Delamill Wellbeing Coaching

09/09/2026

How do you tell normal work stress from burnout?

They get used as the same word and they are not the same thing. Stress under three months, with recovery between the hard bits, is fuel. Six months of it with no recovery is wear. Burnout is further along again, and the World Health Organisation names three features: exhaustion, a cynical distance from the job, and the sense that nothing you do is any good.

The test between them is not how busy someone looks. It is whether they recover when they stop.

So think of the person you would describe as busy, and ask one question about them. When did they last look properly rested after time off?

If you cannot remember, you are not looking at stress.

Diary in the first comment if you would rather think it through out loud.

09/09/2026

How do you tell normal work stress from burnout?

They get used as the same word and they are not the same thing. Stress under three months, with recovery between the hard bits, is fuel. Six months of it with no recovery is wear. Burnout is further along again, and the World Health Organisation names three features: exhaustion, a cynical distance from the job, and the sense that nothing you do is any good.

The test between them is not how busy someone looks. It is whether they recover when they stop.

So think of the person you would describe as busy, and ask one question about them. When did they last look properly rested after time off?

If you cannot remember, you are not looking at stress.

Diary in the first comment if you would rather think it through out loud.

08/09/2026

If you are seeking a resource to help you recover from unwellness, Before the Body Speaks is a great book that can help.
Anna Wardley provided these great insights from the foreword that I think summarises the book excellently.

08/09/2026

08/09/2026

Stop calling this wellbeing because half of you switch off at that word.

If you think supporting your managers is soft, keep scrolling.

If you actually want to protect your people, this is ninety seconds well spent, and it might be uncomfortable for some of you.
But if a member of your team went off sick with stress tomorrow, what could you actually show you’d done to support them? Because the duty is the easy part.

The Health and Safety Executive put workplace stress on its enforcement list this year.
In January, they fined a company and the director personally for ignoring the notices. But across the tribunal cases I’ve read this year, eight so far across five different sectors, saying two things keep coming up every single time.
No stress risk assessment and no occupational health referral. It was never usually malice that caused the issue, it was that no one could show what they did.

So let me share this one with you.

A small firm was ordered to pay just over twenty-seven thousand pounds this summer.
The managing director had noticed. He’d even visited the home of the employee to make a kind gesture. But nobody involved had been trained, so those visits were ruled as a violation of dignity and there was nothing written down.
Good intentions turned against them. And this is the trap.
Caring is not the same as being able to show you cared.

So one honest thing, because it matters more than any sale, no questionnaire discharges a legal duty, and mine doesn’t do that either.

The recognized route is the HSE management
standards.

What a simple monthly check gives you is a different thing, a record that you looked, what you found, what you changed.
If you do that for a year, you are holding the exact same thing that was missing in all eight of those ca- cases. The check is in chapter eleven of Before They Break.

It is out now and the link is in the first comment.

07/09/2026

So this one is not for everyone, so let me save some people some time.
If you think looking after your managers is a fluffy, nice to have when there is spare budget, this is not for you.

If you genuinely want to support the people who hold your business together, stay with me.

Here is the question.
Is stress at work a real risk where you are, or is it still treated as a personal problem?

Most people are surprised by the law on this. Stress is not a wellbeing topic in law, it is a hazard, and you are required to assess it the same way you assess a ladder or a chemical. Ignore that and it is not a soft cost.

Workplace stress now turns up in roughly one in ten employment tribunal rulings, and those run to tens of thousands of pounds before you count the person that you lost.
But here is what it actually looks like on the ground. Two people, same company, same pressure.
One is a manager who notices that things have gone quiet and ask a real question. The other has a manager who means well and says, “Take a few days, you will be fine.” Same firm, completely different outcome.

Right now, for most businesses, whether a struggling person gets caught comes down to the luck of which manager they happen to report to.

That is not a system, that is a coin toss.

In Before They Break, there are tools and methods to support managers to better equipped with supporting their team.

