If you’re a leader, and if you’re not role modelling healthy behaviours, you’re not only affecting your own mental health, but the mental health of your team too, says Natasha Wallace
Interest in mental health has blown up and it’s the latest craze in HR and leadership circles.
All of a sudden people seem to be more concerned with the state of our mental health – even celebrities and Royalty are banging the drum. The jury is out on whether we’ve had a surge in mental ill health or whether, through lifting the stigma, more people are talking about it but it’s fair to say that we’re in the midst of a mental health crisis.
Why is stress costing UK businesses an estimated £7-9bn per year? And that’s supposed to be a conservative estimate. Not just that; burn out rates are increasing and organisations are struggling to improve productivity and performance, with sick leave and presenteeism (when you’re in work but not working effectively) causing serious problems in business.
The reason: our mental health is struggling to cope in the current climate.
More organisations are therefore starting to realise that we can’t ignore the subject of mental health, especially if we’ve got any hope of succeeding as we enter what’s been coined ‘the fourth industrial revolution’.
Volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous
We’re operating in a VUCA world. This is not a term that I like much, but the sentiment is right. Things are volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous and for your average human being, living under those conditions isn’t good, especially if we haven’t built the resilience and mechanisms to cope.
Our brains simply don’t like uncertainty and because we’re predisposed to protect ourselves from danger – not knowing what’s going to happen next creates anxiety. The odd bit of ‘unknown territory’ and stress is fine – most of us can cope with that. When we experience stress from too many angles or over too long a time period it not only impacts our mental health but our physical health too.
It’s not just uncertainty that’s contributing to this problem. We’re always switched on and simply haven’t equipped ourselves with the knowledge and tools to know how and when to switch off effectively. And the dopamine hit that our phones give us every time we pick them up doesn’t help with that particular problem. The economy is putting us under increasing financial pressure, with pay freezes common in many organisations. Many of us haven’t learned how to manage money effectively and some of us simply don’t have enough of it to live comfortably. And we’re being squeezed to deliver more with less – with time poor and often inexperienced managers supporting us. And then there’s AI and the potential impact that will have on our jobs and organisations. More change will inevitably come.
It’s all a bit stressful, and that’s no good for our mental health.
But what do we mean by mental health anyway and what leads to good mental health?
You know that feeling when you are happy, healthy and productive. With so much focus on anxiety, depression and how stress, workload and modern-day pressures are leading to mental ill health, we’re left wondering what actually leads to us feeling mentally fit and able to thrive in a working world that is putting us all under so much pressure.
Much to the surprise of many of the people I work with, there are a number of needs that we need to meet in ourselves to achieve mental fitness. Our physical health and the extent to which we exercise matters, but it’s only part of the fix.
We need enough sleep, we need enough rest, and we need to be mindful of what we’re putting into our bodies. Often the quick fix we use to deal with the discomfort we’re feeling is to drink or eat our way out of the situation. It feels good in the moment (most of the time) but in the longer term, we’re only making matters worse. That’s not the bit that surprises people though. Most of us know what is good and what is bad when it comes to nourishing our body.
What’s causing mental ill health?
What people are less conscious of is what is leading to mental health being negatively affected each day when we’re at work.
Some of these things are more obvious and some less so. Workload (overload), long hours, not being able to use your skills, poor communications, lack of support, not feeling included, job uncertainty, lack of opportunity for growth, change that you’re unprepared for, and being treated differently or unfairly. They all matter.
Take a moment to think about whether you are experiencing any of these things. And this list doesn’t consider the numerous personal challenges you may be facing too, they count just as much and are often not thought about by the average manager who is expecting you to deliver to the next deadline.
When we experience a number of these things together, it results in a cumulative build up which can lead us to experience mental illnesses such as anxiety and depression.
It’s not difficult to see that in a world where there is less money, more competition, less resource, less money for training, and less time to think, that there is more opportunity for the things that cause us stress to become a very real and difficult part of day to day life.
So, what’s the answer?
We can’t take away the change, we often can’t take away the uncertainty, and we can’t always generate extra money to throw at the problem, so what can we do?
We can change the way we behave but in order to do that, we have to become more conscious. Our wellbeing is impacted on two levels – that are internal and external to us. As people, we often only have control over the internal level and what we do, think and say has a significant influence over how we end up feeling.
Having a good level of self-awareness and a good understanding of what contributes to our wellbeing gives us more control because when we know that our overall wellbeing is influenced by how emotionally well we feel, how socially connected we are, and how physically active we are, we have more choice. When we also appreciate that the stability of our finances and our relationship with the digital world also play significant roles in our mental health, it helps us make more sense of why we may not be operating as effectively or feeling as good as we want to.
Get to know yourself better
Yet we are pre-programmed to behave the way that we do and most of us, especially in a pressurised and busy world, are on automatic pilot. In fact, 95% of our thoughts happen in our unconscious. It therefore stands to reason that if we want to take better care of our mental health, and if we know that the way that we think and our mindset contribute to our resilience and mental stability, we have to recognise the need to get to know ourselves better.
That’s why no amount of people telling you to work less hours, to spend less time on your phone, to make more time for your friends, to take up a hobby, or to meditate more, will make you focus on those things unless you want to – and many people don’t feel motivated to take action until they understand how all of those things make a difference to the way our brains function. That’s because most of us don’t give our brains much thought.
The news is, even when you’re experiencing challenges, pressure and difficulties, if you treat your brain well and if you pay more attention to the way that you feel and behave, you will feel better faster. I coach many clients who are trying to figure this out and what’s so good to see is that when people start to take better care of themselves, when they recognise that they can’t always be goal focused and ‘on task’, and when they take time out – regularly that is – they feel better. Even when the world around them seems to be falling apart.
Neuroscience shows us that the executive functions in our brain – the ones that help us to reason, think rationally, make decisions, and to stay focused – can’t operate effectively when we’re stressed, tired, or anxious. They also can’t be constantly ‘on’. In the same ways that our bodies wouldn’t be able to cope with 10 hours at the gym each day. When we take regular breaks, we give that part of our brain a chance to re-energise. So if you ever feel a bit fuzzy or like you can’t think straight, take a short break to walk, have a drink, sit and reflect, do something that would normally energise you – or for the more enlightened amongst you, take some time to meditate.
Aside from that drinking water, getting enough sleep, exercising, focusing on one task at a time, connecting with friends, putting down tech and learning, all help you to take care of your brain too.
If you’re a leader, and if you’re not role modelling healthy behaviours, you’re not only affecting your own mental health, but the mental health of your team too.
Every day, with every move you make, you’re either positively or negatively impacting the extent to which your team members feel well and productive or stressed and ineffective. So, notice how you work. Notice how often you take breaks. Notice what you’re fuelling your body with. Notice whether the expectations of your team could be pushing them too far. Because unless you pay attention, unless you choose to become conscious of that, you’re just a part of the problem – and part of a crisis that could eventually break your business.
Natasha Wallace is author of The Conscious Effect, and founder and chief coach of Conscious Works, an organisational wellbeing company. She is presenting an exclusive AMBA webinar on wellbeing in the fourth industrial revolution on 6 November. Find out more and book your place here
