Your Mental Health Matters! Learn to Lead with a Focus on Team and Mental Health!
In today’s world, we are quick to go to the hospital for a broken arm, pet bites, or any sort of injuries. Rarely do we act on mental injuries. Insults, rejection, experiencing painful events, and daily pain to your mental health.
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People often struggle in silence. Alone dealing with loneliness or with family and friends but still feeling lonely. Struggling with anxiety daily. Fighting depression in secret. Allowing our jobs to destroy our mental health. Letting memories of old, tear us apart. Feeling sad and just not happy.
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Chapter 1 – Is Your Mental Health Important to You?
One’s mental health is extremely important. Just as important as your health, your cardiovascular endurance, how your lungs function, and any other critical system in your body. Our society does not put as focus on the critical importance of mental health. This should get equal attention with other injuries. It should be first in our personal and work lives. I have always felt this way. Things I picked up from youth and raised by a man who understood this and at the same time some would shun mental health as a weakness. Maybe simply told to simply, “go pray.”
Well guess what? Your mental health and you… matter. Your presence and existence matters.
Chapter 2 – Job, Career, Leader? Setting a Personal Expectation
What is the hedonic treadmill?
The Hedonic treadmill is a psychological idea that we as humans will return to the same set level of happiness, after a set amount of time when facing good or bad life events. An example is when I was chasing the next promotion. My thought at the time was that when I obtained it, that I would be happier, and my problems solved. Only to get the position, my happiness eventually set back to what it was before, and then eventually I start another chase, hoping for the same type of change. Which never comes. Sadly, if continued the levels of happiness can decrease as well.
This trap is something that needs challenging. Be mindful of it.
Chapter 3 – The Dreaded Sunday Night
Sunday for millions of people, represents the temporary mental break before returning to work. In most cases, work that constantly hurts their mental health. Now of course, this day is not just Sundays. It is the day of break, before returning to work. The day simply representing returning to work after a short break. The thought of returning to work to be around others can be impactful. Creating enormous anxiety and stress. People often need time to recharge to go back around people, a breather from deadlines, the stress of performing, the feeling of impending doom if there is a toxic work environment involved, can be taxing to most people. Worrying about how things and events will play out.
Will your boss confront you about something? Did you forget anything? All sorts of self-doubt and internal concerns. It is a tough pre-workday.
Let's do something about it.
Chapter 4 – Building Passion
You need to gain your passion. I learned at an early age that people were my passion. My unique close team. Those that work for me became crucially important. Their wellbeing, their careers, their morale, and them as individuals matter to me. Including their mental health. As a leader, regardless of your industry, you must find your passion to become a better you. It could be around goals. They might be short or long term, but your passion should be completing them. More importantly, your passions should focus on your plans, people, and the company. If you put your people first, you will increase your chance of completing goals and boosting your passion. Then you will always be successful, and you all will win.
Chapter 5 - The Dangers of Overtime
Working overtime can negatively impact your mental health and your employee's mental wellbeing. This is extremely important that you are aware of this occurring. There is often an unsaid believe that if a person works overtime, they will get a promotion. Which is often not true. Even if it does occur, the expectation of continued overtime would be set going forward. That is a terrible environment to be in as a human being. Others feel that overtime is a badge of honor. An imaginary status of being a great employee. When, they are indirectly allowing themselves to be taken advantage of completely, until they burn out.
Another problem with overtime is awareness. A person is beating themselves up for a business, that in most cases, that leadership of that business, does not care about you. It is possible, they might not even be aware of your extra efforts. Or they do but they do not have the proper time management skills to act on it. They might also just decide to reap the fits of the work. Could be both.
Chapter 6 – Imposter Syndrome! They Will Figure Me Out!
Have you ever started a new job or role and felt like you did not know what you were doing? Started to doubt yourself into thinking that your new peers and boss would somehow figure out you are a fake? Someone who got the job under false pretenses. A complete imposter?
Psychologist Pauline Clance and colleague Suzanne Imes coined the term "impostor phenomenon". Which studies started the research into the science behind this feeling of being an imposter when starting a new job, comparing yourself to peers, having self-expectations, and overall feeling as a failure awaiting to be found out and revealed. This feeling is something that most humans will experience.
