Jamie is joined by Michelle Quint, Head of Business Analytics and Market Research for Zoetis International Operations, and Leo Tiernan, a performance and wellbeing coach. The trio discuss the six-part workshop that Michelle has put in place for her team at Zoetis and offer some tips on dealing with stress at work.
Jamie Brannan:
Hello, I'm Jamie Brannan, President Zoetis International Operations, and I'd like to welcome you to the second episode of season two of my podcast, Wellness. In this podcast, I'm connecting with my colleagues at Zoetis, the greater veterinary and animal health community, and other experts about topics around wellbeing. From understanding the positive impacts pets can have on our physical and mental wellbeing to learning how we can better manage stress at work and find a comfortable life balance, we continue to explore how we can better look after ourselves and support each other.
Jamie Brannan:
In the previous episode, I had the chance to sit down with Dr. Mike McFarland about the amazing benefits pets can have on our wellbeing. Today, I'm pivoting the conversation to wellness in the workplace, with two special guests who bring different perspectives on this topic. As we start to navigate the hopeful transition to post-pandemic life, it's become clear that we need a reset to help focus on wellness in the workplace.
Jamie Brannan:
As a leader, a big inspiration of this podcast is my hope to empower colleagues and leaders to create a workplace culture where we can do just that. There are many areas we can prioritize wellness at work, and today I'm happy to talk to two leaders who have great experience with this subject.
Jamie Brannan:
Firstly, I'd like to welcome a Zoetis leader, who's proactively making wellness a part of her team's culture. Michelle Quint is the Head of Business Analytics and Market Research for Zoetis International Operations, based in our Dublin, Ireland, international headquarters. Michelle currently leads a team that is focused on a variety of commercial initiatives to support field force effectiveness, marketing analytics, customer relationship management, and market and customer insights across Zoetis International markets.
Jamie Brannan:
Not only does Michelle have a passion for optimizing business performance in her role, she also has a passion about what happens when we optimize our colleagues' wellbeing. And I'm looking forward to hearing about her wellness journey as a leader. Part of Michelle's plan was to prioritize wellness for her team, including implementing a six-part workshop from McNulty Performance, a training and development, coaching and advisory business, specializing in leadership, high-performance teams, culture and wellbeing.
Jamie Brannan:
With the McNulty's expertise on this subject, I'm also happy to welcome Leo Tiernan to our podcast. Leo heads up performance and wellbeing at McNulty and has over 10 years of experience in building health and wellness programs for leading global organizations, including Google, KPMG, and others. In his role, Leo focuses on building lasting solutions to improve employee performance and wellbeing, based on a deep understanding of how wellbeing influences the performance and productivity of people.
Jamie Brannan:
Michelle, Leo, thank you for joining me today. As we get started with our discussion on wellness in the workplace, I'd like to get a little more understanding about how both of you came to focus in on this topic. Michelle, over to you, give us a brief overview of your wellness journey.
Michelle Quint:
Thanks so much, Jamie, for having me here today to talk about this very important topic of wellness, one that's near and dear to my heart. For me, the pandemic really called out the need to refocus on wellness. Work became a coping mechanism as I had limited social network here in a new country, plus the restrictions here in Ireland, while keeping us safe, minimized the ability to move freely and engage in social activities.
Michelle Quint:
I felt very fortunate to have my horse, Swayze, here with me, as the time I spent with him re-centered me, got me outside, kept me active. Whether I was riding Swayze in the Dublin mountains, brushing him or watching him graze in the field, the serenity, comfort and joy he has brought me is indescribable. Swayze, like all animals, is sensitive to my mood and to my emotions, which makes me more aware and it gives me an opportunity to pause and reset, so I can be fully present with him and give him the energy and attention he deserves.
Michelle Quint:
Swayze is no stranger to providing tremendous benefit to my wellbeing, not only through his support during the pandemic over the last few years, back three years ago, when I moved to Ireland, and five years ago when I lost my father to suicide. While I've always valued the importance of wellness, losing my father to suicide made me realize the significance of mental wellbeing and how someone can be struggling so severely and yet that suffering is not visible to those closest to them.
Michelle Quint:
Physical ailments typically immediately prompt us to seek medical attention, but when it comes to mental health, the same response often does not occur. I experienced firsthand the tendency for people to shush, whisper, completely avoid or dismiss talking about circumstances of my father's death. This mentality and those behaviors contribute to the stigma surrounding mental health, which ultimately prevents people from getting the support they deserve.
Michelle Quint:
After my father's death, I promised myself that moving forward, I would honor him by speaking openly about this topic in order to break the stigma and normalize mental health. Through sharing our stories, not only can we raise awareness, but we can start to become comfortable with being uncomfortable. And I cannot tell you the amazingly positive outpouring of support I have received from friends, colleagues, even strangers, folks who have said, "Me too." And opened up to share how they themselves have struggled with mental health or have experienced a father, daughter, partner, or friend that has attempted or committed suicide. It's been really powerful.
