It’s only 10:30 on Monday morning and the muscles in my neck and shoulders already feel like the Himalayas. I felt as if I was carrying the weight of the world. Everything on my desk seemed vast and unyielding.
I had three more challenging calls to make before my team meeting at 11.00. Yet every time I looked at my screen email notifications were flickering like stars in the Milky Way, adding even more pressure to my poor shoulders.
Yet, my dominating distraction was the echo of my early morning argument with my loved one. The slam of the door and the heavy feelings of regret. I thought I’d boxed it, but maybe not as the tears welled.
Not my story, but one I hear often and it’s become familiar.
Now pause.
Take a breath.
Look around your workplace. See every employee, team member or person around you? Chances are everyone else is doing the same thing. Trying to block out thoughts, trying to stay ahead of the clock and trying to stay afloat.
We’ve normalised this silent suffocation. It’s rare to see a sparkly, steady, happy gaze of people productive and in flow with their work. Instead, our collective noses are pressed to the grindstone, but for all our hard work stress is rising and productivity falling.
This Isn’t New Or Groundbreaking
These are words fixed in a well worn groove. Companies have spent billions on places for people to go and do wellbeing activities – I call this “silo wellbeing” because the solutions are not being integrated into what’s causing stress.
We have learned so much about neuroscience and ancient wisdom is now mainstream. We have the knowledge, but taking the action to turn the tide so people and profits thrive seemingly remains a step too far and this is understandable because solutions are blurred by stress. A vicious circle and the stakes rise.
In the UK alone, workplace stress costs businesses £56 billion a year.
Globally, burnout has become the invisible pandemic.
And at the root? Systems that push for performance and profit but ignore the human energetic cost.
The Shift That Changes Everything
If you lead people, you carry both a privilege and a responsibility to create conditions where humans and profit can thrive simultaneously.
This means leading not from adrenaline, but from alignment.
To shift, breakthrough and command your mindset is what unlocks revenue growth. Strategically rewiring your mindset gives you a lens to see feel, think and grow your business to thrive.
No more pressure, just certainty and precision. And no more endless performance hacks, simply wellbeing becomes a key performance indicator.
In my work creating strategic operating systems to deliver Joyful Profits, I’ve seen one truth hold again and again: when leaders restore their own nervous system balance, they naturally create environments where others perform better, think clearer, and stay longer, and this means profits rise.
Wellbeing isn’t a perk, it’s a profit driver and thriving is the new performance baseline.
Here’s Where to Begin
Putting thriving people and profit at the centre of your leadership means doing these things as a starter:
1 Find Hidden Profit.
Stop chasing the next shiney object in marketing (unless you’re already maximising revenue per client) and serve your existing clients. Every company, from solopreneur to multi-national has upwards of 30% untapped profit from just one profit generating tool I use. Some companies 3x their profit in less than 12 month.
Whilst profit is essential for business wellbeing, it’s also essential for thriving. When revenue pressure is taken off leadership immediately their mind and physiology shift from fear and lack to growth and abundance. In the more relaxed state, new opportunities materialise just as if they manifested them. Manifestation is a science that has a clear pathway and optimising profit is one step.
2 Be the System Reset.
Your team doesn’t learn from what you say, they calibrate to how you are. They subconsciously adjust their world to your breath, tone and pace. You become their role model and template for their performance.
I know first hand how easy this is to say and how difficult it is to do. But, pause, take a breath and remember workplace behaviour is modelled, learned, socialised, rehearsed and reinforced. When you slow down enough to think clearly, your company follows suit. Remember what Ghandi famously said, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
3 Build Real Relationships.
We lead best through genuine care, trust and connection. Research consistently shows that trust-based leadership directly improves engagement, retention, and innovation. As an example, according to MIT Sloan Review, employees who trust their employer are 260% more motivated to work, have 41% lower absenteeism, and are 50% less likely to look for another job.
Simply put when people feel seen, they bring their best energy and best ideas forward.
4 Make Wellbeing Operational.
Stop treating wellbeing as a side project by subsidising gym memberships or doing endless assessments.
Instead support your company to integrate wellbeing as a measurable outcome of operational performance. Integrate it into your culture metrics, your meeting rhythms, and your leadership KPIs. Reward calm clarity and embed breathing space into the operating system.
The Leadership Evolution We’re Being Asked For
Leaders of the future will be measured by how effectively they can dismantle stress and pressure.
This is the essence of Thriving Leadership where people and profits thrive equally.
When wellbeing sits at the centre of your leadership, everything expands:
- Productivity rises.
- Profit grows without pressure.
- People thrive and stay.
So, before you dive into those emails, take 10 seconds to do the one thing that costs nothing and changes everything… Breathe.
When you thrive, your people thrive.
And when people thrive, so does profit.
Contact me to discover more.
Love. Gail