How well-being translates into high-performing teams
Guest Contributor: Andrew Soren
Well-being should be a leadership goal
Great leadership is defined by the success of employees. When employees are successful, they report being invested, driven, satisfied and fulfilled. The question for most companies is how to achieve that winning balance of people and results.
Andrew Soren, founder and CEO of Eudaimonic by Design, is leading the way in building positive change and results for businesses by focusing on the well-being of team members. His company‘s focus is to build the psychological capital for high-performance teams,. He confidently states, ”When people experience well-being at work, productivity increases.“
Andrew’s interest in the psychology behind high-performance teams came from his first career in the financial industry. Andrew says, “When I worked for a bank building their high-performance culture, we carefully managed talent, looking for potential at every turn. We crafted critical behaviours that would yield results.”
But Andrew admits, “Throughout it all, this ’high-performance culture‘ we talked about seemed like a myth to me. I knew there was more to humans than productivity ratios.”
“I had my suspicions that we weren’t focused on the right things. Since I had grown up in arts and humanities, I knew there was more to humans than productivity ratios.”
“High-performance culture seemed like a myth to me. I knew there was more to humans than productivity ratios.” – Andrew Soren
Andrew quit his job at the bank and mapped out his next quest “I went looking for evidence of what worked when it came to creating conditions for high performance.” In his discovery, he said, “It turns out things like well-being are critically important, so much so there is a whole field of study dedicated to it called Positive Psychology.”
Read our last blog, which gives an introduction to Positive Psychology in business.
Andrew’s research shows that eudaimonic companies (which he defines as companies that enable their staff to be their best selves, find meaningful work and pursue excellence in service of purpose) have higher engagement, retention, productivity, innovation and smarter decision-making. His company, Eudaimonic by Design, helps organizations become eudaimonic.
Eudaimonic company employees report a better experience at work and, ultimately, that leads to more loyalty among stakeholders, as well as a greater impact on the things that matter most to an organization.
“Companies are able to keep happy employees longer in their roles, and that makes it easier to attract new talent.” - Andrew Soren
Andrew states, ”Positive Psychology can be a mindset, where you are, looking at everything and asking, ’How can we mobilize our strengths, and not just improve our weaknesses?’ ” In a business context, Andrew says, ”We study root causes of success and not just root causes of failure. We focus on future potential and not just past performance.”
Growth can be the result of team well-being
A recent study from Indeed and Oxford, which polled over 15 million employees, revealed that there is a dramatic shift from prioritizing profit over people to profiting by prioritizing people. The majority of publicly traded companies that had the highest Work Wellbeing Score also had the highest profits. That’s worth sitting up and paying attention to.
Using Positive Psychology to meaningfully impact outcomes and results
Can being vested in positive psychology address increasing issues around bleeding talent, burnout and trouble with growth? The short answer is yes. The harder answer is the work to realize it.
One statement that comes to mind is: Transformation takes time. Time is a seemingly scarce commodity in a leader’s day. When we think about adopting a Positive Psychology framework for success, it seems like a large undertaking. But Andrew mentioned in our last blog that Positive Psychology (the science of well-being) is easier to integrate if three things already exist within the company: a values-based culture, people-based policies and procedures, and positive leadership.
The Path Forward: Small Starts Can Get Big Results
If this has piqued your interest, Andrew suggests pausing to reflect on the well-being of individuals on your team over the past 30 days.
We so agree with Andrew’s insights and it aligns with our project work, including research on the Future of Leadership fueled by positive leadership. We’ll soon begin rolling out a leadership diagnostic where we’ll advance from four leadership drivers to five leadership drivers. The new leadership driver is Engaging Others. Our Engaging Others driver enables us to measure leadership styles on fostering dynamic engagement, and adept communications that inspire and motivate. These are founded in the leader’s emotional intelligence empathic concern, management of deep relationships, and master level situational flexibility.
An elevated focus on how you lead teams, especially prioritizing their well-being, is a proven way to achieve, and exceed goals. Need a little more convincing on people-centricity driving results? Josh Bersin’s report, HR Predictions for 2024, shares a top HR trend: Human-centered leadership will take center stage. The trend is highlighted as, “Top-performing companies consistently invest in leadership development, and within the HR disciplines we practice, leadership development scores highest in business impact.”
For more, reach out to Andrew. He can, with evidence and inspiration, help you embrace a well-being focused path to exceptional results.
"If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together."
- African Proverb
About Andrew Soren
Andrew Soren is the Founder and CEO of Eudaimonic by Design, a global network of facilitators, coaches and advisors who share a passion for well-being and believe organizations must be designed to enable it.
For the past 20 years, Andrew has worked with large corporations, helping them create high-performance cultures. He has worked with some of the most recognized brands, non-profits and public sector teams to co-create values-based cultures, develop positive leadership, and design systems that empower people to be their best.
Andrew is a board member of the International Positive Psychology Association, and chaired the 8th World Congress on Positive Psychology in Vancouver 2023. Since 2013, he has been faculty with the University of Pennsylvania’s internationally renowned Masters of Applied Positive Psychology program.
Andrew is an ICF certified coach through the Co-Active Training Institute (formerly the Coaches Training Institute).
About Lisa Haydon
Lisa W. Haydon is a seasoned operational leader and entrepreneur with over three decades of experience in banking, capital markets, technology, and professional services.
With a keen vision for aligning people, processes, and outcomes, Lisa has become a driving force in the field of leadership development. She brings innovation to the forefront by leveraging data-driven strategic cohort programs, generating value-added insights, and adopting AI-enabled technology. Her pioneering work with high-growth companies and high-performance leaders led to the design and commercialization of a proprietary leadership diagnostic solution.
She is known for her unique ability to navigate complex business challenges, understand diverse leadership styles, and deliver transformational results.
Lisa and her team are a group of forward-thinking, technology- and people-focused professionals who become a trusted partner in the pursuit of leadership-driven success.