Ep 193 - You Can’t Delegate Wellbeing: Why leaders must do the inner work too

Can leaders delegate wellbeing?
Many organisations invest in mindfulness programs, wellbeing initiatives, and culture-building workshops for their teams. But there’s one critical mistake that quietly undermines all of it:
Leaders who outsource wellbeing… without practicing it themselves.

In this episode of Get Jasched, Jess Jasch explores why workplace wellbeing efforts fall flat when leaders don’t engage in their own self-awareness, stress regulation, and reflective leadership practices.

You’ll learn:

• Why culture change is shaped most by those with authority
• The power dynamic leaders must acknowledge
• How “throwing wellbeing at the team” can become a Band-Aid solution
• Why mindfulness and resilience training only work systemically
• The difference between motivating a team and truly leading one

Jess breaks down why leadership is its own skillset — not just a promotion based on technical expertise — and why the most effective leaders model what they expect.
Because wellbeing isn’t something you can delegate.
If you want sustainable performance, clarity, and reduced burnout — it starts with you.

🎧 Tune in for a candid conversation about responsibility, reflection, and real leadership growth.
Keywords: leadership wellbeing, workplace culture, mindful leadership, burnout prevention, leadership development, self-awareness for leaders.

Transcript

Hey, everyone.Welcome to another episode of Get Jasched.I'm your host, Jess Jasch, and today, I wanna talk about wellbeing, obviously, because it's all I really talk about.Wellbeing, but from the perspective of if you are or you have a leader who tries to delegate their wellbeing as well.And I don't mean in the sense of, um, depending on the size of your company, you know, maybe you do have a- someone in place in charge of wellbeing, you know, whether that is the title in some way or anything like that.I don't mean that.I think that's a really progressive start, and I think that's a really good start in terms of making that progress.But I mean the kind of delegation of wellbeing that says or indicates, even if it's from the best of intentions, indicates, "Well, I don't need to work on that, because I've got my team working on that."And, you know, that might work for certain areas of the business where, you know, we hire people because they are more skilled than us in certain areas so that we don't have to do it as business owners or leaders, but also because someone else is better at it, sure.But I mean the actual practices that come into wellbeing that helps us to be better leaders and remembering the fact that, and it is a fact that, in my world it's a fact, while everyone contributes to the culture, everyone contributes to the sys- everyone within a sys- everyone within a system contributes to the system, yes.And I'm gonna improv line you here.And, yes and, we also know that it is also the people with the authority in that system that are the ones who are actually able to make any real, significant change to the system, because they are the- the decision makers.They are the ones that have the authority to make decisions in any which direction.They are the ones, there's a power dynamic at play that we need to really acknowledge.You know, ev- again, everyone within a workplace contributes to the culture of the workplace, sure.Absolutely.You know, we all, most of us, many of us have had that experience with a toxic colleague that doesn't actually necessarily have the, quote, authority, but does still contribute to the toxicity that is felt in the workplace.So we need to consider that, yes, we know that everyone does contribute to the workplace culture, to the culture, to the- the lived experience of people in the workplace, whether it's physically or otherwise, a physical workplace or otherwise.But it's gonna be really, really important to your team, to the success of your business, to what you do with this, where you go with your business, what happens next, how much longevity there is in the team, in the progress forward, all of that,that is so dependent on the decision makers and it is so dependent on the leaders, again, who have the authority to make those decisions and make decisions that can impact everything else.Who, as I mentioned, the- the power imbalance or theyeah, it is a power imbalance.Even if it's a healthy imbalance, it is a power imbalance where leaders just naturally have, because of that authority to make decisions, there is going to be a power imbalance.So it is all well and good and it is all a great start.I'm not dissing anything here in the sense of if that's where you start for the team, great.It's all a great start if you are moving that forward for your team, if you are recognizing that there are stresses or, you know, you're- you're trying to give them opportunities for personal and professional development.That is really, really good.But as a leader, I just want you to remember, I just want you to keep in mind that that can only take you so far because at some point you're gonna be throwing s- solutions at a team to fight fires that the system is actually creating, so you're going to at some point risk setting them up forsome sense of failure because at some point some of these wellbeing practices, whether it's mindfulness, whether it's communication, whether it's whatever it is, at some point they're not going to feel as effective to the team because they're still fighting the fires that are causing maybe the stress, and that is a systemic element.That is a, you knowan element of what is being allowed from the top, or what is being permitted or created, even, from the top.So there have been workplaces I've