The link to get a copy is in the first

04/09/2026

Does your business keep dealing with staff conflict, absenteeism, low productivity… and good people leaving?
Managers are the lever that can change this.
But even good ones still get wellbeing conversations wrong.
In Before They Break I share a simple method called USE:
Unsuccessful – You don’t understand it yet
Successful – You understand it and support effectively
Exceptional – You change the work so it changes the worker
Almost everyone starts at the bottom. That’s not a flaw. It’s missing education. And education is fixable.
I learned this the hard way in 2024. I was teaching managers what to look for while ignoring the same signals in myself. Sleep gone. Appetite gone. Snapping at people I love. It ended in hospital with a colitis flare that’s taken two years to recover from.
So this week, try one free thing:
Pick one person and ask:
“Where are you currently stuck?
What would helpful look like from me this week?
What would make it exceptional?”
Then listen.
Want the full process? It’s in the book.
Or comment SHEDS and I’ll arrange a quick chat about the course.

04/09/2026

Does your business experience regular staff conflict, absenteeism, low productivity and the loss of good staff?
Research shows us that managers are the lever who can improve this
But, we have to ask. Why do good managers still get wellbeing conversations wrong?

There is a method I utilise in the book Before They Break that I wrote for leaders.
Three steps that can provide clarity on any challenge being faced. It is called USE.

Firstly, you need to identify where you are currently being unsuccessful.
Unsuccessful is where you do not understand it yet, so you cannot support anyone through it.

Successful is where you do understand it, so you support people more effectively

And Exceptional is where you go further than supporting and you actually enable them. You change the work, and that helps change the worker.

Almost everybody starts on the bottom step.
That is not a character flaw. It is just the absence of education, and education is fixable.

Here is my own version of it, and it is not flattering.

In 2024 I was travelling the breadth of the country and teaching my coaching methods from a career in football coach education and mental fitness coaching to managers and their teams.
Telling them what to look for but neglecting to turn the attention on myself. And for about three months my own sleep went, my own appetite went, my concentration was shot and I was snapping at the people I love. Ignoring these signals became costly

I read none of it. It ended with me in hospital with a colitis flare and this is something I would not anyone else to have to experience because it’s taken two years to fully recover and that is something I am sure you would not want for you or your team members

So here is the one thing to do this week, and it costs nothing.

Pick one person on your team.
Just ask: where are you currently stuck (being unsuccessful) what would helpful look like from me this week (creating the success criteria) and once you agree you then revisit to identify what would improve this to make it exceptional.

Then be ready for an answer you did not expect.

That question is the first step. Everything else builds on it.

If you want the whole process, you can find them in Before They Break or the course is live and if you comment SHEDS course I will arrange an informal chat to discuss the details

03/09/2026

Are you are manager who feels squeezed by constant pressure?

Gallups outline your not alone and things have worsened over the last few years because lay offs have increased the pressure on managers as they pick up the slack.

Have you noticed your sleep is more disrupted, your relying on caffeine and energy drinks to get you through, your physical activities levels and hobbies are declining, your eating processed foods on the go more often and your on edge and keyed up more of the time?

If this is you, then the great thing is you have noticed. Lots of people don’t and I was one of them and ignoring these fundamentals had a massive impact on my health that lead to losing 15 kilos and being admitted to hospital.

It was also the inspiration to change and correct what I had neglected and why I wrote Before the Body Speaks.
Improving my sleep hygiene, drinking more water with electrolytes, prioritising my physical activity levels, eating clean whole foods have all helped reduce my negative stress levels.

I haven’t been this healthy since I was an adolescent and understand that to protect my physical and mental fitness this is what I must always do.

The Before They Break book and course has been designed to support managers to protect and maintain their SHEDS (sleep, hydration, exercise, diet and stress levels) and also to better support their teams as well.

Improving these fundamentals can improve mood, productivity and performance and reduce staff conflict and absenteeism.
Additionally, companies can also benefit from happier more engaged staff who don’t want to leave.

If you would like to learn more about the course, comment SHEDS course and we can arrange a chat.
Alternatively, if you just want the book, the link is in the first comment