Performance for Life

On this week's episode of my podcast, Bring Your Whole Self to Work, I spoke with my friend Eric Severson. Eric has been working and studying the field of Human Resources for over 25 years. He spent many of those years at Gap Inc., which is where we met. At Gap Inc., Eric served as the co-CHRO in charge of global enterprise talent strategy and operations.

Eric was deeply impacted by the book Mindset by Carol Dweck. The ideology of this book offered him the understanding that a cluster of different beliefs and behaviors could be learned to create what professor Dweck calls a "growth mindset." Eric is passionate about applying this type of breakthrough science into the architecture of a company to help its employees and team to achieve their goals.

Eric believes that the pressures and stresses of the workaholism of the 1990's and 2000's reached a breaking point an integrated way of knowing the world is starting to take place. The internet has been disruptive in a good way as it erases knowledge borders and makes the world a smaller place. A holistic approach to leadership can be attained if leaders are able to tap into their own creativity and innovation. Something Eric helped institute at Gap is called the Results Only Work Environment (ROWE) which "revolutionizes the way people work." he says.

Eric is fascinated with the science behind healthy workplaces and the many practices companies can put into place to encourage a healthy environment. Optimizing the mind, body, spirit and emotional energy allow human beings to perform at their best because all of their domains are being fueled and in balance. At Gap he and his team created a powerful employee wellness program called Performance for Life. The tagline of the program was "Better You, Better Gap." The research points out that when people take better care of themselves and feel their employer is interested in their well-being, they are much likely to perform at a higher level and commit to their work.

According to Eric, "bringing your whole self to work," means that you harness all of the human energy and potential inside yourself, and focus it in a positive direction.

I'm honored and grateful to know him and to have worked with him in the past, and I loved the conversation we had on my podcast.

For more information and resources about this episode, check out the show notes. Also, feel free to subscribe to the podcast on iTunes (or your favorite podcasting platform), leave a review, and share it with others.