With a full inbox and crammed to-do list, taking care of ourselves can be a second thought during a busy workday. In honor of World Mental Health Day on October 10th, we wanted to share a few easy tips to implement self-care seamlessly into your day.

Stay hydrated: Drinking enough water is paramount to your health. Not only is it key to your physical health, but science has shown that drinking water helps with production of the “happy chemical” serotonin.

Give yourself a break: Feeling overwhelmed? Give yourself a minute to take some deep breaths, take a walk, or use a meditation app like Calm or Headspace. Take this a step further by incorporating simple mindfulness practices to maximize your reset time.

🚨 People have emotions. Even at work. 🚨

Emotional culture, though often overlooked, is always present in our organizations.

Did you know that there’s loads of research that shows that emotions are critical in how people perform tasks?

➡️ More recent studies are showing us that “emotional culture influences employee satisfaction, burnout, teamwork, and even hard measures such as financial performance and absenteeism” (Barsade & O’Neil 2016).

Healthy boundaries are essential in all parts of life, and that includes the workplace. However, it can sometimes be challenging to know exactly how to set these boundaries.

So, to set better boundaries at work, feel free to steal these scripts:

🗓️ My team and I would be very happy to work on your project, but we’re unable to start for six weeks.

⏰ I have to leave this meeting at 10:30, but I’ll check in this afternoon after I read the recap.

If you're wondering why you're having trouble making good on your good intentions, allow me to offer a solution —

SYSTEMS.

Whether you call them processes, systems, habits, these are the frameworks that we use to get stuff done.

My friend is going on vacation soon, and she sent me the following text:

"My biggest fear is nothing will be done at work and my life will be a nightmare next week."

I asked if she wanted to vent, or if she wanted advice. She chose advice.

Here's what I told her -

“Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves even when we risk disappointing others.” —Brené Brown, researcher, author, motivational speaker

Anyone else been burned out? 🙋‍♀️

Setting boundaries is one of the best ways to care for yourself and others. But what are boundaries, really?

I've seen the worst of workplace cultures and the toll they can take on both employees and leaders.

In my experience, there are certain things you should do if you want to create a toxic work environment:

My last blog post defined Nurture Cultures (if you haven’t read it, go check it out). Now, let’s talk about Nurturing Leaders and Where to Find Them 🧙‍♀️

They're more than half the battle for organizations to build a strong culture with motivated employees.

Nurturing Leaders...

What is the “right” culture? There are as many different cultures as there are people.

Instead of trying to find the “right” culture, let’s talk about a HEALTHY CULTURE.

I like to use the term “Nurture Culture.” In a Nurture Culture, the leaders:

Tough love time -

The best leaders are not those that make everyone happy.

If you are a leader, it’s your responsibility to mold the culture, set a boundary, have the uncomfortable conversation.

Don’t believe the lie that you can ignore a problem and it will disappear. It won’t. Instead of becoming the out of place behavior, it will become the common behavior.

Whatever you allow, you encourage.

So what can you do to ensure you’re allowing (and encouraging) the right things for your company’s culture?

Do what you say you will.

It’s a simple concept, but it’s often overlooked in day-to-day leadership.

Failing to meet commitments or follow-through is a very quick way to erode the trust of your employees.

Too often, I encounter clients whose staff complain of a glaring lack of follow-through from leadership. The result is resentment and a lack of trust in those leaders.

“What are they doing all day?”

There may be no question that’s more ubiquitous in some of my conversations with CEOs.

But it’s not a new question.

The tech industry would have you believe that tracking (AKA virtually looking over someone’s shoulder) is the solution.

But how has that worked out for leaders in the past?

“Can we start over? But this time, just know that we really like you. We want you to get the job.”

I was the interviewer, and the interview wasn’t going that well. It was an entry level position, and the interviewee was eaten up with anxiety.

She was awkward, not directly answering my questions, and really needed a glass of water.

Have you ever stopped to consider the profound impact of workplace culture on the lives of employees?

“Every single employee is someone's son or daughter.” -Simon Sinek

This quote underscores the importance of fostering a positive work environment.

Ever come across a random meme that just hit home for you?

I once stumbled upon one that did for me:

"Let’s gossip and complain about how our coworkers aren’t doing their job, instead of doing ours."

Gossip is toxic anywhere, but is particularly tough in the workplace. To make matters worse, it’s often disguised as productive conversation.

Leaders, I don’t know who needs to hear this today - But you are killin’ it!

This one's for you. I wanted to take a moment to acknowledge your incredible dedication and hard work.

Leaders, do you often find yourself wondering where specific areas of improvement are hiding within your workplace?

Even daily, seemingly minute habits among employees and managers can actually be harmful to the overarching company culture.

Here are some red flags that point to a company culture problem:

This is why you shouldn’t offer perfect attendance awards/bonuses at work.

Let me tell you a story —

One day, my son came to me crying.

We were quarantining after a COVID exposure and after adding the days up, he realized he would be missing school.