In addition to Dry January there was a new trend last month. The vegan January. A nice thought, but the bulk of good and mostly healthy resolutions often fall apart after only a few days.
Anyway, this year it was all a bit more difficult. Now that the gyms are closed, for example, exercising more is suddenly a lot harder. Add to that the fact that changing behavior under normal circumstances is already a huge challenge, and you can count on your fingers how successful our resolutions are this year.
Fortunately, thanks to corona, our health is also at the top of the agenda of many a board meeting. But there, too, they face a challenge. Employees are tired of "fun initiatives" after the glut of digital pub quizzes, online discos and quarantine bingo. If, in the same vein, you then announce yet another vitality program, chances are it will die a quiet death.
Unfortunately, the term vitality has rather degenerated into management jargon in recent years. In addition, most people think of vitality exclusively in terms of our physical health: fruit baskets, the gym, going for a walk. However, current challenges such as job insecurity, work pressure and negative stress are crying out to strengthen our mental resilience.
Unfortunately, things like mindfulness, meditation and awareness also often only reach a certain portion of your employees. The ones who need it most often "don't have time for it right now.
If you want to do something with vitality, spend at least as much time on how you present it internally as to what you present. You can't mandate vitality, so make people want to participate.
Make it challenging, provide inspiration. Take as a starting point that your colleagues experience for themselves how much better they can feel and make sure they (learn) to take their own responsibility in the process. Hopefully next time they will then be the initiators themselves.
The biggest reason why 'working on vitality' does not work at many companies is simply because there is a completely different problem why people are not feeling well. Something that 'vitality' is not going to address. Vitality as a band-aid on the wrong wound.
Even the most spectacular vitality program is going to do you little good if there is no trust Is in the team or the manager. The gym or mindfulness training is not going to help your colleagues perform better if there are harassment or intimidation.
If you have vitality on the agenda, do yourself and your team a favor: first check the state of mutual trust.
The statement 'people leave managers, not companies' turns out to be true not only for team atmosphere, individual performance and work happiness. It also has a significant impact on the vitality of your colleagues.
Professor Paul Zak did for many years research to trust within teams. He found that in teams where trust is high, people report higher engagement, experience less stress and have more energy. And they perform better, too.
So it pays to work on trust, clarity and transparency within the team first. Especially in times of working from home. No vitality program can beat that.
