Lara Morgan, recently named as one of the UK’s 10 most powerful businesswomen, founded Company Shortcuts after her successful exit from Pacific Direct, with the aim of sharing the experience and knowledge she gained whilst growing a highly successful global organisation. She touches upon the topic of wellbeing below:
What was your engagement challenge or what sparked interest to focus on this area? Was something not working?
I was injured a while back and findining it very hard to get going with exercise. I know the value of exercise and particularly the fact that I have investments in ACTIVBOD a genius range of toiletries that deliver “results you can feel” without smelling like a rugby jock! I also have a small investment in a sports bag organiser system and have started to attend triathlon shows knowing before I stopped training – I belonged!
Did you identify an untapped benefit?
I also recently listened to a report from an enterprise organisation I am in about Health Not wealth and how I as CEO have to lead to get others to do the same, trying to spend just a few minutes daily makes a massive difference in ever persons ability to perform better, I see that as an investment in my team as the trust I put in them is massive and they need to be on their game.
Was there an issue that could not be ignored?
Yes, I am getting less efficient and I cannot live with myself,plus recently I have experienced a number of friends suffering from ill health. I have always been reasonable fit and put the miles in (either in the pool of out in fresh air) and I know that my children need to see the effort I put in so tat they live long healthy lives. NOTHING is more important than our health.
Did you just want to do what you were doing better?
Nope, I need to be self disciplined about what I do and expect the same from those I work with. I talk about focus, I even lecture on it and I cannot be a hypocrite standing at a lectern.
What did you do? Who was engaged/involved?
I did a total team update explaining where I stood on the health issue to my team. I have a number of incredibly capable people, General Managers of different businesses and with summar round the corner we as a group need to be better at finding a bit of sweat time for ourselves.
What did you do differently?
Got up earlier and got the stuff done, once you fall out of this habit it is hard.
