Affordability of Choice
Bear with me for a moment while I briefly outline a personal goal before I unpack what I believe is a relatable business owner/ executive leader application.
Though it has been lurking in the background for years, a financial goal recently clarified in, of all places, the shower (you know how that goes!).
Financial Goal: I want my wife and I to be able to more easily afford health care for the remainder of our lives.
(‘health care’ is two separate words here; not ‘healthcare’; aka: ‘self-care’)
I certainly don't mean to be controversial, but I am of the camp that believes that health care (or ‘healthcare’ for that matter) is not a ‘right’ bestowed upon us just because we happen to be breathing.
There are too many facets and factors involved for that to be, in any form, a reality.
In my world view, health care is a choice. A series of choices, really.
And some of them – many of them – come with a level of investment that requires an ability to pay the market price.
A Salmon Waldorf Salad costs more than a cheeseburger and fries.
Proper exercise takes an investment of time, training, and money over the long haul that couch-surfing does not.
With the general degradation of our food supply, quality supplements have become a practical and necessary part of the landscape.
Newer vehicles, technology, security systems, financial planning, coaching, subscriptions/memberships, and the like all fall under the heading of ‘Investments’ intended to raise the level of health and well-being in our lives.
I would add that I believe travel, particularly to respite places, is part of a healthy lifestyle. It is good for the heart, soul, mind, and body.
Nobody ‘owes’ me a vacation. This is something we need to be able to afford and pay for ourselves.
Health care is so much more than doctors, hospitals, and pharmaceuticals, all of which, of course, come with their own ‘healthy’ price tag.
Please note. I am not saying you absolutely cannot be healthy without these things. I am saying they can be extremely valuable additions to our arsenal of defense.
And that extreme value often requires additional financial resources.
As my wife and I brace ourselves to enter our seventh decade of life, one of my goals is to be able to more easily afford to make healthy choices as we traverse the remainder of our years.
Business Application:
There are 1) healthy choices, and 2) levels of financial investment that are required to build a healthy business and workplace culture - investment that goes well beyond, but also includes, the pay and benefits package.
As a business owner/executive leader, are you in a financial position that allows you to be able to offer the people within your sphere of influence and impact an ample supply of healthy choices?
If not, would you consider making it a goal to get there?
There are any number of ideas for us to consider. Here are just a few to whet our whistle:
Timely technology upgrades
A pace and regularity of Learning & Development that matters
A reasonable, measured work pace expectation that encourages life outside the office
Events and travel (maybe even beyond their core area of responsibility or business purpose) that show your people you understand they are more than a cog in a machine
An office remodel to freshen the space with attention to details that serve employees and clients well
Paid-for coaching and peer groups for your most influential leaders, starting at the very top (healthy orgs often engage in both in-industry and cross-industry groups)
The list of opportunities in this space is only limited by your imagination.
What would it look like for your leadership team to spend fifteen minutes every quarter brainstorming ways your organization could contribute to the health and well-being of everyone involved?
What if you took seriously that which I believe is the purpose of business – to facilitate human flourishing?
Then, how might you set financial goals that would allow you to be generous in this arena?
Cast the Vision; Align your resources; and then…Execute.
This is the Work of Leaders (Vision; Alignment; Execution) applied to the health and well-being of your organization.
Something to think about, anyway.
Blessings to you, my friends!
==========
This Week’s Resource Recommendations:
“The Best Place to Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace”
- Ron Friedman, PhD
From Amazon: For readers of Malcolm Gladwell, Daniel Pink, and Stephen Dubner, a captivating and surprising journey through the science of workplace excellence.
Why do successful companies reward failure? What can casinos teach us about building a happy workplace? How do you design an office that enhances both attention to detail and creativity?
In The Best Place to Work, award-winning psychologist Ron Friedman, Ph.D., uses the latest research from the fields of motivation, creativity, behavioral economics, neuroscience, and management to reveal what really makes us successful at work. Combining powerful stories with cutting-edge findings, Friedman shows leaders at every level how they can promote smarter thinking, greater innovation, and stronger performance.
Among the many surprising insights, Friedman explains how learning to think like a hostage negotiator can help you defuse a workplace argument, why placing a fish bowl near your desk can elevate your thinking, and how incorporating strategic distractions into your schedule can help you make smarter decisions. The book introduces the inventor who created the cubicle, the president who brought down the world's most dangerous criminal, and the teenager who single-handedly transformed professional tennis--vivid stories that offer unexpected revelations on achieving workplace excellence.
The Best Place to Work offers employees and executives alike game-changing advice for working smarter and turning any organization--regardless of its size, budget, or ambitions--into an extraordinary workplace.
“Dying for a Paycheck: How Modern Management Harms Employee Health and Company Performance―and What We Can Do About It”
- Jeffrey Pfeffer
From Amazon: In one survey, 61 percent of employees said that workplace stress had made them sick and 7 percent said they had actually been hospitalized. Job stress costs US employers more than $300 billion annually and may cause 120,000 excess deaths each year. In China, 1 million people a year may be dying from overwork. People are literally dying for a paycheck. And it needs to stop.
In this timely, provocative book, Jeffrey Pfeffer contends that many modern management commonalities such as long work hours, work-family conflict, and economic insecurity are toxic to employees—hurting engagement, increasing turnover, and destroying people’s physical and emotional health—and also inimical to company performance. He argues that human sustainability should be as important as environmental stewardship.
You don’t have to do a physically dangerous job to confront a health-destroying, possibly life-threatening, workplace. Just ask the manager in a senior finance role whose immense workload, once handled by several employees, required frequent all-nighters—leading to alcohol and drug addiction. Or the dedicated news media producer whose commitment to getting the story resulted in a sixty-pound weight gain thanks to having no down time to eat properly or exercise. Or the marketing professional prescribed antidepressants a week after joining her employer.
In Dying for a Paycheck, Jeffrey Pfeffer marshals a vast trove of evidence and numerous examples from all over the world to expose the infuriating truth about modern work life: even as organizations allow management practices that literally sicken and kill their employees, those policies do not enhance productivity or the bottom line, thereby creating a lose-lose situation.
Exploring a range of important topics including layoffs, health insurance, work-family conflict, work hours, job autonomy, and why people remain in toxic environments, Pfeffer offers guidance and practical solutions all of us—employees, employers, and the government—can use to enhance workplace wellbeing. We must wake up to the dangers and enormous costs of today’s workplace, Pfeffer argues. Dying for a Paycheck is a clarion call for a social movement focused on human sustainability. Pfeffer makes clear that the environment we work in is just as important as the one we live in, and with this urgent book, he opens our eyes and shows how we can make our workplaces healthier and better.
MMS 25-09
I would love to send our Monday Morning Stretch directly to you via email and would consider it an honor to serve you in this way. To register, please take 30 seconds to give us permission to do so below.
Blessings to you, my friend!
