Saturday, September 28, 2013

Corporate Health, Stealth and Wealth

A personal sense of well being has a huge influence on corporate engagement - their sense of self worth & contribution potential. Engagement has 3 core facets:

• intellectual engagement, or thinking hard about the job and how to do it better

• affective engagement, or feeling positively about doing a good job

• social engagement, or actively taking opportunities to discuss work-related improvements with others at work.

The secret to success - We cannot expect employee performance if not physiologically capable of performance parameters. Implicitly, corporate engagement comes down to - focus, cognitive strength, physical stamina & ability to intellectually process data. Having the ability to not let mind clutter infiltrate & sabotage their thought processes, a sense of power to want to accomplish & prove themselves all contribute to employee performance. if the body is not supporting their drive - they can't do it and whipping the racehorse by threatening dismissal - nah that doesn't work either.

There are some fascinating studies on testosterone levels, in both men & women, how these people are advantaged in the workplace, their intense desire to perform & move ahead. Healthy testosterone levels go along with a complete, healthy lifestyle including restorative sleep, good nutrition & a good level of physical activity.

It is very possible that a person's diet is compromising their body's production of serotonin, harming the gut understanding how that is affecting their focus, or simply not giving them either focus or strength to perform. People need the ability, the health, the physiological support to be engaged, but unfortunately corporate health programs are too generic, not meeting participants' needs. Tell me, is the nutritional advice the same for a person who body builds with 10 % body fat vs. someone fearful of exercise & has a body fat of 35%? So... if they ask for a nutrition program... they get the same food guide diet?

A thorough corporate wellness program should cover a full range of health diagnostics & health counseling. Yes weight management, exercise, nutrition... but also smoking cessation, sleep, many forms of stress management, relationship stress, medical risk factors, chronic disease management, disease prevention, self efficacy, but most of all the program has to help the participant to connect the dots. So yes, the program has to be designed for the participant's own unique combination of lifestyle & health challenges, but also provides an integrative, smooth, embraceable approach helping the participant understand how the challenges are all interrelated. The new approach will provide calm & control, inner peace & power, not be intimidating or intrusive!

A thorough assessor & assessment are extremely key to the success of the program. The 5 "A" s, Ask, Assess, Advise, Assist & Arrange - but each one needs to serve as a template for discovery & trial. It is a journey of discovery, providing deep introspection for the employee & allowing them to build their own program based on their needs. Providers have the potential of discovering issues & triggers that the participant themselves did not fathom the potential as a health saboteur.

In every form of health modification, there is a very strong dose-response relation - targeting focus & impact of the counseling is directly related to success achieving the desired health outcome. Specialized providers through a detailed lifestyle analysis can match the employee to the health coaches best suited for the person, and with the participants permission - coaches in a truly individualized program, can exchange information, ideas, protocol... all to assure consistent messages & support are being provided. The assessor can also perform as a coordinator of the entire program for the participant.

Time: A good program coordinator, provider, health coach knows that "I have no time" is an excuse. Clearly, incorrect programs have been presented before, that were not respectful of time & employee demands. Any program on any topic of health modification, must have an endless supply of creative alternatives for reaching the goal, try them out, tweak, adjust, maybe even back to the drawing board... these are all normal growing pains of a program. We have to have the rapport, the ability to capture the participant's faith & trust t be willing to try new possibly absurd ideas... that just could work!

Meaningfulness is the most important driver of engagement for people- providing a meaningful program... designed to empower participants to self efficacy & strength, not defeat - that is how we bring out the very best in a person. No more automated superficial programs based on generalized populations - but lets get to each & everyone's own little ecosystem!

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