14 Wellbeing Tips For Women At The Top

Marian Evans, Business & Career Coach and Founder of Elevate BC, shares her essential tips for successful women.

It’s no secret that getting ahead takes effort and focus. To an extent, success is proportionate to your contribution, as when we put a lot of energy into anything, something must give. Even for those with incredible stamina, there is a price to pay. 

We need only look at the FTSE 100 and 250 stats to appreciate how rare it is for women to reach Executive roles. Having worked with many men and women in leadership roles, I can say without a doubt that many sacrifice a lot to climb the ranks. 

This is not a post about gender equality, though the injustice is shocking, particularly in the financial services sector. This is about the cost of neglecting health, wellbeing and the key elements of resilience that feed into these in the pursuit of setting a blazing trail. 

In 2021, only 8% of FTSE 100 companies had a female CEO, compared with just 4% among FTSE 250 companies. There are many reasons why this might be but having worked with female execs in some of the most demanding organisations, wellbeing is a contributor. 

Often when I coach clients who are looking to excel and reach their full potential, we explore several key areas. The two areas I always factor in are:

1. How are they going to maintain stamina to get to their goal and maintain a pole position?
2. If performance = Potential – Interference  a) What are the key interferences? What is it we must overcome to maximise their performance? This is often a combination of elements including self-confidence, and opportunity.

As my good friend Pauline Cox, author of Primal, explains to clients at our wellness retreat:  ‘’Understanding our female physiology and how endocrine-disrupting lifestyle habits can scupper our energy, motivation, mood and drive, is a big step in stacking the odds in our favour when it comes to having it all…family, female health and business success.”

For the minority who buck the trend and manage to smash a glass ceiling or two, it’s a smaller number that sustains the blazing trail and maintains a presence at the top. That sheer determination is matched only by incredible stamina and stamina relies on us recharging the depleting battery pack. It’s taken me longer than it should have to appreciate this fully, possibly due to the adrenaline getting us through a lot (that and caffeine). 

Winning in business creates a heady neurochemical cocktail of different hormones, including adrenaline, dopamine, and cortisol, described often as the buzz of the win. It is addictive. I am seduced by it, and this is partly why we are often looking for the next milestone. I have also found that high-powered individuals tend to recognise this addict in each other, which is why networking and mastermind retreats at my home Llansteffan Castle are so empowering. Not because of me, but because of the connection and the community. 

Wellbeing For High-Powered Women

Women need to speak much more confidently about what they need in terms of wellbeing at work. Those who recognise this connection and pay close attention to their needs will thrive. It’s simple, if you neglect your wellbeing, you will not meet your true potential. If you feel you are mentally, physically and emotionally in a good place you can achieve amazing things.

 Here are my top tips for wellbeing for women at the top:

1. Use the OFFTIME app from 9pm-9am 
2. Try waking up to your alarm and doing a guided body scan meditation for 10 minutes
3. Schedule a morning meeting with You; a 5-minute scribble in your diary to get you into the habit of setting your intention for each day is enough to get started
4. Have a bottle of water that encourages you to drink your daily allowance
5. Chunk items so that you blast through related “to do’s” in one go. Thanks Tony Robbins 😊
6. After meetings and Zoom calls, get up, walk around and step outside. Do not go back-to-back with meetings
7. Schedule a deep tissue massage or spa day once a month
8. Even if you are a high-impact woman, dedicate one day to stretch and try yoga (there are styles and instructors for everyone out there from Humming Puppy in NYC to Good Vibes in London and YouTube for Yoga with Adrienne)
9. Embrace nature walking groups, or even mountain, forest, or beach walks for that matter
10. Start reading a fiction book and leave the personal, and professional development ones to the side. Have a reading time slot that you stick to, perhaps a day or every evening before bed. Distraction is a powerful tool.
11. Write down the things that make you feel most free and joyful and prioritise these
12. Practice breathwork regularly
13. Upgrade your supplements to suit your needs
14. Make wellbeing a priority