Mental Health for Leaders

A large majority of adults have experienced trauma in their lives that they carry with themselves daily. Unfortunately, the pandemic has only increased the number of adults in the workforce who now suffer from mental health issues such as PTSD. As leaders, how do we respond when these mental health issues show symptoms or limitations at work?

Today I’m joined by Dan Jolivet, who you may remember from the SHRM Round-up I did earlier this year. In our conversation today, Dan and I discuss trauma-informed management, and how it can open up a world of possibilities fo...

Many entrepreneurs start and grow their businesses to sell. They have an idea, find out how to implement it, hire the team to do the work, then they’re off to their next big idea.

But the missing piece is the health of the organization. And since people make up 95% of the work in most companies, the health of those employees is of utmost importance.

Team productivity and wellness is so much more than hiring the right talent for the right positions. I think we’ve all come to understand that mental health plays a pivo...

We know how important taking time off from work is. It allows us to disconnect from work, spend time with family, create new experiences, explore some creative interests. It’s good for our emotional and mental well being. 

But for some people, taking time off is stressful. Maybe they’re buried under debt so the thought of taking a vacation is a distant dream. Or maybe they just have so much built up paid time off (PTO) from, say, working in healthcare nonstop due to COVID. It feels really stressful to think you built up a huge bank...

Who says compassion doesn’t belong at work? Not Laura Berland, founder and executive director of the non-profit Center for Compassionate Leadership. For Laura (and, frankly, me), compassion has a very central place in the workplace and leadership.

Though there are skeptics, there is scientific evidence that compassion in the workplace supports more productive teams and more profits for the organization. But the compassion gets to start from within and this is a skill that can be taught - you can cultivate compassion within yourself and it starts with taking care of yourself first.

On th...

We know the importance of taking care of our team members in the day-to-day work. But we forget what that looks like in the big transitions that occur during systems overhauls, large acquisitions, and even leadership changes.

During these times, leadership, management, and employees are under a lot of stress, often for different reasons. Leadership and management is busy making sure that things roll out smoothly. And while some employees are strapped with making sure business as usual still happens, others are deep in the changes while also trying to keep up with their regular responsibilities.

Offering leadership training and development is essential in the workplace, for organizations of all sizes. But it must be training grounded in small behaviors, rather than big and sweeping changes so the training has lasting impact.

You’ve been there: sitting in a training room, listening to a presentation that encompasses so much information--good information--but the next day you’re challenged to remember any of it. The training wasn’t set up for success. 

This week on the podcast, I’m talking to McKendree Hickory of Life Labs Learning, an organization dedicated to ensuring that leadershi...

It’s time to start putting the humanity back in the workplace (if it was there in the first place), and that’s exactly what Cerys Cook and Swift Medical are doing. While mental health and wellness has always been on Swift’s radar, some new standard actions across the board are part of its new initiative to be people-centered and normalize mental health conversations at work.

Health and wellness benefits goes well beyond health insurance and time to attend doctor’s appointments. It’s about checking in on how you’re feeling and ensuring that your team leaders...

Have you ever taken a moment to look at who is championing empathy in the workplace? Who’s demonstrating empathy and talking about feelings and who might be hiding behind their computer screens?

It probably comes as no surprise that it’s typically women and female-identifying team members who talk about and demonstrate empathy in the workplace. This is a societal issue that started long before sexism and misogyny were recognized.

This week on the podcast, I’m talking with social science researcher and empathy pioneer Karla McLaren, M.Ed. about why this is and how we...

Everyone wants to be understood and heard and it’s usually a lack of listening and understanding that breeds conflict. No matter where it happens, conflict creates stress and unhealthy situations--something none of us should have to endure. 

The solution? If a conflict can’t be resolved, conflict resolution is the answer. But that doesn’t mean having the two people in conflict sitting down with a manager or in-house HR professional. Bias happens, and even if it’s perceived bias, it’s important for all parties involved to feel safe and that the mediator is neutral.

That’s...

Studies show that when employees find meaning in their work, they’re happier, more productive, more creative, and have higher wellbeing. And while individual employees need to do their part in finding that meaning, there’s only so much they can do without the support of their leadership. Since we work in communities, wellbeing and meaning are shared responsibilities, and leaders need to be intentional about their part in it if they want to set up their businesses for higher success.

