The Eight Pillars of Organizational and Employees Wellbeing: Part 3 of 4 Blog Mini-Series

Previously we covered Introduction to Eight Pillars of Organizational and Employees Wellbeing and Pillar 1 and Pillar 2 and Pillar 3.

Let's move Pillars 4, 5 and 6.
Pillar 4: Goals
Organizational Goals

Whatever company you work for, chances are they identified their overall goals. Every program, project, business unit, etc., will have its own goal for larger companies. These goals will have to be aligned with the overall organizational goals. Hopefully, you follow the same process and establish your business goals if you own your own business.

An organization might set goals to develop new products, maximize profit, improve social media presence, increase sales, increase website traffic, etc. And the key to business success is achieving the goals the company set. One way to ensure that is to clearly present and share these goals with employees. If the employees do not know or do not understand what company goals are, they can not help reach them.

Employees Goals
Everyone has or should have a list of their goals; therefore, we know employees have their plans. Some are personal; some are business or work-related. As part of the Organizational and Employee Wellbeing, we are concerned about the work-related goals.

As an employee, when you look at your goals, highlight the ones that you can achieve while working for your current organization. Share your goals with your manager. Find out if attaining some of these goals can also help your organization. If so, discuss with the management team and see what they can do to support you towards these goals. Remember that your management team may not help you with the goals unrelated to organizational success, even if they are business-related.

Align Organizational Goals with Employees Goals
Regardless of the organization's goals, employees and businesses need to align their goals. Sometimes goals align, sometimes they do not. Ideally, there are things that employees and companies they work for want to do. That is one of the keys to employees and organizational wellbeing.

The alignment should be made clear even during the hiring process. Decision-makers and candidates need to be aware of the goal alignment, and if there is no match, a job offer should not be given regardless of other qualities of the candidate. And even if the offer was presented, candidates should not take it knowing that the company will do nothing to help them achieve their goals. Nobody would be happy in this "marriage."

Managers should ask each employee to share their goals, review the list together and see which goals are aligned with the company plans. This is an essential exercise that, unfortunately, many organizations do not do.

For example, if an employee's goal is to expand their current network security skills and the company goal is to enhance security - we see a great match. Both will be happy, and chances are employees will work hard to help the company achieve that goal.

But what if the employee wants to learn web development, and the organizational goal is to outsource that practice? The organization has to make sure employees understand that learning web development is one of the goals they will have to learn independently. Employe and an organization may not be the right fit for each other. Both have a choice to make if this happens.

Pillar 5: Relationships
Organizational Relationships
On a high level, organizational relationships can be divided into internal and external. As far as internal relationships, let's start from the reporting structure, such as direct reports (employee reports to one manager) or metrics reporting (the employee may have more than one manager).

We must understand that cultural differences play a significant role here. There are relationships within a region and outside of the region for the company with a global presence. Creating relationships with local folks is not the same as establishing relationships globally. Dealing with internal organizations from New York it's not the same as how one team should approach working with the teams from, say Asia Pacific region.

Relationships between different business units such as sales, operations, finance, development, infrastructure, human relations, etc., and team relationships; within your team and externally how your work with and relate to other groups are also vital to organizational successes.

Clients are the reason companies exist. Whether small or large, every organization has someone or some other business they serve; we can call them clients. And every company needs support from other companies to succeed; we call them vendors. However, without vendors, businesses can not provide quality services to clients.

Employees Relationships
Just like organizational relationships, employee relationships are divided into two groups; internal and external. Internal relationships are relationships with the manager, co-workers, direct reports, leadership team, etc. External relationships are direct employee connections with the client and vendors.

We know relationships are the number one predictor of happiness. Although we strictly talk about business, when employees create a good relationship at work, it will help them and help the organization be even more successful.

Align Organizational and Employees Relationships
Personal relationships, in general, are outside of work. However, if employees are happy outside of work, chances are they will be more productive at work. Making even small changes will significantly impact relationships between employers and employees. The organizational leaders need to think about this and do what they can to allow personal time, sick time, holidays, etc., to be flexible and create a proper work-life balance so that employees have time to strengthen personal relationships.

If you own a small business with your partner, a person you also live with, it gets a little more complicated. How do I know? I've had that situation for many years, and thankfully I m still in the same relationship with my wife. But for the business to be successful and not impact your positive relationships with the partner, you must separate business from personal.

The research also shows that having a friend within an organization will improve organizational and employee relationships. It will enhance business and employee wellbeing, profit, success, etc. And when that friendship is separate from the business itself, employees will be happier and more productive.

Pillar 6: Mindfulness
Organizational Mindfulness
You will not hear people talking much about Organizational Mindfulness, but it is one of the keys to Organizational wellbeing if understood correctly.

Company leaders must focus on strategy and long-term goals for the organization to exist. But to establish a business strategy, they must also be mindful of the present moment and the current business outcome. Today's business outcome can be a base for successful long-term business.

To increase success, organizations focus on the present and look at the current finances, sales, customer satisfaction, market share, development team progress, etc. They are in the present moment, on purpose, and not judging as Jon Kabat Zin would call it - and when they do that, they are mindful organization.

Employees Mindfulness
Mindfulness is a big topic, and we have extensive programs dedicated to it. For now, let's focus only on two characteristics of employee mindfulness; listening and talking.

Focus on the task at hand and actively listening is one of the keys to employee success. Regardless of the situation, always mindfully listen: while in a meeting, receive performance reviews, get feedback from your client, etc. This does not mean you do not raise your opinions and give recommendations but actively listen even if you disagree. Don't begin quickly judging others and their suggestions. When we listen, we learn. When we talk, we don't. Someone says we have two ears and one mouth for a reason.

Other than those by the water cooler, most conversations at work are business-related. When you talk, be in the moment regardless of if you are in a one-on-one discussion, present in a meeting, or speak in front of a large crowd. Generally, when we prepare and practice well and get to the "perform stage" with a group, we are in the present moment without thinking about it.

Facilitation skills, regardless of whether you facilitate a meeting, workshop, company outing, etc., require us to be present. And the only way to be mindful at that time is to prepare well.

Whether you work remotely or from the office, always be there for your employer. Focus on your work. Spend as much time as possible in the present moment. You will be more in the flow more productive, and it will be a great mindfulness practice that will help you become even more mindful in your personal life.

Align Organizational and Employees Mindfulness
Mindful organization can help employees have a better life at work and home.
There is a natural alignment between the organization and employees' mindfulness. Being in the present moment and focused on the organizational goals will help the business and employees.

There are so many programs on mindfulness these days, and I've seen many companies bring experts to help their employees on this topic. Why? Because they know mindful employees create successful organizations.

To be continued. 

Part 4 of 4: Pillars 7 and 8 of the Organizational and Employees Wellbeing will be published on May 4, 2022.

Braco Pobric is an Internationally Recognized Positive Psychology Expert, Executive Coach, and Corporate Trainer. He is the bestselling author of Habits and Happiness: How to Become Happier and Improve Your Wellbeing by Changing Your Habits. Braco is a founding member and Chief Happiness Officer of the Life Success Academy, Certified Positive Psychology Master Coach and Trainer, and former globally Certified Trainer and Business Coach for Dale Carnegie Training. His unique approach to integrated learning in Positive Psychology Coaching (PPMC) program let him train over 60,000 Students in 172 countries.