When you have a role that puts you right in the midst of human reactions, you are at risk of personal harm. It’s a risk that can be mitigated or managed with good habits and practices of self-care. Let me boldly say – if you can’t, and don’t, care for yourself, you really should not be advising and acting for the care of others.
Self-care is serious work
In the organisational change space, change practitioners of all flavours, advise and act to shape the behaviour, skills and attitude of people regarding a change they are asked to make or accept.
The good ones recognise that they have influence over the well-belling of others, and act with the aim to ‘do no harm’. They also recognise they can be affected by others, and act to ensure they remain well and able to do their best work.
Self-care is maintaining the well-being of the physical, mental, emotional, social, and spiritual aspects that are part of being human. As a professional it is recognising these energies needed for doing change management work; the use and depletion of such energies; and recovery and replenishment after they’ve been expended.
There are three key reasons why you should take self-care seriously as a change practitioner (or change agent):
- You are a role model to others who are dealing with change. The breadth and depth of your experience and exposure to change can provide an advantage that others have yet to acquire. Be the light they can follow.
- You are an agent of change so you are directly affecting others in your presence, interactions, and choices. Be mindful of your potential to have a positive or negative effect.
- You are an agent of change so are directly in the midst of others’ interactions and choices, which can affect you. Be mindful of your own vulnerability and what you might absorb.
If you wanted to put the world to rights, who should you begin with: yourself or others?
~ Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Care needs to begin with self – just like the putting on of a mask in an airplane. When flying we are reminded to see to our own oxygen masks – to take care of ourselves – before assisting with others. There’s a clear reason for this, we can only give appropriate care if we receive it ourselves. Why should it be any different in the workplace?
Side Note: In Organisational Change Management work there is a greater proportion of females than males. Females seem prone (socially and culturally) to treat self-care as an optional luxury to be given lower priority than caring for others. If you are female, this may be the moment you need to explicitly declare the self-respect you will invoke for professional self-care.
Self-care is never a selfish act – it is simply good stewardship of the only gift I have, the gift I was put on earth to offer others. Anytime we can listen to true self and give the care it requires, we do it not only for ourselves, but for the many others whose lives we touch.
~ Parker J. Palmer
Two-levels of self-care
There are two levels at which self-care can be implemented: the strategic and the tactical.
The strategic level is about prevention, maintenance, and looking beyond the present. Consider this your General Be-Well Plan.
The tactical level is about intervention and restoration, and is focused on the immediate need. As a fact of life, things will happen that you didn’t expect or desire. For these moments it’s helpful to have a Respond-in-Crisis Plan, where you’ve already made the decisions about what you need to do. Then, in such a moment for self-care you can simply Act, not Plan to Act. (The sense of ‘crisis’ is entirely personal and subjective.) This plan helps you deal with the immediate situation more effectively, and recover to a normal state more quickly.
Hopefully the tactical level will rarely need to be implemented. However, without attending to the strategic level, it is likely there will be frequent unhealthy tactical situations.
Sh*t gets real!
It was the planning advice for living in a high-fire risk area that shaped my thinking about plans for self-care in a professional context. The wise advice we follow is to have a plan about what we do in general to reduce any fire-hazard characteristics of our 2-acre property (e.g. get rid of large dead trees that could fall on the house; purchase set of fire-fighting equipment). We also have an annual plan for the maintenance work we need to do before fire-season commences (e.g. removing fallen branches and leaves that could be fuel for a fire; refresh our go-bags ready for quick departure; check status of fire-fighting equipment), and we have another plan for what to do on a specific day when a fire-risk rating is announced (e.g. put our prepared go-bags in the car which has a full tank of gas; be on standby to leave with 5 minutes notice; and alert family and friends of our status).
Every person who prepares is one less person who panics in a crisis.
~ Mike Adams, the Health Ranger
Addressing self-care
To address self-care, here is a four-step approach:
- Know yourself and your risks
- Make two plans; write them down
- Execute plan(s)
- Review and update plans and resources
1. Know yourself and your risks
Start by asking yourself these questions:
- What are your specific energy sources and challenges (i.e. Physical, Mental, Emotional, Social and Spiritual)? Use the list below to prompt your thinking.
- Which ones do you use by default?
- Which ones do you replenish naturally?
- Which ones will need some serious attention from you because they are linked to your risks or triggers?
Influences on Physical Energy
Sleep, Hydration, Exercise
Vitamins and minerals
Influences on Mental Energy
Physical well being
Attention capacity
Helpful routines and habits (anchors for stability)
Influences on Emotional Energy
Resilience capability
Courage, taking risks, being brave
Influences on Social Energy
Supportive people
Relationships with family and friends
Influences on Spiritual Energy
Beliefs, values
Spiritual practices
Common triggers for the need for self-care are: being hungry, angry, lonely or tired. HALT – A useful acronym created by Judson Brewer, Yale.
2. Make two plans; write them down
For strategic level of care, create a General Be-Well Plan that addresses:
- Overall well-being for all the energy types (see list above)
- Strengthening for special circumstances that maybe unique to you
- Immunisation for potential exposure for contexts that may be unique to you
- Prep for ‘disaster recovery’ of likely events you can anticipate
- Monitoring and check-ups to discover any signals that alert you to decreased well-being
- Criteria about when you need to stop/leave
For a tactical level of care, create a Respond-in-Crisis/Remedial Plan that addresses:
- How you will shake something off
- How you will give yourself a tonic for a quick boost or pep you up
- How you will quickly stop a bleed
- How you will quickly remove yourself from harm’s way
- How you will take an antidote for something that felt toxic
For practical suggestions about what to put in each plan, see Part 2 of this article series.
3. Execute the plan(s)
Follow your General Be-Well Plan always.
Implement your Respond-in-Crisis Plan when you realise, or those close to you alert you, that you are not doing well. You will have your own signals about what ‘not doing well’ looks and feels like. For me common signals are: I experience poor sleep, I start swearing a lot, I want to avoid people contact, and I crave comfort food. Pay attention and do not ignore your signals when they are made visible.
4. Review the plan
Strategic plans should be reviewed annually, tactical plans periodically. In your review consider what you will repeat, and what you will do differently. Do you have any new triggers? Is everything in your plan still relevant? Have you acquired a new ‘injury’ that you should be giving special attention to?
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As a practitioner (in any field) you are wise to commit to your own professional self-care through a range of strategic and tactical activities. There is a connection about our ability to deal with difficult situations and the way we care for ourselves. Do not lose sight of the significance of self-care for your own, and others well-being in your workscape.
I do not claim to have attained optimum emotional well-being. Actually, I think that may be a lifetime goal. For me it’s an ongoing process that requires awareness, knowledge, and practice. I do know what good emotional health feels like, and that motivates me to keep at the practice.
~ Andrew Weil
Author
Helen Palmer is Founder and Principal Change Agent at Questo. Like Winnie the Pooh, she ‘sits and thinks’ … and reflects on how people can make a better life for others and themselves. She likes to share those thoughts with the possibility that they inspire and initiate meaningful change in workscapes everywhere.
This post was simultaneously posted on LinkedIn.
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One response
Thanks. The 2 plans are a great idea. My issue is sticking to the plan & not making continual exceptions ie “pushing past” my frustrations or lose of interest in a project – which can actually be warnings that I am working on a half full tank. I have steps in my Crisis plan, which are to push Pause or to begin steps to exit but I have often ignored these. I am now seeing that it takes experience, maturity, discipline and focus to keep the Self Care plans in constant view. To assess my wellbeing & comfort regularly is my new commitment. Thanks for the reminder