Leading with heart: Creating healthy work environments

In the next 30 minutes, around 60 Americans are going to die of heart disease. And most were preventable. Most people know about the importance of diet and exercise in maintaining a healthy heart, but there are other factors that contribute to heart disease that are seldom talked about – especially in the workplace. And many are within your control.

This was the topic of discussion during a recent Well-Being Exchange webinar for business leaders presented by Novant Health Employer Solutions. Two physician leaders, cardiologist Dr. Jonathan Fisher and Dr. Chan Badger, president of Novant Health Primary Care, discussed the role executives can play in their employees’ well-being. There’s a lot more to it than offering health insurance.

Workplace stress, for one. Fisher cited the generational change taking place in the workforce. Younger employees expect more than a paycheck. “They want satisfaction and a sense of purpose,” he said.

Badger and Fisher showed attendees how they can make changes designed to benefit their employees’ health and promote a workplace culture that prioritizes emotional well-being. There are important lessons everyone can take from the conversation. Here are some highlights.

When it comes to work hours, less is more.

“People who work more than 55 hours a week have a 17% increased risk of developing heart disease,” Fisher said. “And that's not to mention anxiety, depression and burnout.”

Not everyone has a choice about how many hours they put in at work. For those who do, it’s healthier for your heart and your overall well-being to stick to a 40- to 50-hour workweek.

“Autonomy is the sense that I have some control over my workday and a sense of pride in … the work I do,” Fisher explained. “If the boss dictates everything about a worker’s day – from when they start work to how many minutes they can spend on each task to when they’re allowed to take breaks, that’s not giving the employee any freedom.

“But if we build flexibility into their daily schedule, if we allow people to spend 10% to 20% of their workday on tasks that light them up, that can double or even triple productivity.”

Not having autonomy leads to anxiety. “The research in organizational psychology going back almost 50 years shows there’s a simple formula to predict stress level at work,” Fisher said. “It looks at the demands on the worker versus their sense of control.” The more demanding the job – and the more your boss is looking over your shoulder – the greater the stress.

If your workplace doesn’t allow you any autonomy, it’s even more important to spend your off-hours doing what you love.

Everyone deserves to feel safe – in every sense – at work.

Fisher recalled working for leaders early in his career who made him feel unsafe – and actually at risk – about sharing his opinion.

Fostering a sense of safety at work isn’t just the right thing for a manager to do. There’s a business reason behind it. “The factor that can increase a team’s effectiveness by 300% is psychological safety,” he said.

Do you feel psychologically safe at work? Are you free to express your opinions to your boss? Employees deserve that.

Don’t dismiss ‘soft skills.’

“We use the term ‘soft skills’ to describe psychological safety and emotional intelligence,” Fisher said. “The so-called hard skills of leadership include finance, delegation and project management. But the hardest part of being a leader isn’t balancing a spreadsheet. It’s inspiring other people … and to do that, we can't just leave emotional intelligence for some psychology team to take care of.”

Fisher encourages those in leadership roles to value and cultivate emotional intelligence. We all need to.

Connect with people; develop relationships.

“Research shows us that people cannot fully flourish in their lives – and work is a big part of our lives – unless they feel like they belong to a group that's larger than themselves with a mission larger than themselves,” Fisher said. Among the questions he asks every patient: Do you feel connected to other people? “If they don't, they have a 27% increased risk of having a heart attack,” he said. “[Isolation] is just as bad as smoking cigarettes or having diabetes.”

Badger thinks “one of the hallmarks of a good leader is one who develops relationships – not superficial ones, but true personal connections. I want my team to understand that I don't have all the answers, and I don't claim to. But I promise that I'll roll up my sleeves, have conversations and work to figure out the answer together.”

Be a whole-hearted leader.

Many people assume the heart sends all its blood outward to the body, but in fact, the very first branches of the aorta — the coronary arteries — deliver oxygen-rich blood back to the heart itself. The heart gives itself oxygen first. If you are a leader in your organization, change begins with you. “Add a commitment to nurture and nourish your own heart so you can show up for others as a whole-hearted leader,” Fisher said.

Be willing to listen. And then, act.

“Be open to hearing team members give feedback and then actually acting on that feedback,” Badger said. “Part of that is understanding that they have some input and that you’ll listen to that, incorporate that and use that to affect some change.” It’s not enough to just listen, Badger clarified. The second part of acting and incorporating the input is key.

Seek professional help.

What can workplace leaders do during a time of serious grief, such as the death of an employee?

Badger called this “a real opportunity to bring in outside resources to help support the team.” Fisher reiterated the importance of asking for professional help: “When someone is at risk, it's important to not go it alone.”

Make connections.

Fisher shared how emotional connection plays a vital role in healing. “Patients will say to me, ‘Dr. Fisher, I love you.’ That's not something I ever expected as a medical student. And I say it back because I really feel that this other dimension – whether it's eliminating loneliness, creating a sense of belonging – it creates physical changes in the patient's heart. It slows the heart rate down, lowers the blood pressure. I use it as a medicine.”

Set an example of well-being.

Fisher and Badger emphasized that leaders need to model healthy behaviors. You shouldn’t lecture your employees about the importance of a work-life balance if you’re always at work. Fisher suggested establishing boundaries such as no calls, emails or texts on the weekends or after, say, 8 p.m. If you suddenly think of something, at midnight, that you need to tell a colleague, make a note to yourself about it rather than texting that late. The colleague, especially if junior to you, may feel compelled to respond right away.

That’s good advice for all of us.