My passion for leadership development and improving workplace cultures comes from a personal place, as most passions do. Throughout my employment journey, I have had jobs I’ve loved, and jobs I’ve loathed. I’ve had jobs that felt like a reprieve from life’s stress, and I’ve had those in which I felt dread driving to work, and anxiety walking from my car to the building. The common denominator between my job satisfaction and dissatisfaction was never the work itself, or the pay, or the coworkers. It was the way the work environment made me feel, and that was always a direct result of the leadership style and resulting workplace culture. 

A theme of “how work life affects the way life works” has also emerged in my work with therapy clients in my private practice. I see many clients suffering from mental health issues that can be directly traced to the negative impact of their work environment. I’ve had several clients who need a leave of absence from work due to the stress of a toxic workplace culture. I’ve had clients who won workman’s compensation claims due to mental illnesses resulting from harsh and punitive management in their workplace. I’ve also seen the reverse to be true. I’ve had many clients experience huge life stressors that were made more manageable because they had a fulfilling and healthy work life.

I’m continuously astounded by the impact one’s work environment can have on their mental, emotional, and physical health. My experience led me to do a deep dive into research on healthy workplace cultures, effective leadership styles, and how these are connected to people’s health. I was not surprised to learn that; indeed, a negative or positive work experience has a far-reaching impact on people’s well-being. Also unsurprising is that happy employees work harder, and organizations with happy employees are more profitable. What was surprising to me was that the proven ingredients for making happy, healthy employees are quite simple. The ingredients to a positive workplace culture and effective leadership are grounded in our humanity. People need to feel seen, heard, valued, and respected. People thrive when their leaders are authentic, have integrity, are effective listeners, and create a safe atmosphere to work in.

The best discovery in my research was that the skills needed to make this magic happen are completely teachable!

From all these experiences and research, a personal mission was born. My mission is to help create workplace cultures that bring out the best in people and make them the most productive they can be. My goal is for everyone to be fulfilled, not depleted, at the end of their workday. I want to help transform places of work into more profitable enterprises by honoring the value their employees bring. My partners at LifeWorks Education and I cannot wait to help people thrive and businesses prosper!

By Kristyn Fowkes