Emily Marquis is a Clinical Health and Wellness Coach, board certified NBC-HWC. She is an RYT200 Yoga Instructor and Mindfulness Consultant. Emily works with individuals and groups in support of creating healthy habits for sustainable lifestyle change.
Drawing from her professional training and personal health challenges; she has experience in preventing, reducing, and managing chronic illness from stress to sleep to weight loss to work life balance.
With her combined coaching and corporate HR background, Emily works with organizations in creating cultures of wellness and is NAHU certified. Emily also works with clinics and fellow practitioners to create a village for clients to best support their well-being. She is an Instructor at Emory University in their graduate Coaching certificate program. Emily lives in Colorado, USA with her family and loves the balance between a good TV show and an outdoor adventure.
Podcast Highlights
Who is Emily Marquis?
Emily is a mom with two kids, as well as an entrepreneur. In her experience within human resources in a corporate environment, she learned a lot about the reasons why people start underperforming at their job. After going through some health challenges of her own, she recognized the need for coaching when it comes to health and well being. Now she helps support people and small organizations with healthcare issues and reduction and prevention.
What kinds of signs should you be looking for to know that something is going on in an employee’s life?
As a manager, if you start to notice that someone’s performance is not up to a certain standard, that’s an opportunity for a conversation beyond discipline. Everyone has the desire to do well. There’s usually a reason behind a decline in performance.
Empathy is crucial to getting to the bottom of what’s going on. It’s important for managers to have resources available for their team. You don’t have to be the answer and you don’t have to be their therapist in order to help. Being able to refer a team member to the right place is a good first step.
What resources should be in place to help people?
Training and education on empathy and listening is the baseline. Just having a conversation with someone can often help them realize an issue they are experiencing. Having contacts with a mental health organization and making sure that the HR department has the tools and contacts to help is a good start.
The leader’s role is to be a listener and show empathy on a human level. Simply stating that “I’ve been there.”, “Me too.”, “You’ll get through this.”, and “How can I support you?” are four statements that make a big impact on someone.
Vulnerability as a Leader
Science shows that empathy and vulnerability are healthy for everyone involved, but in terms of ROI, being vulnerable pays off in business as well. Studies have shown that people stay longer and are more engaged when they have a strong connection with their leader.
Empathy adds money to the bottom line by increasing engagement and retention, as well as increasing collaboration and innovation because of the environment of psychological safety.
As a leader, there is a pressure to appear like you’re always holding it together. This is why it’s important to have a coach or mentor that you can go to and rely on. You don’t have to stand in front of your team and air your dirty laundry out. Asking for help is one of the most courageous things you can do.
If you have a policy of taking care of yourself within your organization, modeling it is how you get the buy-in from the culture.
If your stress is coming from the work side of life, you have to set strong boundaries at work. Leave your phone on your night stand and avoid answering emails on your off time. Prioritise more social time and exercise, or whatever you need to balance out your life.
If the CEO is requiring you to answer emails at all hours of the day, you may have to evaluate whether you align with that culture. It’s also important to note that they may not be expecting an instant response until you create that pattern. Get in the habit of answering when you’re back in working hours and see what happens. It’s often the story we tell ourselves about what we think we need to do to be a “good” employee that causes a lot of the stress.
Developing Resilience
A big part of resilience is prioritizing your health. Your stress management, nutrition, sleep, and physical fitness all impact your resilience. When you feel well, you do well, so make adjustments to your life to ensure you have the energy to do your best work and handle obstacles.
We are only productive for about four to five hours a day. Try to make sure you get done what you need to get done when your energy is high and take breaks when you have to keep your energy level from plummeting.
Resilience means the ability to get through difficult times. Look back at times in your career and personal life when you had challenges and what got you through those situations. What are the strengths, characteristics, and tools you used to persevere?
Making Health a Priority of Your Corporate Culture
Look at your policies and see if it encourages a healthy lifestyle. Are you encouraging people to work 10 hour days with no breaks or is it clear that you want people to take time to take care of their wellness. Think about what the ideal situation might look like and write policies that support that vision.
Links:
FREE HEALTH QUIZ: https://emilymarquis.com/free-health-quiz/