Jamie Brannan:
Thank you, Michelle, and really appreciate your openness today and giving us the chance to speak about these topics. Before we dive a little deeper, Leo, can we pivot to you, sir, and for you to just give us an overview of your wellness journey?
Leo Tiernan:
Jamie, it's a pleasure to be here and I'd actually like to start by first of all giving a big kudos to yourself and Michelle as leaders for prioritizing wellness, even by just having this podcast, that sends a message to people that you're making time for it and it's a priority.
Leo Tiernan:
I suppose, my wellness journey, all my life, I've been passionate about sport or exercise and animals also, to Michelle's point, I grew up on a family farm, so I do have a love for animals, but my career probably started off, actually in the States. So, I worked with professional athletes in a facility called EXOS, training some athletes from the NFL, from major league baseball. I got very fortunate when I returned to Ireland, they had actually just acquired a contract globally for all the fitness spaces in Google.
Leo Tiernan:
So, then I joined the team of five people and I spent seven years working in Google, running the wellbeing program in there for all their employees. So, we would've been responsible for everything from their nutrition tying into the folks in the canteen, but also what they were doing in terms of physical activity and fitness. When you're working with an elite athlete at any level, you might be lucky to improve their performance by maybe one or 2%. And it could take 12 months to get that one or 2% improvement.
Leo Tiernan:
But when you're working with general population or people in a corporate environment, you genuinely have the opportunity to change somebody's life. So, for me, that's hugely rewarding and that's probably one of the biggest things I've taken from my wellness journey to-date, and it's why I'm so excited and passionate to work with folks like yourselves.
Jamie Brannan:
I'm definitely going to call myself a corporate athlete. But it's interesting, when you look at wellness and wellbeing, we tend to immediately jump to physical wellbeing. Even in podcasts before, I've talked about getting your steps in, making sure you take a break, make sure you do some exercise. And I think how we open up more about the mental health and our wellbeing and sharing our stories and making it not a shush moment, Michelle, I think is hugely important.
Jamie Brannan:
I mean, I didn't lose a family member to mental health, but I did lose a family member very early in my life, so my brother. And even then, and I'm going back, crikey, 18 years, but even then, the people you knew, they'd cross to the other side of the road, just because they didn't know what to say. And being able to have these conversations, I hope if we just help one person today, I think we've had an amazing effort.
Jamie Brannan:
Now our leaders are starting to think more proactively about how we can help people having those conversations, but when you think about your journey, Michelle, with the Center of Excellence, how did you start that and what have you seen in the progress as you've moved through this journey, working with the team and with Leo?
Michelle Quint:
I think that to your point, it starts with having the conversation, but then we need to put it into action and to support folks in their journey. I think again, coming out of the pandemic, returning to the workplace, it was clear we needed a reset to help colleagues focus on wellness within the CoE.
Michelle Quint:
As a leader, my biggest motivation is my team. I want to ensure that I provide the support to enable my team in navigating a healthy work-life balance. I want to create a culture where we're not only comfortable talking about wellness, but again, we're putting it into action and we're providing the tools to support them on that journey. And lastly, I want my team to feel empowered to prioritize their wellness in whatever way resonates to them.
Michelle Quint:
What's been really inspirational is to see how this focus and culture shift has been embraced at all levels of the organization with full support, like this podcast, coming from yourself and leaders like Andreas, it's been really great.
Michelle Quint:
Within the CoE to-date, we started small to identify a few ways we can incorporate little behavior changes into our daily lives to promote wellness. Some of the things we've done are having every CoE colleague have one wellness goal in their 2022 objectives. And more importantly, having those shared amongst our smaller teams, so that we can support each other and hold each other a little bit accountable.
Michelle Quint:
We've implemented the TEA model in our regular one-on-one check-ins. If you're not familiar, the TEA stands for thoughts, emotions, and actions. That influences how we're feeling, how we're responding and it impacts our entire day. So, I think it's really important when we're checking in, not to jump right into the work bits, to check in with the person and to see how they're doing and that's going to influence and impact everything. And start to have those conversations.
Michelle Quint:
We rolled out some simple meeting and email etiquette to drive good behaviors and reduce meetings, including not having CoE team meetings on a Friday. Then finally, we decided to deploy the CoE wellness lunch and learns, to provide again, the training tips and tricks to support colleagues in their journey. We decided on a variety of topics, which I'm sure Leo will discuss, but really offering this ala carte menu is empowering colleagues to reach in where they're comfortable on what can help support their wellness goals.