witnessed where they'll implement mindfulness activities for their team and really encourage it and even genuinely encourage it.But each time the team shows up, e-each time the members of the team show up and what they're actually needing t-the practice for is due to things like, "Well, my manager just keeps over-scheduling my day with, with video calls, you know," if they work remotely, "with video calls.All I have is this back-to-back video calls.I'm not actually getting anything done, and I'm just stressed."You can't treat wellbeing and mindfulness like a Band-Aid like that.That's not how it works.It is a support, and it is best done when in conjunction with treating and addressing the system that supports these people or that influences these people.So for business owners, for managers, for leaders of any kind, you know, that we use the word leader broadly in that sense where it can kind of cover any of those people in a position of authority, right, you need to be doing the work as well.I'm really sorry, except I'm not sorry.You need to be looking at how you are practicing these things as well and being mindful, in particular, in the sense of how decisions you make impact the team, even when it doesn't seem like it's the decisions that you think would.You know, because we know that there's, like, there's always those hard, yucky conversations that leaders must have about performance management or, you know, even letting someone go or, you know, sometimes they just are the bearers of bad news, and that is just a part of leadership sometimes.But also consider how what you say determines an experience for the team, how you choose something determines the experience for the team, how you check indetermines the experience for the team.You know, there's, there's no one particular angle in this sense that I'm ai- aiming for to sort of be like, "Well, this is what's gonna fix that."It's really just all of the factors of leadership in terms of decision-making down to interaction.All of the factors of leadership are impacted and influenced by how mindful you are.So if you are stressed, you know, if you're feeling stressed, and leadership is one of those areas that a- are fraught with th-this experience or these experiences, um, because there's a lot more to be stressed about, and that's where we build that stress capability so we can still perform but also do that without burning out too.But if you are feeling stressed, that will impact things like your tone or your body language, and if you are not mindful of that, and let me be very clear also, we're not demonizing stress either, so we're not saying if you feel stress, that's bad, you're doing it wrong, but it's really important and helpful to be aware of howyour stress shows up so that you can be mindful of how you are then showing up, and then addressing that appropriately, depending on what that is, addressing that appropriately.And what I've seen from experience enough times now to be, you know, pretty, pretty certain of it is teams that just have mindfulness or wellbeing things thrown at them that is, sure, supported from the top 'cause they made the decision to invest in it, whatever it is, right?Uh, but isn't actually practiced or a learning process that the leaders are going through for themselves, don't actually tend to progress in the same way that teams who maybe they have their mindfulness practices, that development, again, which is really, really important work and such a gift to have for anyoneat any level, but teams where the leader is doing that development, such a big difference in the outcome, even in the ROI, right?You actually get so much better return on your investment when you as a leader are actually investing yourself into learning it.And I mean learning it, really learning it.You don't have to become an expert in wellbeing or anything like that, but really being open-minded and curious as a leader enough to, to develop in this area.And so much of leadership, you know, traditionally, like is so much around, well, how good are your negotiation skills?How good are your sales skills or your networking skills?How good are your, you know, all of these, all of these things that, sure, are really important in business at some point?Yes.But mostly people come to leadership because they're really good at a technical skill and they've maybe risen through the ranks, unless they've started their own business because, you know, those other areas were of interest but didn't work for them.But mostly leaders are really good at a technical skill, but then they, they just get so good at it that that's just how they rise through the ranks.And that's not bad, but we need to also consider that leadership is also its own unique skillset.Its, its own unique technical skill.It is not just something that happens just because someone is bestowed a title upon them.It is not something that just happens just because someone has gotten so good technically at their particular craft.It happens through experience and it happens through learning, but there is such a skillset necessary to develop, yes, which can happen over time, but also continue developing once you are there.And that skillset is not about how motivated you can be.It's not about going, just going to those events that are very, um, motivation, motivation-heavy, where they make you feel a certain feeling in the moment without actually giving you the practice and the skills, right?Um, sure, there's a time and place for all of these things, but it is really important to consider leadership beyond just being the chief motivator or being the chief motivator of yourself for the vision.That is, you know, that can be a really fun part of running a business, but that's