Well-Being

Finding comfort, health, and happiness in the compliance & risk professions.

BOOST TEAM ENGAGEMENT

How Autonomy Can Improve Workplace Well-Being

Letting employees take control of their own careers can make them happier, more engaged and more productive. Just be sure to build a culture of trust before you hand them the keys.

workplace autonomy
red umbrella blocking rain

EMPOWER SPEAK-UP CULTURE

Sheila Flavell

Psychological Safety: An Essential Workplace Guide

A record 50 million U.S. workers quit their jobs in 2022, and the Great Resignation has prompted organizations to reassess their approach to the employee experience. A research-backed practice known as psychological safety may help leaders boost retention and overall team effectiveness.

red paper airplane leaves other paper airplanes

RELY ON INNER RESOURCES

Lisa Beth Lentini Walker

Managing Unwanted Change Can Make Us More Resilient in the Long Run

Life is full of curveballs. We’ve surely all had the experience of heading down what you believe is a predictable and logical set of next steps only to find that the path you thought you were taking is somehow unavailable. Change is unavoidable, but we can get better at handling it.

hawaii lisa beth

INSTILLING A CULTURE OF CARE

Lisa Beth Lentini Walker

What We Can Learn From Hawaiian Concept of Mālama

At the heart of any functioning culture of compliance is the concept of protecting our colleagues and the organizations we work for. This spirit is on display in abundance throughout the Hawaiian islands thanks to the concept of mālama.

Leadership & Career

Well-Being

workplace wellness

Building a Workplace Well-Being Strategy? Start With Appreciation & Gratitude.

The Covid pandemic has given us all a lesson in how our physical and emotional well-being can be affected by workplace stress, and employers are increasingly building workplace well-being strategies. Author and consultant Anna Eliatamby shares her recommendations for a humanity-centered strategy discussion. Well-being strategies have become a popular organizational intervention because of Covid and...

pause

Harnessing the Power of the Pause

In our hyper-connected world, it’s easy to push our human need for peace to the back-burner. But a well-being practice isn’t just about active mindfulness; it’s also about embracing stillness. It seems like 2023 began with a burst of energy. There are taxes to be filed, programs to be assessed, momentum and lift achieved. In...

tiny steps big impact_n

Tiny Steps Can Have a Big Impact

We know change doesn’t come easy, which is why making sweeping declarations doesn’t usually work. But where big changes often prove too challenging, bite-sized ones can have a big impact. Last column we spoke about setting themes for the year ahead rather than resolutions. While it is important to have a general guide to what...

well being intentions

New Beginnings & New Understandings

As the calendar rolls into February, the percentage of us who have kept our New Year’s resolutions is likely pretty small. CCI’s Well-Being Editor Lisa Beth Lentini Walker explores a better way of setting resolutions — or better yet, setting intentions. Each year, people focus on setting new year’s resolutions and without fail, the vast...

gift of nothing

The Best Gifts Are Often Free

One of the challenges for the mindfully ethical leader is finding ways to connect during the holiday season without violating gifts and entertainment limits or making the other person uncomfortable. How can you give this season without running afoul of ethics policies? Both at work and at home, we often give gifts to establish or...

budgeting compliance_n

How to De-Stress Budgeting for Your Compliance Program

Strong compliance programs don’t just happen. They require planning — and budgeting. Being thoughtful and proactive will help drive appropriate budgeting that supports and promotes program effectiveness, while reducing your stress both now and throughout the next fiscal year. ’Tis the season of budget management. Every year, around the time fall beverages show up at...

inner voice

How to Make Friends With Your Inner Voice

Most of us have an inner voice running through our heads constantly, spewing upwards of 4,000 words per minute. Because they’re with us all the time, these inescapable voices can systematically undermine our mental health, even causing us to make foolish career decisions. Have you ever heard yourself talk in your head? If you have,...

workplace self assessment

Stress Happens. Have You Checked on Your Well-Being?

Regular fare for compliance professionals includes threats of regulatory enforcement, loss of resources, businesspeople who are intent on undermining the program, investigations into challenging areas, audits, ongoing remediations and many other situations. Ensuring that we are emotionally well and aligned with our purpose is important in an era of dwindling resources. Just as we conduct...

‘Secondhand Trauma’ a Risk for Professionals Who Handle Sensitive Investigations

‘Secondhand Trauma’ a Risk for Professionals Who Handle Sensitive Investigations

First responders, teachers and others who regularly are exposed to cases of violent or sexual crimes generally have dedicated resources to support their mental health and well-being—and rightly so. But what about compliance, ethics, legal, HR, security, privacy, audit and risk professionals? These guardians of integrity within an organization experience the emotional impact of interacting...

Report: Compliance Officer Working Conditions, Stress & Mental Health 2022

In the decade that Corporate Compliance Insights has covered the corporate compliance and risk management profession, we've heard a common refrain: Compliance is a stressful, demanding career that routinely has compliance professionals at odds with their colleagues. But we wanted to understand more about what exactly makes compliance roles so stressful and to what extent...

Thriving in Our Stressful Profession

Thriving in Our Stressful Profession

Compliance is an undeniably stressful profession. When you combine the typical challenges encountered in the corporate world with the task of managing uncertainty — and then compound this with the all-too frequent issues of limited resources and support — it’s no wonder so many dedicated compliance professionals find themselves dangerously close to burnout. Then top...

3 Steps to Practicing Self-Compassion

3 Steps to Practicing Self-Compassion

Have you practiced any self-compassion lately? Showing ourselves compassion is strongly linked to our overall well-being. Compassion is when we recognize someone’s struggles and feel motivated to comfort or resolve those struggles. So, when we think of self-compassion, it is an introspective way to look at our own struggles and comfort ourselves. It really boils...

Digital Detox for Well-Being

Digital Detox for Well-Being

nomophobia – no–mobile-phone-phobia. The fear of not having your phone with you. Word of the year in 2018, according to a Cambridge dictionary poll. Over the summer, I took a four-day “hard reset” where I completely disconnected from the world. No internet, no phone, no computer, no fitness tracker — really no connection to electronics. Shockingly, the...

Simone Biles prepares to compete at Tokyo Olympics.

Mental Health Steps Out of the Shadows

Mental health challenges experienced in the workplace are often, by default, suppressed. But patches of sunlight are shining through the cloud cover. Research suggests a supportive culture can elicit both higher employee engagement and greater productivity. The Olympics in Tokyo wrapped up a few weeks ago. What did you take away from the two weeks...

lighthouse shining brightly against dark sky

The Real Deal: Leading by Your Values and Actions

Integrity is priceless. We need leaders who model what they believe and who practice what they preach. Advocating for the company code is great, but trust is built when you live your values out. In a recent Compliance Career Connection event, focused on the art of the elevator pitch, I found myself on the receiving...

pop art illustration of woman with thought bubble

Why Do We Believe What We Believe?

Changing your perceptions and your own behavior can be key to overcoming a challenge. Linda Henman encourages leaders to turn off behavior “autopilot” to make sure what they’re doing is really working. Too often discussions of attitudes, values and beliefs center on the person, making us blind to the power of the situation. Marketers advocate...

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