Jamie Brannan:
So, are you willing to share your wellness goal that's in your IDP?
Michelle Quint:
Yes, I will. So, I am committed to at one point during the day, to walk away and take a walk outside. I will also share that I am not always successful in that goal, but I'm working on it.
Jamie Brannan:
I'm a big believer in, you shouldn't obsess. If you miss a day, it's okay. If you miss five, you may need to just look in the mirror for a moment.
Michelle Quint:
Absolutely.
Jamie Brannan:
But it's okay. I'm really keen to hear about the wellness workshops. Leo, do you want to share a bit of detail around the modules and how the workshops are coming together?
Leo Tiernan:
Yeah. So, when we're looking at wellbeing, it's educating individuals and teams and leaders on the holistic approach. So, it's not just what you eat or how many steps you get, but it's, are you taking time out to create space during the day? Are you taking care of your emotions? That's an intro to wellbeing.
Leo Tiernan:
Energy management, for people who haven't heard of it before, is how we manage our energy. So, bringing awareness to your energy levels throughout the day. If I was to give you an example, if I was to ask both you guys, if you imagine you had a day with six one-to-ones, so you had one-to-ones with your direct reports, back to back, where would your emotional or your mental energy be at the end of that day? So, I would imagine it's not going to be pretty high, but you might have the physical energy or the capacity to maybe get out for a walk. Or, Michelle, you might have time to go out and spend some time with your horse.
Leo Tiernan:
And we have key energy management pillars that we teach people about, to manage it. So, those pillars are your mindset, your nutrition, your physical fitness, your rest and recovery, and your sleep. So, we actually have modules on sleep and nutrition, so that's going to be the final module, but they're your two best friends when it comes to recovery and maintaining those energy levels. And as leaders, sleep is paramount, because if you're under-slept as a leader, your team will feed off that. So, they will perceive you as less inspirational and less charismatic than you actually are.
Leo Tiernan:
And nutrition, I suppose it speaks for itself, your food is your fuel. So, what we put into our body, it's either going to enhance our performance or optimize it, or it's going to take away from it. And again, the balance piece that you mentioned there, Jamie, it's not, "Don't do this, don't do that." It's very much educating people on the sustainable, good behaviors around nutrition and how people can implement good behaviors and then maintain them.
Leo Tiernan:
We have two focused on your mental and emotional wellbeing. So, session three is on resilience and emotional fitness. Resilience, sometimes people think that it's very much your ability to withstand maybe tough times, or just tough it out and grit your teeth and get through things. And also, your emotional fitness. So, what is your emotional fitness? Are you aware of your emotions, how your emotions affect your behaviors and your actions? So, that's a really interesting module and it ties nicely into our module on proactive mental health and wellbeing.
Leo Tiernan:
And I spoke with Michelle off the podcast, but I actually lost my father to suicide as well. So, being proactive about mental health is something that I'm very passionate about, and I understand the benefits of not being reactive. So, that's your proactive mental health and wellbeing.
Leo Tiernan:
And the final one, a lot of the surveys that we would do, we ask people what their stress levels are or what currently stresses them out the most. So, as it stands, we have 68.5% of individuals reporting stress at work as their number one source of stress. So, we devote an entire module, so it's the second module on stress and stress management. And that educates people on what stress is, how our body becomes stressed. What's the difference between good stress and bad stress? How can stress actually help to optimize your performance? So, I went back to front there with those explanations, Jamie, but that's the six modules.
Jamie Brannan:
No, that's fantastic. Just on the stress, did you see any change in that, through the pandemic, based on the ways people were working? I think for a lot of people, it's like, I'm at home, I don't have to commute, I've got extra time, became a slave to Zoom calls, and you were completely stacked. And I'm interested if actually we saw increased stress from a different work environment to perhaps the old world we all knew two years ago?
Leo Tiernan:
Yeah. We've seen, depending on the organization and the type of work that people do and often the role that people have, it varies. So, we know some of the research shows that we've actually, during the pandemic, when people were working remotely, they worked an average of 40 hours more per month compared to when they were in the office. So, boundaries were nonexistent. Some people were constantly on all the time.
Leo Tiernan:
Some individuals are really good at setting boundaries, other individuals struggle dramatically, but I think we've actually seen an increase in stress as the return to work has ramped up. So, people are uncertain about what it's going to look like.
Jamie Brannan:
Yeah, I'm with you. I think there's the uncertainty, but I also think it's very personal. Have you got kids at home? Do you live at home? Are you living a long way from work? Has your office moved? And I think we will see a different level of flexibility, but we've got to be very careful that we work through that on a personal level and how that's going to affect an individual and how we can help them manage their stress, but also how we support them with these sorts of programs and tools, to enable them to manage their wellbeing. So, when you look beyond Zoetis, Leo, can you share some of the impacts you've seen by putting these tools into other organizations?
