We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Haley Prophet a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Haley, appreciate you joining us today. Can you share an anecdote or story from your schooling/training that you feel illustrates what the overall experience was like?

My degree is a B.S. in Health Promotion and I recall at the time the lack of understanding of so many when I would share what I was going to school for, continued by their disbelief that I could find and maintain work in this specific area ongoing. Not only did I, but I have continued to passionately pursue this industry while also closely connecting with my college program which has evolved into Worksite Health & Productivity to reflect the evolution of wellbeing in the workplace.

Haley, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

I have been working in a health, fitness, well-being related capacity for nearly 20 years. My passions lie in the area of engagement and empowerment to lead to fulfilled well-being practices thus driving high performing workplaces. I begin by cultivating a solid foundation for employee well-being and workplace engagement by both informing and empowering leaders to first, lead with care and compassion. To fully understand the why behind well-being in the workplace and connecting the dots on how individual well-being drives team well-being and thus overall organizational well-being to enhance workplace health, satisfaction, engagement and overall performance. Bringing expert understanding of the role mindfulness, resilience, a sense of thriving and flourishing bring to not only employees but the full workplace. Assessing multiple dimensions of what well-being means to each individual and the workplace and beginning to create a unique and transparent way of incorporating this intentionally into strategic planning, marketing, communications, personal and professional development offerings and more. Around all of this so far is purpose. Driving the full understanding of an organizations purpose and how that ties to individual purpose is critical for a sense of happiness, fulfillment, connection, meaning and overall well-being for both. Their are many means of methodology to follow based on what the organizations goals may be so first understanding where the business is at on their journey of incorporating well-being into all of what they do is key,

Putting training and knowledge aside, what else do you think really matters in terms of succeeding in your field?

Listening & Learning. Both have been an equally critical part to my success and belief in the work I am doing. While my experience and knowledge certainly have crafted the expert I am in this area today, it has significantly taught me that listening along the way is where you learn the most. No necessarily always needing the answers or to share a proposed option, rather hearing what the needs are. Truly listening to the challenges, requests, desires, curiosity of others when it comes to workplace well-being – and well-being in general. This is also listening to your own inner wisdom and intuition. Trusting it. Listening often. Cultivating it overtime as your own personal internal resource you can listen to. And second, learning. The beautiful part of well-being is the constant and evolving research around what well-being looks like – for individuals, for workplaces, for communities. Learning along the way what resources, tools, support and programs are out there to support both the ME (individuals) and WE (workplaces and communities). Learning to be curious about new trends and new requests or even new research is what keeps me passionate to evolve what workplace well-being focuses on and in turn keeps an organization competitive in how the implement and embrace well-being as a critical component to their workplace.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Experience definitely. Also networking and connecting. Experience teaches us all something in many aspects of our life, we just have to tune in to notice and listen to what the experience is teaching. This could be our personal lives and friendships, significant others, experiences within the community. This could be our professional lives and various teams we work on, projects we contribute to or programs we launch. This one for me is significant because I have been able to understand and recognize so many experiences and the value they bring by being mindfully aware when I am in and through various stages of the experience. If you cannot reflect on lessons learned, successes or even failures from experience then it may be a sign of mindless connection or simple misalignment. I am also a huge proponent of networking. Relying on connections you personally make but also how your existing network can continue to help you connect to others you may be seeking out. By networking correctly you also have a platform to be authentic and trust the experience of being somewhere, engaging with others and the connections will follow. When you connect organically you never know what experience may follow.

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