This week I’m joined by Tamara Myles and Wes Adams, who together have researched how leader...

Compassion and empathy are two words that are used interchangeably, and neither are necessarily accepted in the workplace. Sure, we all know the importance of taking personal experiences and challenges into consideration. But these are loaded words that aren’t always accepted.

The thing is, compassion and empathy are two different things. Compassion is about recognizing someone else’s suffering while empathy is the response to that suffering. Compassion is inherent; humans naturally have this quality…until it’s trained out of us. And that is a tragedy.

This week on the podcast, I’m talking wi...

Not all trainings and workshops are created equally, as I’m sure you can attest to. Meeting your audience where they’re at, using language that they can relate to, is key.

But leaders aren’t born with the language they need to lead, and they often aren’t taught it either. So we need to turn to tools and resources to help us out.

This week on the podcast, I’m talking with Ken Cameron and Russell Stratton about their new book, I Need to F**king Talk to You: The Art of Navigating Difficult...

How leaders show up matters. Many are on board with performing at a higher level and encouraging their teams to do the same. Unfortunately, organizations feel that they need to “fix” employees quickly so they embrace one-and-done training programs that ultimately don’t work.

Clearing the mental mess and engaging in transformational change takes dedication and practice. The best wellness and mindset practices take time to become habits, especially when you want them to stick.

This week on the podcast, I’m talking with Rico Gomez, mental health coach to high performing athletes and corporate leaders...

It’s great that employers are starting to offer mental health care in their benefits packages for employees, but not enough are on board with supporting their families’ mental health. One thing parents want more than anything is to know their kids are okay and are getting the help they need. 

Thankfully, the tide might be turning in this arena. 

This week on the podcast, Haleigh Tebben of U.S.-based Brightline is sharing about how her organization is supporting children and how that’s making all the difference at work.

The stigma around g...

Leaders get to where they are because of their resiliency and drive. Their no-nonsense attitudes and their tireless approach to growth and development. Right?

Maybe. 

But that kind of drive can also lead to burnout if leaders aren’t careful about taking care of their whole selves. High stress jobs can lead to sleepless nights, missed meals, putting off exercise, poor nutrition, dehydration, myriad health problems, and more. Too much of that and leaders will find themselves just barely getting by.

If this sounds all too familiar, you’ll want to tune into this...

Technology can acquire a bad reputation in circles where the culture is all about people first. (Side note: All cultures should put people first.) But what people don’t always consider is that technology can help us ensure our people are well taken care of and that our human resources team members aren’t burdened with work that could actually be automated.

After all, our HR staff members are people too.

This week on the podcast, Kristie Dierig and I are talking about all the ways that technology can support the people in organizations, how to e...

Your workplace is a giant learning laboratory, where we can study human behavior and changes over time. And that’s exactly what this week’s guest, Dr. Tiffany Jana, Doc Jana, has been doing over the last 25 years.

Doc Jana does JEDI work with organizations, though not the kind you might be thinking of. JEDI is justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion and according to Doc Jana, most people didn’t know what this work even was a handful of years ago.

Today, it seems like everyone is talking about diversity work, and they should. But too ma...

How do you define wellbeing? It has a lot of different meanings, and it really depends on what lens you’re looking through. That brings a challenge to organizations or teams that are trying to do the work.

Many organizations have taken roles in human resources and tacked on “wellbeing” supervisor responsibilities. They know they need someone in that role but aren’t really willing to dedicate the necessary resources. And depending on what experience that new wellbeing professional has, this looks wildly different, even within different teams in the same organization.

What can be done abo...

We talk about psychological safety a lot, but what does it even mean? That was the question Dave Sewell asked himself as he struggled in his former consulting gig. He watched teams leave toxic environments and it triggered something in him. Psychological aggression, the opposite of feeling safe at work, was running rampant among his clients. So he made a change. 

Before he truly defined psychological safety, he wrote the book on it. 

This week on the podcast, Dave and I talk about the science behind psychological aggression and why even subtle behaviors and responses ca...

Toxic workplaces persist, even in the face of organizations working in DEIB and trying to create cultures of organizational safety. The challenge is that there’s a knowledge gap. It’s difficult to hold individual leaders accountable for their behaviors when it’s normalized for them.

