12 Tips for Wellbeing
Community Waikato team building day - having morning tea with friends from the Good Day Matrix
By Kim cable - marketing and communications manager
If our team is thriving, members are doing well and are successful, healthy, and strong. Thriving communities begin with thriving individuals. When we grow and nurture our people, we grow and nurture our organisation and its impact, and we are better able to deliver within and for our communities.
It has been long recognised by Community Waikato that the team are its greatest asset. The organisation genuinely cares about its team members and wants to see them thrive as individuals with ‘full cups from which they can pour’ when working. We have developed a wellbeing strategy because we value our team and want to ensure that wellbeing is a priority.
These are our 12 wellbeing tips:
1. Take time for yourself
There’s the saying that you ‘can’t pour from an empty cup’. If you are not taking time and looking after your own wellbeing, then you are less able to serve others. Take time to rest and recover when needed, and do those things you enjoy.
2. Prioritise what’s important – have a plan
At Community Waikato we have both individual wellbeing plans and a team one. It is important to ensure key things are in place and are prioritised – such as manageable workloads, maintaining relationships with each other, and having fun in our work.
3. Focus on all aspects of wellbeing
We use te whare tapa wha to take a holisitc look at wellbeing. This means we consider our tinana (physical health), wairua (spiritual health), connecting to the whenua (land), whaanau (health of our family), and hinengaro (our mental health).
4. Work within your capacity
This links back to prioritizing what work is the most important to meet our strategic plan, and on not taking on too much workload, or work that is outside of the scope of the area we cover.
5. Connect/ relationships
Even though our team are not often all in the office at the same time as we work from home or away from the office, it is important for us to stay connected and engaged with each other. One easy way to do this was through introducing Coffee Buddy – which means that once a month we make an effort to catch up with a team member that we have been assigned that month. This could mean going to a café for a coffee or taking a stroll around the lake. It has been a nice way for our team to stay connected.
6. Celebrate achievements
It is great to recognise when we as a team or individuals have something to celebrate. Recently Community Waikato celebrated our 21st birthday with the sector.
7. Walk outside/ take a breather
Nature is the best healer, and sometimes just taking a few moments to clear your head and take a breather can help you reset.
8. Be kind (to yourself and others)
Being kind is an easy (and free) thing to do. And it makes yourself and others feel good.
9. Serve others
Most of us are working in tis sector because we know the value of serving others. It is not only good for the communities we serve, but is also good for our own health and wellbeing.
10. Ensure resourcing needs are met to be able to deliver your job
Having the resources you need to properly do your job ensures less stress, and a better ability to be able to meet strategic objectives.
11. Continue learning/ professional development
This allows us to continue to improve how we deliver, gain new skillsets, and builds confidence and credibility.
12. Playful productivity/ have fun
A job doesn’t have to feel like something you have to do to make ends meet. Try to find ways to put enjoyment into your job. Laugh with teammates, do team building activities that are fun, learn something together (such as te reo Maaori). Even though the work we do is serious, we don’t need to be serious all the time.