How To Serve Up A Wellness Cocktail
For those of you who know me well, you know that I love a good cocktail, a French Martini is my drink of choice but there’s another cocktail that I like to serve up called the Wellness Cocktail. It’s a drink that leaders can serve to their people every day. The ingredients are really easy to remember by the acronym DOSE.
D for dopamine
O for oxytocin
S for serotonin
E for endorphins
All you have to do is mix these four ingredients, serve the cocktail to your people and they’ll be happy, focused and productive. So, how do you create it?
Dopamine
This chemical is all about anticipation, and also about getting an unexpected reward. Dopamine is future-orientated and it motivates others to do great things. So as a leader you want to make sure that you're giving your people meaningful goals to achieve. You need to also give them something to look forward to, rituals on a daily, weekly, monthly, and yearly basis. Build anticipation and suspense, throw in the unexpected and create that dopamine hit.
Oxytocin
Often referred to as the love or cuddle hormone and it’s essential for creating powerful bonds and improving social relationships. Oxytocin is produced when you build connection and show empathy towards others. As a leader, you need to get belly-to-belly with your people. Remember that leadership is a contact sport. You want to bond with your people through sharing yourself; your experiences and your stories. Be vulnerable. Who are you? What do you like to do? What are your values? Share this and it will create intimacy and build trust. You have strong and healthy relationships with your people.
Serotonin
Serotonin is responsible for regulating our moods and one tip for increasing our serotonin levels is to remember positive events in our lives. In leadership, make sure you take the time to remind people of how far they've come and what they've achieved. Remind them of the great feedback they got from that client last year and how they have contributed to the team.
Endorphins
Finally, you want to mix in a heap of endorphins. We all know that endorphins are created when we exercise, but they're also created when we laugh. As a leader, keep things light and fun and playful in your office. And as I always say, take your work seriously but not yourself seriously.I was at a girlfriend's 40th birthday lunch the other day with a bunch of lawyers. We all worked together at one time in our careers and we were sharing stories and antics of what we used to get up to and how that doesn't happen anymore. We need to get back to that. Slow down and start enjoying our work – more laughter!
If you can serve those four ingredients in a cocktail to your people every day, it will make a huge difference to your people's wellbeing. They’ll be motivated and focussed to perform at their best.
I believe that everyone needs something to look forward to, something to remember, someone to love and a good laugh along the way.
Midja x