running a business.Leadership is also just being really mindful, practicing these skills, being mindful of how you are showing up, being mindful of how you are leading by example.And, and that's really, it's such a simplified version of leadership, but it's really just the crux of everything that is important for leadership.Uh, it's really the, the part that we need to remember.It's very coming back to the basics of practicing what you preach.It's just practicing what you preach.It is notLeaning into "do as I say and not what I do."It is really recognizing how we lead by example, because as humans, typically, we tend to learn more by what we learn through example than what we are told to do.And some of that leading by example is I've givenYou know, there's so many simple examples of this.It's, uh, it's do you over schedule your own calendar?If we use that example, right?Do you over schedule your own calendar, or do you keep your calendar sacred but then not show or model that respect for other peoples calendars just because they're not you or they're not in your position?You know, so it's really looking at what is actually useful for your people in, in this, in the interaction case.What is actually useful for that person to thrive and progress and succeed in their role?Because when they do that, everyone wins.But sometimes they don't have the authority to actually do all the things that are required.They don't always have the authority to, or they don't even, they might not think they have the authority to say, "Well, this time and this time is blocked out, and I must have half an hour between each call because I have actual work to do in relation to those calls," or, "I have notes to take at least in relation to this also," whatever it is.You know, using that call example.Sometimes leadership is giving people the authority to, and to have that autonomy, but sometimes it's also encouraging them and being mindful of that.And that's what I mean by how decisions you make or how you are showing up does impact beyond just are they motivated enough when you're the one that can set in procedures and processes that can impact the system as a whole.And the leaders that I've worked with, when they have been open-minded enough to look at things a little differently than what maybe the, the, the old way of doing it has been, has suggested, or when they've looked at things with curiosity and, deeper than that, gone into self-reflectionbeyond the systems that they lead, but into the self-reflection of, well, why am I doing that?Why am I making that decision?Why am I putting this off?Why am I, or what am I doing?That curiosity into the self-reflection has made so much more of a positive change and impact on themselves, yes, exactly how they feel.Yes, definitely.And as a result on them, how they lead their team more effectively, with clarity.The team has more clarity.It's incredible to watch, and it's very satisfying as a facilitator to watch as well, I'm not gonna lie, because you actually see them making that difference rather than them outsourcing that inner work to their team, which again, is still a useful skill for their team, but without doing it themselves.And I am aware that almost makes it sound like, you know, the only solution is for both, not one or the other.Um, yeah, maybe.I mean, you gotta start somewhere, but I, I think sometimes some leaders have it the wrong way around and it might be from a really, you know, noble place of wanting to do it for their team and wanting to give their team a resource and, you know, again, it depends, it depends on the circumstances, sure, but most of the time Ithink it's done all the way aro- like, the wrong way around where even unconsciously it might be an opportunity for the leader to not actually do their work because they're like, "Oh, well, I bypassed it off to, to them.So they're doing it," and, "Oh, no, now we don't have the budget," and, "Oh, oh"You know, it's kicking the can down the road.SoThat's really the conversation.It's just this reminder of it's important for leaders to practice what they preach and to do the work themselves, but also no one else can do that internal introspective, reflective self-awareness and self-management work for you.And that goes for anyone, but I'm talking about leaders, I'm talking about business owners, we're talking about, you know, no one else can do that for you.And just check if you have, maybe unconsciously, maybe not on purpose, been kicking that can down the road.Thinking that you're doing the thing for the team, again, which may be really useful in its own right, right?But, again, the usefulness of that can fade if you don't then come in and actually start doing it for yourself.So, that's what I have for you today.Um, just ponder that.It doesn't mean we have to do it all at once either, but maybe just use this as a check-in.Be curious and open-minded and use it as a check-in to be like, "Hmm, have I just used that as an opportunity to kick the can and pretend that it's just not about me?"when it is about you as a leader.It's just the way it is.Um, and see what comes up.See what shows up for you when you actually check in and ask those questions.All righty.Until next time, have a lovely week.Let me know if or what insights you get from this.Feel free to please share this episode if you got a lot out of it.Um, it could be publicly on, on the socials somewhere or privately with a friend or a, or a peer or, you know, a fellow business owner.If you've gotten something out of this, it just really helps having that shared.Um, it helps them, but it also helps this podcast reach more people more naturally because we live in an algorithm world.So, other than that, I'll see you next time.