The problem isn’t a lack of knowledge and doesn’t require a training of our leaders; it’s an unlearning that needs to happen, a gaining of wisdom that only happens through talking to others about how you and your behavior impacts them.

On this week’s podcast, Dr. Kevin Sans...

What if your employees and future leaders didn’t struggle with challenges at home or with their finances? Do you think they’d perform better at work?

According to this week’s guests, they sure would! And they have the data to back it up.

Everyone brings stress and anxiety to work. It’s a normal part of being human. But when leaders and aspiring leaders spend too much time in stressful situations they’re not as effective in their roles. Coaching can help, and organizations that offer coaching to employees help to improve the humans in...

The humans in your organization are the most important asset you have. It’s essential that you take care of them, especially as we come out of the pandemic. There’s an overwhelming feeling of isolation that employees felt in the last few years and the confusion of today is causing the isolation to linger.

What’s a leader to do? Go back to foundations. Empathy is the single most important skill that leaders can and should use to ensure that employees feel safe and heard. Unfortunately, empathy is also a skill that we’ve been trained out of u...

When we take care of our leaders and their mental health, we’re all able to show up as our best selves--at work and at home. As leaders in human resources, we can do this by unlocking potential by supporting them to growth their mental health skills - in empathy, leadership, and coping with challenges.

This is important because organizations that are viewed as highly empathetic have employees that are more likely to positively talk about their company to friends, peers, and families. And organizations that truly focus on culture are twice as likely to retain their em...

I recently attended the Society of Human Resources Management conference (SHRM) in New Orleans, Louisiana and had the pleasure of attending many sessions and connecting with a handful of speakers talking about mental health in the workplace. Of course you know this is my happy place!

If you listened to Season 5 of the podcast, you can listen in to those conversations. Nicole Butts and I talked about organizational justice, Wendi Safstrom shared about the need to prioritize mental health at work, and Daryll Bryant talked about how to flourish at work. Of course, there were many other...

Countless studies have shown that laughing is a good way to relieve stress. And even if we love our job and our teammates, there’s always an element of stress in the workplace.

So why not find ways to spice it up with some humor?

According to Greg Schwem, comedian and corporate speaker, humor is disappearing from the corporate world just when we need it the most. Organizations are shying away from using humor of any kind for fear of offending someone. But the reality is that the positive benefits of humor far outweigh the ne...

The reality of the pandemic has impacted the workplace in many ways the past couple years, some more expected than others. One thing that leaders are finding is that after so much time working from home and being more vulnerable, employees are looking to have a more genuine connection with their coworkers. Gone are the days of putting on your work persona before clocking in. People are expecting authenticity, openness, and organizations that value them for who they are.

Along with this cultural shift, it’s important for leadership to learn how to be compassionate. What does be...

With an increasing number of employees leaving their organizations as part of the Great Resignation, it’s more important than ever that we as people leaders create an environment where employees feel valued and want to be. A great way to do this is by developing your influence in the workplace, over your people, work culture, and organization.

Today I’m joined by Vivian Blade, leadership expert and thought leader, to discuss skills and tactics that leaders can use to have more influence in the workplace, including influencing up the ladder, and how to leverage that influence for...

Communication feels very different when we’re working virtually. But even through we’re screen-to-screen, we still need to be respectful and have expectations and guidelines around what’s appropriate and what’s not.

We’ve learned from the last few years that it’s easy to feel isolated when we’re not in-person. So regular check-ins and conversations is essential. But what does that look like? And how do you communicate with others who don’t have their cameras on?

On this episode of the podcast, Lorie Reichel-Howe of Conversations in the Workplace is talking about ju...

There’s a common misconception about leadership, and that’s that we’re paid to be rational and not emotional. But in reality, our emotions are what make us human. And don’t we want human leaders who constantly push their feelings down. For one, it’s physically unhealthy. And for another, it doesn’t open up the space for others to feel included and like their emotions matter. Because they do.

On this episode of the podcast, Javier Santos is sharing about emotional technology, the evidence that shows us the value of neuropsychoanalysis and how our brains map m...

As leaders, we know the importance of giving feedback. Our teams need to know how they’re doing so everyone can work better…more efficiently and at a higher level of excellence.

