Stop Buying Crémant and Fix the Process
The most underrated wellbeing tool in the corporate world? The basics.
A Lesson in Genuine Wellbeing
“Basketball classes! Seriously?! What I need is a locker and somewhere safe to hang my coat!”
I couldn’t help laughing at a friend recently as she ranted about workplace wellbeing perks that had just been announced. The email included an impressive list of some fifteen activities with a good balance between offering movement, culture, arts, and the good old post-work glass of crémant (Luxembourg’s prized sparkling wine, absolutely not to be confused with prosecco).
While undoubtedly well-intentioned, the perks missed the mark entirely. There’s nothing wrong with the benefits themselves; the problem lies in the leaders failing to grasp the bigger picture.
The Perk Paradox
Leaders, you will never manage to ensure wellbeing at work, if you do not first understand what your teams’ greatest ongoing challenges are, and make it your priority as a leadership team to solve those first.
My friend would actually enjoy the wine and art evening offered by her employer, but that does not make up for the daily struggle of lugging her heavy bag of professional materials around all day.
She would enjoy wellbeing at work if she had access to a secure locker, and thus reduce the daily strain on her back and legs. She and her colleagues would have wellbeing at work if they did not walk around all day with a sense of having missed something. If they knew what was expected of them, rather than being told off for failing to submit a report that they were never requested to do. It turns out the instruction was buried inside a barrage of twenty management emails in one afternoon.
“That is the essence of leadership. We aren't here to entertain our teams; we are here to clear the road so they can ride without unnecessary weight on their shoulders.”
Wellbeing Starts with Operations
The importance of leaders connecting with their team is highlighted in my book, as by knowing your team as individuals, you create a connection that you can develop into trust. That in turn creates a safe space for them to open up to you, which means that you can really understand what they need, what’s frustrating them, what motivates them.
Start your wellbeing programme from the basics. Ensure that your people understand what they’re there to do, then give them the tools and support they need (not what you think they need). Show them that you listen by taking decisive action to help them.
The Cost of Chronic Stress
No amount of fun activities will offset the chronic stress that people develop when they enter a defensive mindset the minute they walk into work. Through support, praise and reward, nurture an environment that fosters honest conversations and genuine feedback. Over time you build psychological safety, and that naturally reduces stress.
Wellbeing has many opposites. If you are not ensuring your team’s wellbeing, you have dysfunction, disengagement, exhaustion, anxiety, suffering… How long would you put up with that?
Practical Takeaways: Fix the Friction First
To implement genuine wellbeing, first realise that if you are not starting from a place where people feel safe, it’s useless asking for their feedback. They will answer to protect themselves, and will only tell you what they think you want to hear.
Observe. Instead of asking for feedback, go and look. Walk around and watch your team work. Where are they struggling? Where is the ‘heavy bag’ in their day? You can learn more from watching a frustrated sigh than a survey.
Hunt for Friction. Before you book the yoga instructor, assess the basics. As we saw in my last post, are the instructions clear? Is the office chair breaking their back? Are they working crazy hours? Wellbeing starts by removing the misery of inefficiency and overwork before we start to add joy (which we should get to, of course!). Fix the broken printer before you buy the inspirational poster.
Triage the Pain Points. You cannot fix everything at once. Ask your team for the one stupid thing that stops them from doing their job today. Even with low trust, once you start to mention the pain points you’ve observed, you touch a raw nerve and they will respond. Prioritise that list. Communicate back clearly that you cannot solve them all overnight, but make them your priority. Solving one structural annoyance buys you more trust than a year’s worth of team building events.
Forget the Cherry, it’s the Plate
It’s easy to think that wellbeing initiatives are the cherry on top of a good culture. A nice bonus to show we care. Realise that wellbeing is the plate.
If I ran my friend’s office today, I wouldn’t offer her a basketball. I would install more lockers and offer her the key to one. Not because a locker is exciting, but because it tells her: “I see your struggle, and I have removed it.”
Don’t get me wrong: I’m not anti-fun (just ask anyone I’ve worked with for a long list of my poor dancing moments). Social cohesion is vital, and mindfulness tools are extremely useful in building personal resilience. But you cannot build a culture of connection on a foundation of frustration. When you try to force team bonding before you’ve fixed the basic operations, you get cynicism, not engagement.
That is the essence of leadership. We aren't here to entertain our teams; we are here to clear the road so they can ride without unnecessary weight on their shoulders.
Question for you: look at your wellbeing initiatives and ask yourself honestly: are they genuinely designed to improve your team’s physical and mental health, or to paper over the structural cracks you’re not addressing?
Thank you for reading this far. If any of this resonates, I’d love to welcome you as a reader and to stay connected. Please join the mailing list for future posts, share your thoughts in the comments, or find me on LinkedIn.
