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Colorado Healthiest Executive Awards Program Launched by US Olympian to Showcase Executives as Role Models
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Colorado's Healthiest Executive Awards Program Launched by U.S. Olympian to Showcase Executives as Role Models
An Interview with Dr. Andrea Wieland, U.S. Olympian and CEO of the International Center for Performance and Health.
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Dr. Andrea Wieland, U.S. Olympian and CEO of the International Center for Performance and Health (ICPH) based in Denver, CO, has created an awards program for companies large and small, non-profit, education and government leaders, and executives. The program will showcase healthy executives as role models for CEO, high-level managers and their organizations. In this interview, Wieland provides her insight on leadership and the building of strong, effective teams.
Dr. Andrea Wieland, CEO of the International Center for Performance and Health (ICPH) based in Denver, CO, has created a recognition awards program called Colorado's Healthiest Executive which will showcase healthy executives as role models for CEO, high-level managers and their organizations.
Wieland's own background as a U.S. Olympian (Summer Games 1996 US Women's Field Hockey team goalkeeper) is an indicator of her lifelong passion to health and wellness. The creation of "Colorado's Healthiest Executive" is a way for Wieland to share her commitment to celebrating the fitness and good health of corporate leaders and their workplaces and communities.
In this interview, Wieland provides her insight on leadership and the building of strong, effective teams.
FitCommerce:
Andrea, tell us a bit about your organization - the International Center for Performance of Health. What exactly does your group do? |
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Andrea Wieland, U.S. Olympian, Summer Games 1996, U.S. Women's Field Hocky team goalkeeper
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Andrea:
We help executives, athletes and individuals find more balance, especially if they tend to lead stressful lives. Through comprehensive assessment and coaching, we help individuals change their minds and behaviors for better performance and health.
" Simply put, leaders bring out the best in others. Effective leadership comes from trust and that starts with first trusting yourself. …"
FitCommerce:
What purpose do you hope your new "Colorado's Healthiest Executive" Awards Program will serve - and whom will it benefit?
Andrea:
Colorado's Healthiest Executive is about recognizing leaders for maintaining their own good health while also encouraging it in their organizations. It's not just about whether the leader is healthy for him or herself, but how their healthy, and balanced perspectives impact an organization and/or community. Employees, other leaders, communities, families and children will benefit from the awards program as healthy leaders influence the world and people around them. We hope for people to be inspired! We will be donating some of the proceeds from the Awards Breakfast and the Best of the Boardrooms Run/Walk to non-profits who help prevent and reduce childhood obesity. We believe that healthy leaders today will result in a healthy future tomorrow. The planet is served when leaders are healthy physically, emotionally and spiritually.
FitCommerce:
What do you see as the relationship between effective leadership and health and wellness?
Andrea:
The link between leadership and health is fundamental for effectiveness. When an individual is distracted mentally, physically or emotionally by their lack of health or dysfunctions, they then affect the system that they are supposed to be serving. Leaders are either contributing to the health of the organization or the dysfunction or not making an impact at all, which is also not serving.
So if a 20 minute walk, a brief nap or 10 minute break to walk or quiet the mind facilitates clarity of thought and creativity, then I am all for it! So much time is wasted with multi-tasking, interruptions, unclear directions, poor communication and moodiness…
FitCommerce:
What do you think are the key ingredients for effective leadership - whether that may be on a sports team or in a corporate setting?
Andrea:
A balanced perspective. Being able to see through people's defenses and not react, but instead connect individually and collectively so that people are inspired to behave in constructive ways. An effective coach and leader have very similar qualities. Clear thinking, natural communication that resonates with the listener, a capacity for not only understanding complexities but also having the ability to articulate concepts simply so that people can act. The literature might call this emotional intelligence. I suggest that it comes from "being right with yourself" first so you can have the right energy and intuitive mind to be emotionally available and connected to others to better serve them. Simply put, leaders bring out the best in others. Effective leadership comes from trust and that starts with first trusting yourself
FitCommerce:
What efforts do you think that the typical business can easily afford to make to improve the quality of life of their employees in terms of health and wellness?
Andrea:
First things first is attending to the quality and health of the organization's leaders. Leaders create cultures whether those cultures turn out to be healthy or dysfunctional. What mirrors in the culture is a reflection of the leader's relationship with him or herself, and others. Encouraging walking meetings, taking the stairs instead of elevators, placing healthy snacks in vending machines, charging more for unhealthy items at the cafeteria, and email blasting healthy tips are all very inexpensive ways for organizations to encourage better well-being. I would rather have one hour of quality work than two hours of feet dragging.
So if a 20 minute walk, a brief nap or 10 minute break to walk or quiet the mind facilitates clarity of thought and creativity, then I am all for it! So much time is wasted with multi-tasking, interruptions, unclear directions, poor communication and moodiness. Healthy organizations can produce higher quality service and products resulting in more profitable, sustainable and cost-reducing results, as time is well spent working on the right things in constructive ways.
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When leaders are right with themselves, they help the team or organization run more smoothly. Dysfunction breeds more dysfunction. Healthy organizations and teams start with healthy leaders.
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FitCommerce:
How big of a role do you believe a place of work should attempt to play toward the good health of its employees?
Andrea:
Corporate leaders and employees are afraid of being "too intrusive" in the lives of employees. The way the world of work is going, corporations are already intrusive in the lives of employees if the culture is such that emailing at 11:00 at night is the norm, flying out on a Sunday and returning on Thursday are part of the expectations, and 7:00AM meetings are the way we do things around here.
A forty-hour work week (almost unheard of these days as people work longer and perform the duties of two or three people) is almost 25% of one's week. We spend a significant time at work or working. Creating a healthy culture by starting with the health of its leaders can make a tremendous impact on the health and well-being of employees, and organizations should be responsible for hiring and retaining healthy leaders. |
There are certainly better ways of living and working that still produce great results and save time and money. ICPH is centered on bringing those methods to individuals and corporations.
FitCommerce:
Kudos to your efforts toward celebrating fitness and good health and wellness! With the daily reports of health ailments and disease resulting from inactivity, my own opinion is that we need to send messages to the masses on the importance of movement from every direction. Honoring company leaders for their attention to their health and fitness is a wonderful avenue of spreading this message.
About Andrea Wieland Ph.D.
CEO of the International Center for Performance & Health in Denver, CO, a performance-health and leadership coaching and organizational consultancy, Andrea Wieland specializes in designing strategic experiences that empower leaders and organizations to evolve and transform to the next level of competency, profitability, and sustainability.
A 1996 Olympian (USA Women's Field Hockey goalkeeper), Andrea is armed with an arsenal of knowledge, experience and skills in the assessment, design and delivery of customized seminars, and coaching of individuals and teams. Andrea traveled the world for 12 years as an international competitor and world-class field hockey goalkeeper.
Andrea earned her undergraduate degree at The University of Iowa. After rigorous training and competition as an Olympian, she returned to The University of Iowa to earn her graduate degrees in Business (M.B.A.) and a Doctoral degree in Counseling Psychology. She completed a pre-doctoral internship at the University of Texas at Austin. She is an active member of the American Psychological Association, the Association for the Advancement of Sport Psychology, and the Society of Consulting Psychology.
Andrea is certified in Emergenetics, a highly reliable and valid thinking and behavioral assessment tool for individuals, teams and organizations. Practicing the concepts that she teaches, Andrea engages in a total approach to daily performance-health to maintain her performance systems for high energy engagements.
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