective factors (exercise) and decrease risk factors (unhealthy food).

Protective factors and risk factors describe factors that influence the chances of positive or negative outcomes. 

Protective factors support growth, wellbeing and resilience by helping us deal more effectively with challenges and stress; they help us mitigate or counterbalance risk factors. Risk factors increase the likelihood of undesirable outcomes.

As many of us go through our days in lock-down (and when we are not in lock-down) how we nourish ourselves and our teams can make or break our days.

A positive and supportive team environment, built on goodwill, respect, kindness and appreciation nourishes everyone in the team.

When negative and below the line behaviours creep into our teams, they create a negative drag on the ecosystem, undermining the interpersonal fabric that we need to rely on to function well. 

Research highlights that there are many negative factors that create risks to the health and wellbeing of an organisation or team. These include a poor interpersonal environment, poor leadership practices and poor organisational practices.

For further information you can also read chapter 7 of my book!