In our fast-paced work environments, a leader’s commitment to mental health sets the tone for the well-being and success of the entire team.
By prioritizing mental well-being, leaders not only foster a productive and supportive work culture, but also contribute to the resilience and sustainability of the organization.
This approach builds confidence, reduces burnout and improves engagement, making mental health a strategic priority that benefits both individuals and broader organizational goals.
These 7 tips will help you:
#1 Lead by example
What you say and do has a much greater impact than a policy stored on your intranet. Make your physical and mental self-care a priority.
Not only will your mood and performance improve: research from the American Psychological Association shows that if a leader is in a good mood, 93% of employees feel motivated (vs. 38% if they are in a bad mood) and 91% have good job satisfaction (vs. 30%).
Your mood is contagious. If you practice self-care you will help keep your team in the green zone.
#2 Build a personal scaffold
Schedule quality time each week with people who are good for you. These are your greatest support when you have a setback or failure.
Having loving, supportive relationships is the number one predictor of a long, happy, healthy, and prosperous life, according to the longest continuous study of well-being ever conducted (The Harvard Human Development Study, 1929 – 2024).
There are three critical elements of these strong scaffolding relationships: you:
- Feel good after meeting them: you enjoy time with them, you have common interests, and you laugh often.
- Meet with them constantly (and ideally in person). Interacting regularly with them generates sympathy and security.
- You can be vulnerable with them: a problem shared in a problem solved. Vulnerability generates trust and respect.
The benefits of loving and supportive relationships are immense.
#3 Develop strengths
We all have strengths and weaknesses. The best leaders know their (and their teammates’) strengths.
Gallup has identified 34 different strengths, and if we use our top 5 strengths every day, we are 600% more likely to be engaged in our work and 300% more likely to report high life satisfaction.
The same goes for the people who report to you.
If we ignore someone who reports to us, there is a 40% chance they will disconnect. If we interact with them regularly and focus on their weaknesses, 22% will disengage.
BUT – if we train them using their strengths, only 1% disengage.
Good leaders know and develop their top 5 strengths (and coach their teammates to do the same)
#4 Embrace middle management
They are the key to its success and contribute 70% to the commitment and well-being of its frontline teams (Gallup). They are also the meat of the sandwich between you and frontline staff.
They are feeling the pressure: 52% are exhausted, 49% are stressed, and 43% are overwhelmed (Deloitte, 2023).
Walk around and ask them how they are doing. Really listen.
What is the biggest challenge in your role?
What is one change that would make your life easier? Act!
Take care and listen to your middle managers.
#5 Measure what matters
Despite the senior management team saying that employee wellbeing is a priority, it is surprising how little the executive team knows about the financial cost of mental illness, despite it being the leading cause of lost productivity.
Evidence-based contributors include – absenteeism, presenteeism, employee turnover, workers’ compensation premiums – and claims penalties, etc.
Despite this, only 12% of CFOs measure these factors (webinar survey with 110 CFOs).
IN 60 SECONDS YOU CAN KNOW THE COST WITH THE MENTAL ILLNESS CALCULATOR
In the first comment below you will be able to find out its costs and the evidence that supports it.
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What’s worse is that these are all delaying factors, and new workplace mental health laws require the leadership team to also measure the root cause of unhealthy stress in the workplace.
Contributing factors include too much (or too little) work, poor change management, unclear role expectations, bullying, harassment, etc.
There are three credible core surveys to help leaders understand root causes, including:
- People are work (developed by multi-state Comcare and WorkSafe). this is free
- Thrive at Work (developed by Curtin University’s Future of Work Faculty)
- FlourishDX (a private sector group)
#6 A focused plan
Once the root causes of harmful stress have been identified, it is essential that the leadership team approve a one-year plan for what strategies will be implemented to address the root cause of harmful stress.
This could involve:
- Decide what your main focus will be
- Agree what training leaders and managers need to address the main issue
- Lead by example and share your relevant story
- How you will monitor progress regularly
At WeCARE365 we’ve created award-winning e-learning that helps leaders prevent (and intervene early) mental health issues. Send me a private message if you want an information package.
#7 – KEEP EXPERIMENTING
I once worked with a senior leader at a Big Four bank whose team was experiencing burnout and stress due to uncertainty and the speed of change.
To help alleviate this, he committed to holding a 30-minute Zoom call every 2 weeks outside of regular meetings. He told his team that they could ask him any question and that he would be honest with them by answering (when he could) things:
- He knew it and he could tell her.
- He knew it, but he couldn’t tell her yet.
- he didn’t know the answer
Doing these regular updates significantly reduced stress levels, even when he couldn’t answer all the questions.
We can never be 100% sure of the right action, but we must continue to experiment and try new things. It’s okay to make mistakes, but it’s unacceptable not to learn from them.
Senior leaders must not only talk about change, but live and breathe it. Many change efforts fail because leaders do not lead by example.
Keep experimenting!
