The Finance Leader Podcast
The Finance Leader Podcast
Building a Successful and Healthy Work Environment: An Introduction to Helping Your Team Thrive
Episode 125: What if your workplace could be a source of joy and fulfillment rather than stress and dread? Join us this week on the Finance Leader Podcast as we uncover powerful strategies to transform your work environment into a thriving ecosystem where every team member feels valued and empowered. You’ll learn how to set realistic expectations, appreciate your team effectively, and utilize company benefits to their fullest potential.
In episode 125, we explore why poor leadership often turns work into a negative experience and how we can change this narrative. Discover the key to unlocking your team's true potential through meaningful one-on-one sessions and insightful conversations about their life purposes. We also discuss the importance of providing proper resources and unbiased feedback to cultivate a healthy, successful work environment. Tune in to equip yourself with the leadership skills necessary to help your team not only survive but truly thrive.
Episode outline:
- Create a healthy work environment,
- Inspire your team, and
- Maximize all company benefits and programs.
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For more resources, please visit Finance Leader Academy: financeleaderacademy.com.
This week, I want to begin a discussion on helping your team members and yourself to thrive in the workplace. If we can solve this, it may also help them to thrive away from work, or at least eliminate work as a reason not to be thriving. Now, what does it mean to thrive? We often say that we don't just want to survive, but to thrive. Thriving is really about, one, fulfilling your purpose and two, rising to the top level in Maslow's hierarchy of needs. Are your basic needs being met and are you doing something in your life that brings joy and fulfillment? Please enjoy the episode.
Stephen McLain:Welcome to the Finance Leader Podcast, where leadership is bigger than the numbers. I am your host, stephen McLean. This is the podcast for developing leaders in finance and accounting. Please consider following me on Twitter, facebook, instagram and LinkedIn. My usernames and the links are in this episode's show notes, thank you.
Stephen McLain:This is episode number 125, and I'll be sharing an introduction on how to help your team to thrive, and I'll highlight the following topics Number one create a healthy work environment. Number two inspire your team. And three maximize all company benefits and programs. Author Jameis Casio said Resilience is all about being able to overcome the unexpected. Sustainability is about survival. The goal of resilience is to thrive.
Stephen McLain:I want to briefly talk about thriving in the workplace. I plan to expand this topic in a future episode. I am bringing this today to ask why do so many people see work as a negative, horrible place? Well, it's probably due to poor leadership, and this is why this podcast exists to make us all better leaders, worthy leaders, leaders who we wanted as we were working on advancing our career. Additionally, we will all face some type of challenge in our lives. It could be a medical issue or an unhealthy relationship, maybe it's financial instability, maybe it's unfulfilled purpose. It would be great to have a supportive workplace to help, but most of the time, we see organizations who will try to cut loose anyone who is a distraction like that. Now, that's unfortunate. In the last episode, I shared an amazing discussion on why leadership is the most important skill to learn, so if you missed that episode, please go back and listen when you get a chance. The episode is number 124.
Stephen McLain:Leadership is the most important skill to develop. Empower your team for innovation and success. I believe it can really help you. Now, why would we consider helping our team members to thrive, and what does thriving really mean? We all may have different interpretations.
Stephen McLain:So many of us are trying to survive a horrible work experience, or it might be a supervisor who may not appreciate us or even abuse us at times. We may be constantly stressed by unrealistic work deadlines. We may deal with poor communication or even a lack of prioritization regarding our tasks. So this creates the typical work environment. I hear about a lot. What should be realistic expectations at work. We all want to be appreciated. We want to know what is expected of each task. We also want to be trained properly on how to use the tools available. We also want to be properly resourced with the proper equipment that also works and for systems that make sense. Additionally, we need regular, unbiased performance feedback to help understand how we can improve. Now, is this difficult? No, it's not difficult. It takes leadership to set realistic expectations, to show some appreciation, to show what's expected of each task and also to resource our team properly.
Stephen McLain:Do you believe you have a purpose or a life mission? If you fall short in living up to your purpose, you may feel that you are not thriving. How can we, as leaders, help our team members to live up to their purpose? Now discuss this in your one-on-one sessions. Ask them about purpose and what can we do to meet any unfulfilled part of their purpose. This is about discovering more about your team members and what they need to be more successful. What do they want to do in their careers? Purpose can be powerful and our dreams that are not being achieved directly affects our overall work performance, our attitude and our mindset.
