Leading by Example in 2021
It’s a new year and an ideal opportunity for a new beginning. A fresh start after a year most would rather forget. Lots of people have been setting goals and resolutions for the year and a great many of them will be health related. New year resolutions often face their stiffest test on long cold January days when we’re back at work after the festive break. That’s why it’s great to see the hugely underrated Operation Transformation programme back on RTE. There’s no other show that provides as much positivity and inspiration to those looking to make healthy lifestyle changes. The show is a brilliant motivator for anyone looking to introduce (and stick with) healthy behaviour changes at the beginning of the year.
What business leaders can learn from Operation Transformation
Having leadership buy in and commitment to wellbeing in the workplace is crucial, in fact it’s the very first step on my 8 Step Framework for workplace wellbeing programme development. It doesn’t just mean writing a cheque every now and then either.
When discussing health promotion at the workplace with senior leaders and HR professionals, I always recommend they use the Operation Transformation leaders as an example for how they can become role models for healthy behaviour change for their colleagues. The OT leaders lead by example for their families, friends and followers all over the island by making small and healthy changes to their habits and routines. There is always at least one leader that we can relate to and I’m looking forward to seeing which of the five leaders I’ll be following this year (or maybe I’ll just follow all five!).
It can be hard for a lot of people to relate to marathon runners or triathletes, but if you’re promoting simple and healthy lifestyle choices such as a walk at lunch time, fruit as a snack and not sending emails late at night then that is something everyone can relate to. There’s no reason why leaders in Irish organisations can’t be the relatable and healthy role models that their colleagues and teams look up to.
Step to it with ‘Ireland Lights Up’
‘Ireland Lights Up’ is returning too to coincide with Operation Transformation. Ireland Lights Up is a walking initiative in partnership with the GAA, OT, and Get Ireland Walking that encourages clubs across the 32 counties to turn on their floodlights to provide a safe walking environment for the local community during the dark winter evenings. This year, as an added incentive, you can sign up to the ‘MyLife Steps Challenge’ with my fantastic partners Irish Life, to ensure ‘Every Step Counts’.
If you’d prefer to do a DIY Step Challenge for your colleagues or community either now or later in the year you can register here to receive a pre-prepared Step Challenge spreadsheet to help get you started.
How else can you lead by example?
For starters, you can follow the advice of the OT experts and the progress of the leaders through the TV show on RTE and on the OT website.
Unfortunately, parkrun is not currently permitted under government restrictions however you can still run and log your times virtually. If you’re based in Dublin, as soon as Level 5 restrictions are eased you can also take part in parkHIIT, a free community initiative designed to promote the importance of resistance training. parkHIIT currently operates weekly outdoor workouts in Artane, Poppintree, Ashtown and the Phoenix Park and is growing to more locations in 2021. Find out what parkHIIT is all about through this link and you can sign up to the mail list to find out about upcoming sessions.
Missing some motivation?
If you happen to be struggling for motivation to get started, look no further than Operation Transformation regular Professor Niall Moyna. Niall joined us for a Workplace Wellbeing Ireland webinar earlier in 2020 and showed us how even a short walk every day can make a huge difference to our health and wellbeing. Check out Niall’s presentation through this link.
On the subject of walking and being active, shout out to the excellent “100 days of walking” initiative that was started by Dr. Ciara Kelly. A really great way of encouraging regular activity in 2021 and building a community around it too. Search and use the hashtag #100DaysOfWalking to find like-minded individuals and share your own progress.
Be a healthy role model
Don’t wait for the wake up call. You can be a healthy role model in your organisation or in your community. You don’t have to be the CEO or even a manager (although leaders are brilliant role models for their teams). How you behave, your actions and decisions can have a positive impact on those around you.
Use Operation Transformation as the template to inspire and guide you to lead by example in 2021.
Yours in health,
P.S Best of luck to my great friend and resident clinical psychologist on Operation Transformation, Dr. Eddie Murphy with the new series. Very excited to be launching the Remote Resilience online course with Dr. Eddie in early 2021.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Brian Crooke is a wellbeing educator, speaker and adviser supporting organisations to promote and sustain wellbeing within their workplaces.
He is the founder of The Work Well Institute, the Workplace Wellbeing Ireland community and is Course Director of the Postgraduate Certificate in Workplace Wellness at Tangent, Trinity College Dublin.
Brian is the host of The Work Well Podcast.
In his spare time Brian is bringing free resistance training to every county and community in Ireland through his parkHIIT project.
If you'd like to chat more about the above then please reach out: brian@workwellireland.ie