Wellness vs. Performance

The difference between workplace wellbeing and social sector titan style performance
Workplace wellbeing is becoming a standard and respected element of human resource services in social sector organizations. Writers like Beth Kanter, companies like Greenleaf Integrative Strategies, and Arianna Huffington’s Thrive Global offer clear paths to self care in both the social and private sector environments. We need these ideas and approaches. I have personally learned and implemented many of the strategies in my own life and work.  Techniques such as meditation,  and company policies like flexible working hours are proven to increase employee retention and reported happiness, while also increasing productivity. 

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Workplace wellness approaches are an attempt to combat the persistent ‘suck it up’ mentality that pervades many social sector enterprises. This ‘work comes first’ mindset is especially prevalent in my chosen field of international humanitarian response, but I have also seen this attitude in US non profits and even local civil society groups in Central Asia.  Since we are helping people and the mission matters, it seems ok to sacrifice a lot, or everything in the service of organizational goals. This work-only-and-first approach was my foundation for many years and it led to burnout and lower quality contribution to my field. 

I have personally seen so many nonprofit and social sector workers suffering from overload, fatigue, and burnout because they live the expectation that work comes before self, community and the rest of life. This burnout and reduced contribution was even more prevalent among those that I was looking to as mentors and role models early in my career. 

The workplace wellness movement is an essential step in positive culture change in many social sector organizations. Wellness advocates position the movement as  part of the essential human resource infrastructure for any social sector organization. 

Many of us social sector workers need this approach. But I’ve always found the argument for self care and wellness uninspiring. The wellness approach recognizes human weakness and frailty in the face of kinetic stressful situations and takes steps to remove or resolve the impacts of that stress. Wellness focuses on reducing and managing the impact of stress. It takes a narrow view of the symptoms without bridging to wider issues such as designing a system and mindset that removes the origins of the stress. It is the mental equivalent of learning how to brush your teeth and eat a good breakfast. Essential, but doesn’t connect to a higher level of emotion and need for self actualization and mission focus. 

At Social Sector Titan we take a different approach. While the Brene Brown style vulnerability argument is powerful, mass movements do not thrive in most contexts by admitting weakness. It is more compelling to change  your mindset, strategy and working techniques to that of a performance focus. Learn the systems that promote your best work and support you in  living your best life. Understand your goals at a deep level, and set up the best known systems to work toward these missions. 

Wellness will be a byproduct of high performance. High performance thinking and behaviors encompass a wider spectrum of activities that include the social sector mission. The Social Sector Titan approach combines performance and life into the perfect package of good living and making the world a good place to live. 

Navy SEAL Level Aid Workers
In 2008 I changed professional direction and joined a new humanitarian consulting group instead of working directly for aid groups as an employee. I was searching for a higher level of focus and achievement. Since beginning my career,I had always wished  that there was a ‘Navy SEAL’ level of physical rigour and mental excellence applied to the humanitarian response field. Consequently, I moved from an employee of humanitarian organizations to a consulting approach, hoping to find the ‘titan’ approach to work. While I never found that exact package, that impulse eventually evolved into the Social Sector Titan project. Seeking a way to elevate my own performance in a social sector context and share that learning, has  brought me, and our social sector field closer to what I consider to be an ideal approach. 

The performance approach is about identifying with your social sector mission, and then putting in place the habits, routines and strategies to reach your highest level of achievement. Personal wellbeing will be an inevitable result of setting up healthy and smart systems, and implementing these approaches consistently over the long term. 


Here is a graphic of the differences between a wellness approach and the Social Sector Titan mindset:
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Making it all work
To be clear: I still need and practice elements of the workplace wellness movement. And I'm glad that my friends and other thinkers are promoting this concept. My desire to understand and apply performance thinking to my work and life comes from a need to move out of bad habits and mindsets toward something better. Performance thinking can create a higher level state where wellness becomes irrelevant.  I have not yet mastered any of this, but the learning process is fun.  Small progress in performance thinking leads to a massively positive difference in work and life.

Which side of the wellness vs. performance equation appeals to you most? Leave a post on the blog or reply to this email. 

Happy trails!

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