So often at the moment we hear the phrase ‘these are unprecedented times’. But what does that mean, exactly?
Maybe you’re a leader facing new challenges in running your organization or business during the lock-down. Maybe you’re just wondering how to keep your head above water for yourself and your family. Challenges of this magnitude demand a response that requires people to come together, but to do so in isolation.
How do you keep working, taking care of your teams, family and friends, home schooling the kids, and stay sane, social and healthy, albeit virtually? If you’re asking these questions right now, welcome to the club.
Change is everywhere. Right now, it also feels like it’s been especially imposed upon us. It is impossible to respond effectively to everything that demands our attention. Many of us feel our work and ‘real’ selves are misaligned, disconnected from ourselves and others, or we feel distracted and unable to focus. When our minds wander, productivity and well-being suffer, too.
Mental Training Matters
The most forward-thinking companies are proactive in mental health management. For example, Aetna saw a $3K productivity increase and a $2K medical expenditure decrease per employee with its mindfulness programs (read more about it here: The Busier You Are, the More You Need Mindfulness). Transport for London saw a 71% drop in absenteeism due to stress, anxiety, and depression when it began offering mindfulness programs to its employees.
Mental training impacts the bottom line and employee engagement.
Meet WAVE: A Model for Resilience
Just like ocean waves, we can’t stop thoughts from rising or change from happening. We can, however, build capacity for optimal performance during any stage of transition, from momentary stillness to sudden disruptions.
When introduced properly, mindfulness, emotional intelligence (EI), and resilience move beyond feel-good concepts to powerful tools that can help us navigate work and personal transitions with greater effectiveness and capacity.
The WAVE© model outlines four dimensions of organizational resilience, the ability to “bounce back” and anticipate and adapt to change. It offers practical tools and techniques based on emerging neuroscientific research on mindfulness, the ability to pay attention to the present, and EI, the ability to monitor, understand, and manage our own and others’ emotions.
Wisdom explores the inner work of focus and mindset necessary for greater self-awareness and clear action.
Alignment extends out to opportunities for greater personal, team, and organizational engagement and commitment.
Vitality brings attention to the personal and environmental contributors for stress management and physical resilience.
Engagement draws out the trust and awareness required to influence others and build strong collaborative relationships.
Real and significant shifts start here
Both my Ignition Coaching colleague Kully Jaswal and I draw on our extensive experiences in the business and public sectors to help build our clients’ resilience and emotional intelligence.
Right now, Kully is currently working with a large US pharmaceutical company that is leading a team to find a treatment for COVID-19. I’ve been drawing on my military crisis background to support the British Government in helping repatriate stranded British travelers from across the United States back to the United Kingdom.
We work with remarkable organizations.
We love helping teams and organizations find greater purpose and alignment with their work. Our WAVE© program is designed to build resilience, to enable individuals and teams to not only survive during difficult times or transitions, but to thrive and bounce back even stronger.
We’re working with organizations that now recognize the importance of adapting to an ever-changing world by taking a step back and supporting their teams to find greater alignment and engagement through mindfulness and emotional intelligence tools.
The more aware individuals are of their strengths, values and purpose, the more engaged and connected they are to the organization’s mission. It’s rewarding to see the positive impact on leaders’ and teams’ personal lives and their overall wellbeing. And it’s exciting that, through our WAVE© program and coaching, our clients are reporting a real and significant shift in engagement and productivity.
You’re invited!
Come and learn some powerful tips on how to adjust to the new normal, and focus your attention on bringing energy to where it is needed, so that you emerge from this crisis in the strongest position possible.
Join Kully and I for a webinar on Resilience: Navigating Uncertainty and Stress on Thursday, April 16 from 1 – 2pm. Join via Zoom here.
ABOUT SAMANTHA MATHIS
Samantha Mathis is is a Worldwide Association of Business Coaches-Registered Corporate Business Coach, Principal at Ignition Coaching and Founder/CEO Beyond Limits Consulting, Poulsbo, WA. She brings more than 20 years’ experience developing and delivering leadership and management strategies and coaching and mentoring teams and individuals to achieve their goals.
Her work includes the British Foreign & Commonwealth Office, U.S. and U.K. military personnel and veterans, the United States Agency for International Development and the Natural Resources Defense Council.
A veteran, Samantha particularly enjoys helping transitioning military personnel to achieve equally successful careers outside of the military and has worked in many different environments leading multi-cultural teams in the Americas, Caribbean, Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe. Samantha is a Worldwide Association of Business Coaches-Registered Corporate Business Coach, and is currently completing her doctorate in leadership and online learning communities.
Samantha joined Vibe Coworks in October 2019 when she and her family relocated to Poulsbo from Annapolis, Maryland.
ABOUT KULLY JASWAL
Kully Jaswal is an International Coach Federation Professional Certified Coach and Founder/CEO of Ignition Coaching. Based in New York, Kully has coached clients in London, Hong Kong, and the US for over 15 years in both the private and public sectors. She has worked with clients such as New York Power Authority, Deloitte and Regeneron, delivering Executive Coaching and Resilient Leadership Programs. Prior to creating Ignition Coaching LLC in 2011, she was also a Risk Director at Deloitte UK, managing global teams and projects, the Talent Director where she was managing the coaching and training programs for the UK practice, and a Chartered Certified Accountant. Kully is a certified teacher for the Google-born Search Inside Yourself Leadership Institute and a Meta Coach for Daniel Goleman’s EI coaching program.