October is Mental Health month. In fact, every month, every day should have a focus on mental health.
If you are in any position where you work with a variety of stakeholders, you need to be good at leading without authority. Influence is driven by many factors. One of the foundational ones is how you show up in any conversation.
Anyone who’s ever struggled with mental health- which is most likely all of us- knows that it’s very difficult to feel energised when you are not in a good mental state. Some manage to snap out quickly. Others struggle for years. The causes are varied and sometimes hard to pinpoint what actually caused you feeling blue.
The other day, I read a very fitting metaphor.
When a flower doesn’t bloom, you don’t try to fix the flower. You’ll check the environment and explore what you can do to improve the foundational factors for growth. Does it need more water, food, sunshine? Better soil? All these are elements of the surrounding system.
The world of work often takes a different approach and puts all responsibilities for improvement back to the individual.
Self-care is something often discussed. Mindfulness, meditation, yoga, hydration and many great tips... are all helpful ...up to a point when the surrounding system makes it nearly impossible for a person to properly do all of these activities.
If you are a leader in an organisation, it might be appropriate to review organisational rules and processes that make it difficult for employees to stay well.
For example, think of hybrid workplaces across different timezones. What are the expectations for people to turn up at meetings outside of their "normal" work hours? How do you find agreement on work-life-integration? There isn't a one-size fits all solution. Boundaries need to be explored and agreed.
What type of systemic mental health challenges do you see in your industry? Improving conditions for feeling better could be a necessary investment to make change more sustainable and successful.
Naturally yours,
Ingrid
P.S. if you like to explore more levers for change, I’d highly recommend reading “Lost connections “by Johann Hari.