Unlocking Healthier Workplace Cultures with Haley Prophet

As a leader, have you ever wondered how to cultivate a healthy workplace culture and prioritize employee well being?

Hailey Prophet, the force behind Hailey Prophet Consulting, takes us on an enlightening journey into the world of well-being and organizational culture. In this engaging conversation, she draws from her extensive experience as a well-being strategist to provide valuable insights for leaders. 

Hailey's transformation into a fractional well-being strategist is a story worth hearing. She delves deep into the importance of valuing your employees and creating a workplace culture that centers on mutual respect from leadership. It's a key ingredient for success in today's business landscape.

Hailey highlights the common hurdles  leaders encounter during culture transformation efforts. She introduces the concept of human sustainability, underlining its critical role in the workforce. Her practical advice for leaders to focus on treating employees as whole individuals and incorporating self-care into the work environment is spot on. The result? A more productive and harmonious workplace.

Hailey also touches on the vital topic of workplace boundaries, advocating for shared responsibility and challenging legacy thinking.

Hailey's wisdom is your guide on this employee well-being journey. Tune in for a treasure trove of insights and actionable steps that will help shift your leadership approach on employee well-being and stregnthen your organization's culture. 

Connect with Haley Prophet on LinkedIn

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Transcript

William Gladhart: 0:00

Welcome to the Leadership Levers podcast. I'm your host, will Gladhart, c of Connect2Metrics. At Connect2Metrics, we help organizations strengthen their culture, one action at a time. We're here today to learn about the actions leaders have taken to address cultural change. Our guest today is Haley Prophet, who is the owner of Hailey Prophet Consultant, and she's a recognized expert in the area of well-being. So thanks so much for joining us today, Hailey.

Haley Prophet: 0:30

Thank you so much Will.

William Gladhart: 0:31

I thought we would just start out by having you share with our audience a bit about yourself and your organization a your background.

Haley Prophet: 0:39

Yeah, I really appreciate it, Excited to be here and have the conversation. I am even more excited to share my now role of fractional well-being strategist and really helping in the workplace. We're seeing an interest and a spike in this work of fractional, fractionalized opportunities to highlight different subject matter experts, and so I've spent nearly 20 years on the corporate side as part of the HR teams really working on strategy in-house, and now I'm able to take that same passion and expertise, knowledge, education from all these years into new markets where they perhaps don't need someone feet on the ground all the time, but still need some accountability and some expertise when it comes to creating this strategy.

William Gladhart: 1:30

We'll be discussing three questions today, Haley, as a warm-up to our conversation. We will be discussing three questions today as a warm-up to start our conversation. Would you like to share why you believe a healthy culture and well-being is critical?

Haley Prophet: 1:43

Sure, I mean, we could easily spend hours discussing this topic alone, but for the sake of kind of a warm-up question here I would reflect on when does anyone ever want to go into a workplace where they're not valued, where they're asked to not share their opinions, where they're not encouraged to be mindful and instill healthy relationships, to move their body occasionally, to be in a safe environment? No one. And so for me, the healthy culture, criticality right now, is sustaining our people, sustaining the workforce to do the work, to bring their purpose and their passions to the workplace, so that it isn't one or the other, it's not competing against who I am as an individual and what I want to do professionally. It's merging the two. And for me, a healthy culture and prioritizing that premise is what creates thriving organizations.

William Gladhart: 2:40

So what do you see as the biggest challenge leadership faces when it comes to cultural change?

Haley Prophet: 2:45

Oh gosh, you know another weighted question, but I would say it's this idea of human sustainability and being part of the strategy I am asked frequently on well, what's the business case for having a well-being strategy or how does it compete when it comes to other business priorities and strategies? And I just remind folks and ask a lot of business leaders what would you do without your group of you know high achieving, high performing individuals showing up, that care about the mission? What would you do without all of your employees and if you are not creating a strategy that goes well beyond just a dimensional aspect of individual well-being to reflect the stress, the burnout, the professional person that they are, the personal person that's showing up at work? And so, with that idea of human sustainability, it's a challenge for leaders to say it's just as important as the product we're selling, the profit we are making, and instead flip that paradigm so that the strategy has to include this approach to human sustainability and well-being in the workplace.

William Gladhart: 3:59

Yeah, I think you've very well identified those challenges around well-being, the sustainability piece. You know, obviously anxiety is a key component in there. Or what do you think leaders can do to actually address this particular challenge that you've been recognizing and experiencing?

Haley Prophet: 4:15

Yeah, you know it's interesting because I am frequently asked both from the leaders themselves what do we do? Or sometimes it's even the mid-manager level saying how can we support our leaders? You know, I think it goes without saying. It's this idea of whole person. We know that we've been addressing it for a long time, but continuing to address the whole person in the workplace, I would emphasize it as beginning to think of it as how do you address the full person?

Haley Prophet: 4:44

We do not have a s person that comes into work. We don't have half of them show up to do their job. So, by addressing the whole person, acknowledging they're coming to work with these emotions, thoughts, feelings, an experiences, and acknowledging it is certainly one place to start addressing. And then also the idea that leaders are whole people. They are full people showing up, and so that would lead me into this idea of self-care on the job. We make it a part of our job for that human sustainability, whether it's scheduling, you know, well-being into the flow of work. Whether it's scheduling how we take care of ourselves, how we're resting, even the language we use in a workplace and on our teams and as leaders, that language alone is so much this conversation of self-care and sustainability, and a flow at work that truly supports the well-being of us as humans.

William Gladhart: 5:44

So you obviously have put quite a bit of thought into some of these actions that leaders can take. Is there anything else you'd like to share or add to this particular challenge that leadership faces?

Haley Prophet: 5:55

Oh gosh, there are endless amounts of challenges and recognizing challenges are different in every workplace and for different reasons.

Haley Prophet: 6:05

Maybe it's geography, maybe it's the structure of your business.

Haley Prophet: 6:08

But I would say another thing to really focus on is how do we challenge the boundaries, how do we challenge the barriers in the workplace that are already existing, if we think about creating an environment where our team, our individuals, are our greatest asset and we're focusing on sustaining them, this human sustainability.

Haley Prophet: 6:28

Yet we reflect on our boundaries that we've created in our work environment are what's limiting them to be sustainable, to take care of their well-being? That is certainly something that we can address and workplaces need to be really authentic with how they're addressing it. And then I would say, additional to reflecting on one of those boundaries, how do we begin to move beyond this idea of legacy, thinking with well-being and that it is the sole responsibility of the individual? They are working these hours for us, they are contributing to our bottom line, they are making our products, selling our products, really moving beyond that so that it is a true shared responsibility and I say shared intentionally, because it does need to be a part of the individual making those choices but creating an approach where the organization invites less of the boundary. That may be a limiting factor for so many.

William Gladhart: 7:23

Thank you so much for joining us today . I've really enjoyed having you on the Leadership Levers. I really appreciate your insights and thoughts. Thank you for joining the Leadership Levers podcast. You may find all our Leadership Levers episodes on our website at connectthenumber2metricscom. Tune in weekly as we invite leaders to share their experiences in strengthening culture, one action at a time.