“Show me your friends and I’ll show you your future”. These words, spoken often by my pastor, hover on the edge of my conscious as a gentle reminder to be intentional about where I invest my time. I’ve heard it said another way, that we’re the sum total of the 5 people closest to us. Proximity matters! Therefore, I’m always trying to surround myself with people that inspire me to dream bigger. Challenge my thought process. Stimulate creativity. Dance on disappointment. Medicate with laughter. Are a few steps ahead of me. And hope to be those things for others in return.
What I love about consulting, is the opportunity to take this idea to the workplace. With a slight iteration, I would like to propose, “Show me your workplace and I’ll show you your wellness”.
I started at a new client site in March, and as I made my way around the team, I quickly learned that fitness was a priority to most. Yes! This was great news. It started with a weekly workout challenge, like who could hold a plank the longest, or do the most push-ups. Then escalated quickly when a teammate invited me to sign up for my first (sprint) Triathlon. Let me preface this with the fact that I typically belong to that group of people that when asked, would flippantly discount themselves by admitting something like, “A triathlon sounds soo funnn but the swim part freaks me out". However, she made it sound really attainable and who isn’t motivated by a super-fit co-worker?
Naturally, I signed up! And promptly spent the next 5 months lamenting my impulsivity. (kidding! ...kind of) Truly, it was humbling at several points as I am not a strong swimmer (yet), but fun to see progression, and train with friends and coworkers along the way. I even ended up finishing 7 minutes faster than my estimated time (and because I know you’re curious, 26 minutes behind my co-worker. Still plenty of room to remain inspired there :))
Completing the triathlon was a personal victory, no doubt, but only one small example of the positive influence being spread amongst both my client and firm teams. From a firm perspective, even writing this article is the byproduct of being pushed by a professional mentor & firm leader to develop my passion for written communication. And my Pioneer colleagues are easily some of the wittiest and friendliest I've had the pleasure of working alongside which keeps me sharp and energized.
So there's a snapshot of my current professional influences, none of which I take for granted. What about you? Who or what has contributed to your workplace wellness lately?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Becca Diederich is a Change Management Training Consultant at Pioneer Management Consulting, a business strategy, business operations, data analytics and organizational change management firm based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.