Smooth Seas do not make skilful sailors
– African Proverb
This workshop is about the robust relationship between wellbeing and high performance. It is about the optimal balance of stress and how that converts to resilience in the pursuit of high value goals. It presents the four pillars of resilience: Social Resilience, Physical Resilience, Psychological Resilience and Practical Resilience.
An analogy is developed of the elite athlete: pushing boundaries of performance with very high discipline and specialized knowledge. Athletes are prone to injury because they push boundaries, so they need to be both knowledgeable and disciplined in their self-care. All this effort is worth it because they are pursuing deep satisfaction and purpose. They are also attempting to maximise ‘flow’ – the experience of complete absorption in the task at hand that is good for you both physically and psychologically (Csikszentmihalyi, 1997). In the same way, resilience requires stress and pushing boundaries in the pursuit of valued goals. It requires knowledge and applied capabilities.
Interview with Sharon Bent
Modules
Wellbeing & Flow, Social and Physical Resilience
Module 1, Wellbeing & Flow, Social and Physical Resilience, begins with an understanding of wellbeing as a continuum and then uncovers the relationship between stress balance and the experience of ‘Flow’. It then explores the powerful relationships between social connection, oxytocin, social support and resilience. Finally, the module provides science-based guidelines for Physical, Dietary and Sleep-based resilience with practical tips for each.
Psychological Resilience
Module 2, Psychological Resilience, provides a model (Reality + Mindset = Experience) of human functioning that provides for (relative) human freedom: our ability to change mindsets and thereby our experience. This is applied practically to Realistic Optimism, Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence.
Practical Resilience
Module 3, Practical Resilience, focuses on the importance of non-distracted absorption in work of purpose and value to us (Deep work). It provides practical guidelines for the reduction of alleged multitasking, the establishment of routines and rituals, the fundamentals of prioritising, the art of saying ‘No’ and how to develop an ‘internal locus of control’. The module ends with practical action-planning.
About Sharon Bent
Sharon is an organisational psychologist and executive coach, with over 20 years’ experience providing bespoke consulting, training and executive coaching services to individuals and organisations in ASX-listed companies, parliament, universities and the public sector. Known for her practical, incisive and strengths-based approach, Sharon draws on evidence-based interventions to create solutions with her clients that ensure the desired behavioural and workplace change is achieved and sustained.
Sharon is passionate about building individual and organisational capability to create resilient, engaged and high-performance workplaces. Her special interests include using strengths to create positively deviant performance, developing performance coaching skills in people managers, positive leadership, re-teaming, high level motivating and influencing, workplace civility, managing challenging behaviours, mastering career transition, wise and ethical decision-making, psychosocial health and safety, conflict resolution, learning to learn, and self-coaching.
She has also managed large teams of professionals in the university sector and draws on this hands-on experience to ensure the solutions she develops with leaders are practical, realistic and fit-for-purpose.
Her high level of professionalism, integrity and discretion has meant that Sharon is also regularly asked to assist clients with high public profiles to manage sensitive and complex people management issues due to the confidence and trust they place in her counsel.
As a skilled facilitator and executive coach, Sharon consistently receives praise for her use of humour and straight-talk to make the learning/coaching process fun and engaging.
Sharon is a member of the Australian Psychological Society (APS), College of Organisational Psychologists, Interest Group in Coaching Psychology and International Positive Psychology Association. She has also served on the Australian Psychological Society’s National Ethics Committee, contributing to the maintenance of high ethical and professional conduct amongst psychologists across Australia – a voluntary position for which she was nominated by her peers. In her capacity as a field supervisor for Masters of Organisational Psychology students, Sharon is also an Adjunct Supervisor (Placement) Macquarie University, Sydney.