Leo Tiernan:
Yeah. So, we've had a number of programs that we've ran similar to this one, and the impact has been incredible. First of all, it brings awareness to different topics. If I was to use the example of our workshop on sleep, the majority of people are unaware of the impact sleep can have on their day-to-day behavior.
Leo Tiernan:
At the more individual level, so when you're talking about stress and stress management, we go into a little bit of detail on the nervous system and how breathing can have an impact on your nervous system. One individual in particular, during board meetings, which would be quite stressful, but in board meetings, he would turn off his camera and he would lie on the floor and practice some of the breathing exercises that we taught him, just to re-center himself and get himself back to the right frame of mind. So, he's able to manage his emotions an awful lot better.
Leo Tiernan:
So, when you're having these regular conversations and then having somebody like you discussing it, and Michelle, integrating things that you just spoke about earlier, like the TEA model, and it has to come from leadership. So, you have to be role modeling that behavior, so they'll feel empowered to be able to do the same.
Jamie Brannan:
Sometimes it's the little things that can make a lot of difference. Now, I don't switch the camera off and lay on the floor, although I might, but Michelle, I think something for us is, when we're on a lot of Zoom or Teams meetings, you feel that you have to be on camera, but why can't you just say, "I'm not going to be on camera for this one."? Just, it gives you a little bit more of a downtime and possibly enables you to focus more on what you want to achieve in the meeting, rather than, I'm looking at myself again, or switch your camera off. I don't know, Michelle, when you're going through this with your teams, are you looking at the little tiny things we can do that make a difference and everyone can put into their day?
Michelle Quint:
Yeah, absolutely. And I think an example that comes up for me, and again, I share with my team, to try to be vulnerable and to encourage them to come to me with similar situations. At the beginning of the pandemic, we had limited time slots, I could only go see my horse at a very specific time because they wanted to promote social distancing. And if I'm honest, I was panicked. I was, "How am I going to make this work? I've been given a 10 to 11:30 AM in the morning time slot." So, I was thinking, "What am I going to do about meetings? How am I going to make this work? People are going to be wondering where I am." But the reality was, nothing happened.
Michelle Quint:
I blocked the time. I got to see Swayze. I was in a much better head space. The time was made up, as it was, and no one was any worse for the wear. So, I definitely think there are things we can do. And to your point earlier, Jamie, about it being individualized, if someone's comfortable enough to come to you, there's a solution there and we're supporting that, because if someone can bring their best version of themselves to work, then we're all the better for it. So, I definitely think there's little, small ways and behaviors and things that we can model as leaders, but we can also be really open about the conversations and encourage folks to come to us, because it is such an individualized journey of wellness.
Jamie Brannan:
Yeah. One I've tried is walking meetings. So, you mentioned, Leo, about, you may have five one-to-ones. Well, do two of those wandering around. You're both getting fresh air. You're probably fresher in your thoughts. Little bit of exercise at the same time. And not in front of a camera or in an office. Again, people will do this if they see that we're all doing it, and it's the norm, rather than the exception.
Leo Tiernan:
Your brain is, it's actually more active when you're walking, Jamie. So, your thoughts are going to be clearer. Cognitively, you're actually performing better. So, to your point with turning your camera off, if it's possible at all to have a walking meeting, even if it's using a headset on the phone, it's a great idea.
Jamie Brannan:
I've got to get back onto that one. Michelle, our next meeting is going to be a walking meeting.
Michelle Quint:
Yes, and maybe even we'll advance to a meeting while riding my horse. I have answered the phone once on my horse's back.
Jamie Brannan:
This has been a great conversation. I'm really looking forward to see how the workshops go, the feedback, how we can share, how we can cast that shadow, Michelle, from the Center of Excellence, into other departments. And also for folks that perhaps aren't in the office environment, you're still going to get a lot of learnings that we really need to make sure we're sharing across the teams.
Jamie Brannan:
So, I can't wait to see how this goes. Leo, appreciate all your support on this journey for Michelle, her team and our Center of Excellence in Dublin. And I look forward to catching up with you both soon. Thanks very much for your time.
Michelle Quint:
Thanks so much, Jamie.
Leo Tiernan:
Thank you, Jamie. And thank you, Michelle.
Jamie Brannan:
I've really enjoyed this conversation today, as we talked about the importance of embracing mental health and wellbeing at work. As we discussed, companies can help lead in this area by de-stigmatizing mental health as a topic, which is one of my goals in this podcast.
Jamie Brannan:
I hope to continue conversations around understanding and supporting each other, in the next episodes. Thank you so much to Michelle and Leo for candidly sharing their own experiences and their expertise. Thanks for tuning in and until next time, stay healthy, safe, and be well.