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Below you will find a brief summary of our conversation with Geert Serneels. The full episode can be listened to via Spotify & Apple Podcasts.
About Geert Serneels (and Marc Vande Gucht)
Geert and Marc are co-authors of the book ‘Colleague in Mind and Heart, Appreciative Leadership in the Workplace.’ A book about mental well-being in the workplace that offers practical and concrete tools for managers to build a good relationship with their employees and thus create a positive work environment.
Geert is managing director at Case by Case and has been a consultant for small and larger companies, both nationally and internationally, for many years. He strongly believes that everyone has multiple competencies to fall back on.
Marc Vande Gucht is the founder of the ‘Go for Happiness’ fund, a fund for parents who have lost a child to suicide. Unfortunately, Marc is an expert by experience in this area, as he lost his daughter to suicide about fifteen years ago, which partly inspired the book, since Marc has since focused heavily on the mental well-being of people.
Marc was unavailable at the time of the podcast, and Geert kindly spoke to us alone on their behalf.
Take control of your own career and well-being
We had already talked about it earlier with Lesley Arens from #ZigZagHR in our seventh podcast that employees are responsible for their own career. Geert and Marc also state in their book that everyone is the architect of their own career. The responsibility around mental well-being is a shared responsibility of both the employee and the manager.
But the manager, at any level, has a huge impact on how people feel, how they behave in the workplace, and on the mental well-being of employees.
People need to search for their talents and what gives them energy, and in doing so, find their own work happiness. Too often, people get stuck in a job that no longer energizes them. Often, they lose their drive but remain stuck in their job because of the security or sense of control it provides. Stepping away from that is sometimes easier said than done; the obligations and specific situations of employees often make it difficult to take control.
Fortunately, nowadays there are many opportunities for employees to get support from professionals (such as career counselors) who look together with employees at their talents, possibilities, what gives them energy, etc., to pursue that much-needed work happiness.
The ‘lost generation’
In many companies, you find people who still have about 5 to 10 years until retirement. They have to do their job, but they are not keeping up with the changes that are coming. They hold on to the past and are not willing to go along with those changes. This generation can also be called the ‘lost generation,’ also because there is often higher absenteeism. For companies, it is not easy to deal with people with this mindset, but it is the task of both the manager and the employee to become aware of this and work together on adapting to the changing situation.
A manager actually has a threefold role:
- The leader: works with employees based on a strategy and a vision
- The operational manager: looks at numbers and results and ensures everything runs as it should
- The people manager: coach, motivator, and inspirer of people
It is incredibly important to work with people even if the people management part is not obvious to everyone.
A very important tip here is to look at who the person behind the employee is! Ask the question: who are my employees, what do they do, what drives them, what can trigger them?
A goal of a manager must be to bring all employees to professionals who are all competent and very engaged. In principle, this is an unattainable goal because the company changes, society changes, people come and go.
Nevertheless, the goal must be to guide people in this as well as possible.
Employee engagement
Studies show that the percentage of employees who feel engaged is really very low. Despite the fact that there are more and more initiatives around well-being, creating a pleasant work environment, and opportunities to relax, this is unfortunately not enough.
It is very important that people have a good working atmosphere experienced among colleagues, but also the direct contact with the manager is enormously important. People usually don’t leave companies, but leave a manager.
The manager has an important role in fine-tuning well-being at work and must take responsibility by working concretely with employees and actively listening.
Due to the Covid-19 situation, we are working massively from home, making it extremely difficult for managers to maintain that connection with their employees. That’s why virtual meetings, but especially e-apéros and informal face-to-face contacts, are essential to reconnect. Not just to discuss operational matters, but especially to have a good chat and truly listen to how employees are experiencing the whole situation.
It is a real challenge for companies to be creative in finding ways to (continue to) connect with their employees and build a positive culture. A good way to do this is sincere positive feedback, preferably continuously throughout the year and not limited to 2 formal evaluation moments per year.
A sincere compliment can often achieve much more than any incentive. JustBite also focuses heavily on that connection during informal moments, among other things by encouraging people to share positivity through feedback cards during healthy snack moments.
Mens sana in corpore sano
The ancient Greeks already knew that a healthy mind and a healthy body are inseparably connected. Companies that value the mental well-being of their employees often also offer healthy food and healthy snacks to their employees.
A proverbial apple won’t be the decisive factor in mental well-being, but it can give just that extra boost.
When people feel good in their skin, thanks to healthy nutrition and other health tools such as mindfulness at work, this only contributes to their productivity and work happiness. Someone who feels physically well will also feel much stronger mentally and can thus bring much greater added value to their organization.
Conclusion
As a manager, take responsibility and think about the person behind the employee. Collaborate, ensure they feel happy, satisfied, and that they can make their active contribution.
As an employee, dare to take a critical look at yourself in the mirror. Decide for yourself if you are still happy today, if you still get energy from the things you have to do, and if not, then it’s time to take action!