How to approach mental health & wellbeing in the workplace every day of the year.
Open LinkedIn on any given day, and you’ll see it is awash with heartfelt posts about mental health, mindfulness talks, and yoga in the boardroom – but amid a burnout epidemic, where should we as business leaders focus our mental health efforts to truly support our teams?
In the current economic climate, it is more important than ever for businesses to adopt sustainable models for business resilience and growth. To achieve amazing results, companies have to take an honest look at their team culture and walk the talk, not just talk on websites and social media channels. True culture is more than the perks that you offer; it’s how psychologically safe your people feel within the organisation, and that’s what delivers results.
In general, people are feeling pretty beaten up at the moment. The cost-of-living crisis, the negative news cycle and increased stress at work are really affecting people and it can feel difficult to press pause and regroup. It is our role as leaders to create the space that supports colleagues to find a way out of that mindset and give them a chance to reflect and reconnect with colleagues again in a meaningful way.
We’re right in the middle of burnout epidemic, and the best way to beat burnout is to prevent it in the first place by creating a thriving team. But how?
– Create vitality – to put it simply, give people a sense that what they are doing on a daily basis makes a difference.
– Growth through learning – while learning can also give a competitive skills advantage, it also sets in motion a virtuous cycle; people who are developing their abilities are likely to believe in their potential for further growth.
Vitality without learning will be fun (for a while) but certainly won’t achieve business goals and will quickly become tedious to a motivated and ambitious workforce. A culture solely focused on learning, without vitality, will lead to burnout. Fostering a culture that embraces both will enable your people and your organisation to truly thrive.
Although many firms offer positivity initiatives and mental health benefits to attract talent, surface-level perks like wellness apps or pizza Fridays don’t address deeper level issues in the workplace. So what can businesses do to meaningfully address these issues?
2. Consider skills that you need to develop in your management team
There are three attributes to look for in good managers and leaders, and all of these are trainable; a listener, a collaborator, and a coach. Listening is crucial in leadership, especially if we want to understand the needs of our diverse workforce. By truly listening, we can better understand the differences within the team and listen with an intent to understand and develop.
3. Go beyond the mindfulness app
When we are in a state of stress we are trapped in a fight, flight, or freeze response and our ability to collaborate and innovate is inhibited. Research from Oxford University shows that there is a direct correlation between businesses that take wellbeing and employee happiness seriously and increased profits, valuation, and how well they perform on the stock market.
4. Focus on meaningful connection and trust
When we trust our teammates we are much more likely to be authentic, collaborate, and ask for help if we need it. Take the time regularly and consistently to check in with their people, not just about how they are at work but how they are more broadly in their lives.
Taking two minutes to show some kindness is hugely underrated when it comes to leadership and people in positions of power and I hope the theme of ‘Mental Health in the Workplace for this year’s World Mental Health Day 2024 is a catalyst for this to change in workplaces in the coming years.
Get in touch with Ivan at ivan@centricconsultants.com to talk about how you can have meaningful conversations about mental health and wellbeing in your business.