Don’t forget about emotional culture when trying to sustain performance

There are six core elements of wellbeing that as a leadership and wellbeing consultant I explore with my clients.

To sustain high performance whilst minimizing stress and burnout requires a focus on the whole person and their mental, physical and emotional wellbeing.

Using a wellbeing framework, I focus these conversations on the mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, financial and career wellbeing of the individual and how this is reflected in the culture of the company.

I completed an assignment for a large corporation interviewing their sales and delivery team. Their director wanted to know how best to continue to sustain performance whilst providing the team with the best possible support.

Framing the conversation on emotions

Many people can struggle to talk about emotions, it is often discouraged at both home and work. For this reason, I love using the emotional culture deck, the cards allow us to tap into our kinesthetic learning allowing our brains to roam a little freer. The premise of the culture deck is focused on how you want your people to feel and how you don’t want them to feel but there are many different ways to use the cards and curate the conversation.

I asked the team two questions.

1. How do you want to feel at work? Interviewees were asked to choose five feelings from the deck.

2. How do you not want to feel (but might from time to time)? Interviewees were asked to choose five feelings from the deck.

The deck helped to facilitate an open conversation, the novelty of using cards combined with the breadth of emotions to choose from led to an open and engaging discussion around both questions. No team members shared their discussions with the other yet similar themes emerged from the conversations.

The three strongest themes of how the team wanted to feel at work were Confident, Curious and Appreciated. In response to the question of how they do not want to feel but might from time to time, the top three answers were Powerless, Inferior and Overwhelmed.

Individual strategies were workshopped and ways to navigate the current fluidity of the environment discussed as the team grows. Emotional Wellbeing and the development of a strong emotional culture were suggested as opportunities for future offsites and holding a full day emotional culture workshop with the entire team.

The team felt heard, by facilitating a conversation on wellbeing using the framework and providing an opportunity to discuss emotions and feelings the team fed back how empowering it felt to have this conversation and have individual ideas of how to move forward.

The learning, don’t underestimate the power of talking about how your team members feel, it can provide valuable insights into areas of growth and development. It allows them to feel heard and valued.

Designing your emotional culture for future growth

Do you want to learn more about The Emotional Culture Deck?

There are a few ways you can you learn more about the deck

Visit www.theemotionalculturedeck.com

Download a free Lo-fi PDF version of the deck at the website Free Download

Download the #emotionalcultureworkshop for free here (yes for free but I can also facilitate this workshop for you and your teams if you wanted some help)

You can go through The Emotional Culture Masterclass (like I did), click Masterclass for more info.

If you still have questions, feel free to contact me! #theemotionalculturedeck #proelephantrider #ridersandelephants #emotionalculture #emotionalculturedeck