But what about receiving feedback? It matters how our teams receive the feedback we give them, and how we, the leaders, receive feedback ourselves.

It could take a lot for a team member to come forward and give honest and open feedback to their manager, even if that leader asks for it so it’s essential that they feel safe to do so. Simply...

On a human level, we know that we all have struggles. But the definition of a good leader is not someone who leaves everything at home because they need to be seen as strong and impactful. In fact, vulnerability is a much more important trait of leadership. It’s just one component of helping teams flourish at work.

Organizations and leaders need to be more aware than ever about the changing workforce. New technology and new workers are allowing teams to work more efficiently and more autonomously. But when old school politics and practices get in the wa...

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a hot topic right now and one that a lot of organizations have begun to address. But are they really doing the work? Not always, says podcast guest Nicole Yeldell Butts.

We know that diversity work is necessary but the challenge is getting leaders to do the work alongside the organization. It’s not a box to be checked or a meeting that needs to be held. DEI work needs to be part of an organization’s values and day-to-day operations.

In this episode, we talk about the fear of p...

The world is different than it was 3 years ago, and it is different than it will be 3 years from now. Change is a constant in life and business alike, and as people leaders it's an opportunity that we get to intentionally adapt to these changes along the way.

Today on the podcast, Jennifer McClure joins me to answer questions about what changes HR leadership has faced over the years and how it will continue to change into the future. With an emphasis on skills like problem solving, integrity, and relationship building, it’s clear that the way fo...

What if we all approached conversations with others with respect, empathy, and maturity? Just think of all we could accomplish together! We would all win!

Every one of us has a different lived experience and we all see things differently from one another. At the same time, we all have biases. We tend to gravitate toward people who look like us and who we were surrounded by as we were growing up.

In short, we’re all human. And we need to move outside our comfort zones if we want to see change in the wo...

Nobody is immune to mental health issues, and they affect all aspects of your life. Even your physical and economical vitality (or lack thereof) can be linked to your mental health. That’s why it is so important for organizations to make mental health in the workplace a priority, especially as we work together to try and establish a “new normal” in the wake of the pandemic.

Earlier this year, the Society for Human Resource Management Foundation published a report detailing the current state of mental health in the workplace. Today, Wendi Safstrom, President of the SHRM Founda...

Organizations can’t survive without people. And HR professionals have the privilege to and responsibility for starting conversations, creating influence, and leading the cause and effect that happens in our organizations.

When we empower employees and support them through challenges and adversity, encouraging them to grow and develop themselves personally and professionally, they get to make an impact on those around them--in the office and at home.

On this episode, chief marketing and experience officer of the Society for Human Resource Management Jeaneen Andrews-Feldman talks about the role of human resources in business today and wh...

Focusing on mental health in the workplace is becoming more and more of a priority for organizations and our people and our company bottom lines are benefiting greatly from this focus. As People Leaders and HR professionals, I think there’s been a gap in our skills training to really know how to best navigate this new world of work and that’s where this episode of the podcast comes in to help fill that gap.

In this first episode of the season, I’m going to share with you the top mental health skills we could all us...

Society has set us up for failure. With the glorification of busyness and the pressure to check things off the list, we don’t have time to do the most important work: the strategy and innovation organizations need to be successful.

But there’s a small shift starting to happen, one that allows for slowing down to speed up. Because individuals and organizations are starting to see that busy mode isn’t sustainable. It’s a recipe for burnout and resignations.

We feel the need to constantly be busy because we feel like we don’t deserve...

You remember being taught that each person is unique and different and special in their own way. That’s still true. And organizations are finally catching up.

We know that we all react differently to different situations and we need different tools to succeed. Opening the door to those conversations not only supports neurodiverse employees, but entire teams benefit. And are more successful as a result.

This week on the pdocast, Chris Turner of Neuro Advantage is sharing what those conversations might look like and how to get them started. And he normalizes the differences we...

According to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, 19.7 million American adults (anyone over the age of 12) was battling a substance use disorder in 2017. Imagine how that statistic has changed in the years since, especially as we've navigated our lives through massive transformation and change.

If your organization has any number of people working within it, there's a high likelihood someone is struggling with addiction. Some may be highly functioning, some may be getting the help they need and others may be staying silent in shame, unsure of the steps to take next. Addiction doesn't discriminate...