One of the first questions we ask leaders when we start to work with them is what’s keeping you up a night? It’s the sort of question that elicits all sorts of interesting answers. Importantly it often points us to the heart of what needs to be addressed, something impacting their people or them personally.
Right now we are living in a perfect storm of things that keep us all up at night - restructures, mental health challenges from working in isolation to ongoing economic uncertainty.
People may dealing with a crisis or a restructure and have issues outside of work. It really gets challenging when these issues spill over into the workplace. The next thing you can guarantee is not only causing a massive productivity dip in your team, but you’ll also have significant mental health challenges. Up to 50% of people experience mental health issues at some point and last year the productivity commission estimated that lost productivity due to mental health costs our economy over $12 billion a year.
Everyone it going through turmoul so its really challenging for leaders to take care of their people when they are taking care of themlseves. But now is not the time to pull down the hatch and wait to for the storm to go over. Asking people to 'just toughen up and get on with it ‘doesn’t work.
So what can I do as a leader?
Firstly understand how changes in your workplace can impact mental health *:
- Changes to relationships. We spend a lot of our time at work, and relationships at work can be a real source of camaraderie. When people suddenly leave or relationships become toxic this can impact people’s mental health.
- Overload. One of the big challenges in today’s world is everyone seems so busy, and when one little thing changes like when a work colleague is asked to leave and you have to take on some of their work it can tip the balance in the wrong direction.
- Job insecurity. People need a clear role with purpose, that means knowing what they do and need to do with others. Restructures that have not been well thought through, can end up creating a lot of disconnections impacting people’s roles, the work they do and ultimately how secure they feel.
Then if you need of a restful night’s sleep and want to take care of your people’s mental health we can help you. Our Fire up formula can help you reshape how your team or organisation operates. It anchored in science and research. We have got you covered.
Click the link and check out some useful tools from the Blackdog Institute* so you can better support your people’s mental health and of course your own.