Author Recap: Nurturing Mental Health & Culture Change in the Travel Industry

✅ The Advantage of the Introvert's Strategy is Business Growth 

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Key Highlights: 📌

🗣️❤️Empathy and Open Communication Emphasizing the importance of empathy and clear, open communication to keep employees feeling supported and heard during times of crisis and change.

🧠💪Mental Health Initiatives Implementing structured mental health initiatives such as Mindful Mondays, Wellness Wednesdays, and Fun Fridays to maintain employee well-being and engagement.

🔄🌟Adaptability and Embracing Change 🔄🌟 Successfully navigating significant changes, like the pandemic and AI integration, by involving employees in the change process and ensuring they are part of the solution.


We encourage you to listen to the full episode and as always, we hope the time you spend with us will help remove the stigma of anxiety and mental health in the workplace and your personal life.

Transcript

Adrian, another delightful guest. I'm curious, what were some of your key takeaways? Well, it's so important to have on people who've gone through hard things because so many of us do. Well, this is a company that was in the travel industry in 2020. They sent over everybody. There's no work. There was no travel going on in March of 2020. How did they keep their people and keep them engaged and bring everybody back eventually? Well, it was multiple channels of communication. It's empathy, it's people feeling heard. You know, we've said, look, if there's one leadership characteristic you've got to have today, it's empathy. Yeah, and asking the right questions and listening, you know, what's working, what's not working? Ask your frontline people. You know, we can think, oh, we're the managers, we're the leaders, we've got to have all the answers. I like that they were very intentional about instituting some rituals for mental health, you know, mindful Mondays and wellness Wednesdays, and of course, fun Fridays, who wouldn't like that? As long, as well as summer hours, you know, that was the thing I remember way back when I was working in New York. In the summer, you got every other Friday off and it didn't count against your vacation time. That little perk was amazing and everybody pitched in to fill in. You know, you'd arrange with your team, okay, I'm gonna take this Friday, you take that Friday. So not just saying, hey, we want you to have work-life balance or hey, we want you to take care of yourself. We're gonna put these little rituals in place and we're gonna make it fun and we're gonna make sure that you do it. I thought that was really brilliant. Yeah, I mean, you ask though, who wouldn't love Fun Fridays? You actually worked with a guy who didn't like fun. So, yeah, you guys had that different motivator. Yeah, I just, we don't work with him anymore. Is it any mystery? So, a couple of other great things. I mean, I love that too. Yeah, those rituals that create, you know, people like rituals, especially positive ones. I love how, too, they attack change, not by, look, here's the change, like it or lump it. No, it's, look, we're gonna survey people. We're gonna help them feel like they are the pioneers of change, so they're part of it. They don't just tell you this is happening. They have all the managers up there with HR, with the senior leadership team, so it's a unified front. Because if you don't buy in as a leader, when the change comes, people smell it on you. Yeah. And I like the way they started right from day one, onboarding. So you've got a boarding pass. I thought that was very clever, right? And we're going to walk you through, here's our EAP program, and here's our wellness programs, and here are our rituals and traditions. So right from day one, being very intentional about this is our culture, here's how we do it, and we're delighted to have you here. I always like listening to people's personal rituals. Isn't it interesting that her workout in the morning, if I can't get to the gym, I do it in the basement. She's very intentional about that. And then reading, making sure that she's reading and walking and it's interesting, we're all a little different, but find what works for you and then be very intentional about it. If only we could recommend a book, Jess. I mean, what book would that be? What book would that be? Maybe Anxiety at Work. I've heard a lot of good things about it. It's a heck of a book. And yes, it was a bestseller. Yeah, the title's a little on the nose for me, but yeah, I've heard it's a good book. The Audible book, apparently, is genius. Oh, gosh. And we did mention our lit video book as well. If you haven't got a lot of time, 29 minutes, you know, watching a short movie on Anxiety at Work. And it won't make you more anxious. It'll make you actually more calm. Who else could we thank today? We're big on gratitude. I would really like to thank our producer, Brent Klein, Christy Lawrence, who helps us find amazing guests, and all of you who have listened to them, we want to give you a big thanks. If you like the podcast, share it, let others know about it. We'd also love you to visit thecultureworks.com for some free resources to help you and your team thrive. Right, and we love speaking to audiences all over the world, whether it's in person or virtual, we talk about teamwork, culture, resilience, we talk about gratitude. Give us a call, we'd love to talk to you about participating in your event. And again, Anxiety at Work, it's available everywhere, on lit video books, on Audible, fine bookstores everywhere. And by the way, our eighth strategy is a gratitude ritual, and we have a lovely journal called the Gratitude Habit. So lots of fun resources. Adrian, it's always great being with you. I will, as always, give you the last word. Hey, thanks. Yeah, no, it's been a fun ride again, learning from Diana. And so thanks, Jess. Thanks everybody for joining us today. Until next time, we wish you the best of mental health. Thank you.