Stephen McLain:What can we do better to create a healthy work environment? Well, obviously we cannot be the one-all to everyone at work, but can we create a place that our team members can get their work done in a safe manner and where they are treated with fairness and dignity? Certainly, can we create a space where we minimize stress? Well, some stress is good if it pushes us to become better. Can we eliminate micromanagement and a lack of organization? Can we make it possible that your team members have opportunities to excel? We definitely can for all these areas and more. Now, one issue we always have to face is that we cannot control our supervisor or our boss, but we can control our actions and how we approach leadership. We can control how we speak to our team members. We can control how we prioritize tasks and how we lay out our expectations for our team. We cannot control those above us, but we can control our actions and do our best to set up our team for success.
Stephen McLain:Leaders need to learn to communicate more clearly and consistently, set priorities, protect team members from lower priority tasks and ensure their team is properly resourced to do the job. I can't stand micromanagement and also I can't stand an environment where we spend most of our day putting out fires. These are leadership failures. Leaders must do better at anticipating realistic requirements and planning out needs for the longer term, instead of issuing a daily stream of emergency tasks. We can do better, do better. It should be your daily purpose as a leader to provide and create a healthy environment of support, learning, achievement, growth and for taking more risk. Now let's talk briefly about helping our team members to thrive.
Stephen McLain:Number one create a healthy work environment.
Stephen McLain:How can we better create an environment where our team members feel appreciated and respected?
Stephen McLain:A healthy work environment is a major step to improving morale and better mental health. Here are a few ways you can create a healthier work environment Now. The first is to communicate clearly and set priorities and then keep them. Nothing is more frustrating than poor communication. The next is to speak to everyone with a tone of respect. Preserve the dignity of everyone. Don't embarrass your team intentionally in public. Another is to provide clear performance feedback, even when your team members missed the mark, and show them how to improve. You owe your team members honestly on how they are doing performance-wise. Finally, how do you handle a crisis? Do you yell and blame, or do you take charge and give clear direction? Blaming helps nothing. You can work to determine a cause for any problem in due time. That is what leaders are supposed to do. But do a proper inquiry to ensure what the cause is, not to blame someone. It might be a system issue or a lack of resources, or it could be a lack of training. More on all this in a follow-on episode.
Stephen McLain:Number two inspire your team. One of our key roles as leaders is to help our team members to push themselves beyond their comfort zone to become better Leaders. Inspire their team to win. They help them overcome personal obstacles and to find joy in their work beyond their comfort zone to become better Leaders. Inspire their team to win. They help them overcome personal obstacles and to find joy in their work. We help our team to rise beyond the basic needs to self-actualize or to fulfill our purpose, as Maslow would say, or to reach our full potential, and maybe we need to help our team members to fulfill their purpose by going somewhere else and taking another role.
Stephen McLain:Number three maximize all company benefits and programs. There are many company benefits that are not even being used that could bring a fundamental positive change to your team members. These benefits could include counseling, financial planning, legal services, life insurance policies and many others. Find out every program and benefit that your company offers. Additionally, there may be other programs that help with development or engagement, like mentoring programs, employee engagement groups, book discussion groups, volunteering opportunities, to name a few. These can help with career progression, skills development and your overall life purpose. So please ensure you know all the company benefits and programs that your organization offers and share them. There are many other components of thriving in the workplace that I want to cover in a later episode.
Stephen McLain:Today, I just wanted to provide a basis to start thinking about it. If you can create a healthy work environment, inspire them to be great and to take advantage of every company benefit and career development program, then you are way ahead of other leaders. Now for action today. What can you do today, based on what I discussed, to help your team members to thrive more. What can you change? How can you become better in leading your team and inspiring them to greatness? How can you help your team members maximize every benefit they have? How can you help your team members maximize every benefit they have? Please go to Finance Leader Academy for more resources. I offer a self-paced online course called Advance your Finance and Accounting Career, developing a promotion strategy that sets you apart. You will also find several free resources to help you. Now. That's at financeleaderacademycom Now.
Stephen McLain:Today, I provided a brief introduction to helping your team members to thrive, and I highlighted the following points Number one create a healthy work environment. Number two inspire your team. And three maximize all company benefits and programs. Ensuring your team members to thrive builds trust. When you put their welfare first, when you take action to help them accomplish a tough goal, and when you help them to become a better version of themselves, you will earn their trust and loyalty, which, in turn, creates improved team results. I hope you enjoyed the Finance Leader Podcast. I am focused on helping this community to become more confident finance leaders capable of transforming organizations. You can find this episode wherever you listen to podcasts. If this episode helped you today, please share with a colleague and leave a quick written review Until next time. You can check out more resources at financeleaderacademycom and sign up for my weekly updates so you don't miss an episode of the podcast. And now go lead your team and I'll see you next time. Thank you.
