R – Reach out – Recover our wellbeing

Recover outlines seven conversations you can have with your teams. Each topic is evidence based, so simply having these discussions will improve the wellbeing of the team.

And lastly, the final R in Recover is for reaching out. This is about asking for help when you need it and offering support to others. When you can see a way, you might help them. There’s clearly a practical benefit to this by giving each other the support you need, you’re more likely to be able to do what you now know you need to do to improve wellbeing across the team. But actually, evidence shows that these social connections are also vital for our wellbeing, because our world is built around relationships. Evidence shows our success, our mental health, our physical health are all influenced by the strength of our relationships.

Building great relationships is more important driver of longevity, how long we live than what we eat or drink, and whether we smoke or exercise.

In a study entitled Very Happy People, researchers sought out the characteristics of the happiest 10 percent of us. Do they all live in warm climates? Are they all wealthy? Are they all physically fit? Well, it turns out there was one and only one characteristic that distinguishes the happiest 10 percent from everybody else. The strength of their social relationships, not only do our relationships, boost our physical and mental wellbeing, but they help make our lives easier too.

Forming connections with others both in and out of the workplace increases our social capital. Think about the last time you felt stressed or overwhelmed at work. Maybe you were given a tight deadline, or had a complex problem you needed to solve. Or maybe you were struggling keeping up with your commitments. Can you see how increasing the pool of social connections you make could help in these moments?

Perhaps you’ve built a connection with a colleague in another team who can help you solve that problem. Or maybe in your recover discussion, you got to know your team better so they feel more comfortable asking for help and speaking out when things aren’t working.

People who build great relationships at work achieve better results, are more likely to get a promotion, enjoy their work more. And when you have great relationships, you’re more likely to thrive and achieve the goals that are most important to you. So, as you set out with your team recovered discussions, remember that asking them to reach out to each other, to be vulnerable and asking for help. To be generous and offering support will actually accelerate your wonderful efforts to build genuine, long lasting wellbeing.