Matthew Becker, National Managing Principal of Tax
How do you prioritize your mental health and well-being?
In order to keep my mental health strong I make deciphering my body's language a priority. I regularly assess my mental and physical wellness, which includes monitoring medical data like sleep patterns, heart rate, body temperature and blood pressure. When my body provides me signs that my mental or physical health is trending in a poor direction, I take the steps necessary to adjust. I rely on the teachings of Dr. Neha Sangwan, MD when it comes to interpreting my body's signals and being proactive with correction to avoid burnout. There are many effective ways to do this, and I encourage everyone I work with to find methods that work for them. For me, my mental wellness benefits from regular exercise, conversations with my professional coach and time spent reading and enjoying outdoor activities like golf, fishing, wake boarding, and wake surfing.
How do you encourage wellness within your team?
I encourage my team to prioritize wellness by sharing with them my own wellness challenges and the steps I take to address them. I have also provided information to my team about the specific methods I use to stay fully energized and avoid burnout or the impacts of burnout.
How do you prioritize your mental health and well-being?
I’m a work in progress on this. Like many, I put parents first and children first and friends first; starting with self-care doesn’t come naturally. I know myself well enough to know that I can only be as happy as the least happy person I care deeply for and I have zero regrets about that. I have, though, worked hard to create some space (might be on the porch with a book, a walk in the woods, at the gym, where you can hear the ocean, or another place of calm) to generate positive endorphins and create a buffer zone between stimulus and response, a lesson taught by Viktor Frankl in "Man's Search for Meaning", and shared with me by my leadership coach.
How do you encourage wellness within your team?
I hope and believe I cheer on their wellness efforts, whatever that may mean to them. That may mean volunteering to be their out of office backup, reminding them not to attend group calls while out, holding back emails until their return, or encouraging day to day flex for wellness activities. It also means when we’re together, finding some time for shared wellness. After all, much of wellness for humans comes from the trust and confidence we have in our relationships. The time we spend deepening them is a critical form of wellness.
Cathy Moy, Chief People Officer
How do you prioritize your mental health and well-being?
One thing I always say is: “Mind, Body, Soul” – it’s all interconnected and essential to a person’s well-being. I believe mental health should be treated with the same seriousness as physical health. You wouldn’t leave a broken arm untreated, likewise mental well-being should be treated with the same level of attention and care.
Our jobs can be stressful and fast-paced, but I try to remind myself and others that it’s a marathon and not a sprint. To avoid burnout, I think it’s important to focus on working effective hours rather than just long hours. I frequently block off time for myself in my schedule to step away from the computer to sit outside on my porch, think, and re-center myself. It’s quite meditative and the mental break allows me to return to my work refreshed, focused and even more productive than before. I've also found that following established daily habits like exercising, going outside, eating right and spending quality time with family is crucial to my own self-care and well-being.
How do you encourage wellness within your team?
Establishing personal connections with my team is very important to me. Moreover, I believe trust and support are essential for creating a healthy and engaged work environment, especially in a remote work setting where it’s easy to feel isolated from others. I make it clear to my team that my door is always open for them to ask for help or to discuss any professional or personal challenges. When you put people first, everything else falls into place.
Bill Eisig, Assurance National Managing Principal