Chapter 7 – A Lesson in Humility
You know how you think someone is telling a joke and you expect them to smile and then laugh afterwards? I got none of that. He was completely serious. I walked away from that conversation thinking and remembering that it was my job to either train him to be a leader or for the sake of the team remove him of his current role. Putting more thought into it, I realized that he clearly felt that he was the best of the best regarding leadership at his level. Anyone who did not agree or thought his untrained approach was not okay did not deserve to be there. I decided I had to show him otherwise and expose him to humility.
Chapter 8 – The Art of Communication
Communication is important. More important than most people realize. You should always approach communications as an important action plan. Over the years, I have seen some of the most challenging situations emerge from lack of communication or just a poor attempt at it. Make sure you have the right people involved. Give them the information that they need to know. You should send it across multiple medias and be flexible to change how the communication is delivered. Proper communication is the #1 driver for failed projects and efforts. Failed communication can also spawn immense problems including—you guessed it—stress.
Chapter 9 – Why Good Service Should Matter to You
Regardless of what industry you work in, what you do for a living, especially if you work for yourself, customer service matters. Showing paying customers that you care about their experience, showing them value, treating them fair and well both matters. Mainly because they can just go somewhere else and get the same products or services at the same or a competitive price. Why would they tolerate your uncaring, rude employees?
Would you? Do you?
Chapter 10 – Framework of Effective Delegation
Get in the habit of explaining the value in everything you delegate to someone. Make sure they completely understand why it needs to be done and how it impacts them. You might need to put some thought into how that action can benefit them in the long term by talking about future positions, growth, more flexibility, and more pay. This is particularly important to get buy-in on that task and their effort. Saying to them, “Just do this” will get a lackluster, robotic effort. Help them understand why they should do it. Confirm that they understand.
Chapter 11 - Effective Disciplinary Tactics
Set an expectation for improvement. Plan out in advance what needs to change and be done now. Be exact. I normally smile and hold it for about ten seconds when I get to this phase to boost myself to get through this potentially aggressive encounter and to show empathy for the employee. Remember, this can be hard, but this is tough for them too. Show them what needs to change. Be clear. Also be clear on what happens if they continue down the same path. Try to help them see the whole picture by helping them see how whatever they are doing is impacting your business. Use “because” to explain what is happening when they fail in their area and what you need from them to succeed.
Chapter 12 – The Performance Improvement Plan (PIP)
Putting someone on a performance improvement plan (PIP) does not always work like this. I've had people get upset, some that walk away and quit, others who take this step as a chance to step up and change their entire working career for the better. The key thing with a PIP is that it should never, ever be a surprise. You should have had many conversations and attempts to improve and develop performance with an employee. A PIP should not be used as a weapon. If you do some minor research online, you will see that lots of people perceive it as way to fire employees and that people take on a lot of mental anguish being on a PIP. This should be used as a last attempt to get someone’s performance in line to the business needs and their role. It must be based on facts, implemented after other attempts have failed, and be approached with an open mind, expecting that the employee will either emerge improved or might need to be separated from the company.
Chapter 13 – How to Terminate
As a leader, you should take responsibility for making sure your people are able to do their jobs. They have to understand how to get assistance if needed. It is your job to make sure they know the expectations of their role, the crucial points, and exactly how to be effective. Looking back, my boss at the time did all of that. Which is why the sound cut out and I was met with internal deafening silence when I heard her state that I’d left the freezer open. It was like coming up on a boss fight in a game and realizing I have not saved in the last hour. Or typing up a document for hours, losing power, and realizing I never saved.
Chapter 14 - Courage!
The people that worked for me who were nearby, eyes bucked. A few had open mouths. As I started to sit, I was met with heavy clapping, positive faces, and smiles. The senior VP was clearly caught off guard by my statement and question and struggled to respond. He did, but not really, giving a response that did not touch on my question directly. After that, for the rest of my time there, people kept thanking me and complimenting me for speaking up. Many of them I had never spoken to before. A few were in tears, thanking me for having the courage to say what I did. I later became a target because of this. My burst of courage changed nothing in the end. Eventually the plan still occurred, and they moved to that managed service. But for many years, I was still getting approached and thanked for my act of courage. I do not regret it.
Chapter 15 – Morale
I love history. I am a big unofficial historian, and I love reading about humanity's greatest leaders. Napoleon Bonaparte passionately believed that morale wins wars. Napoleon's dictum was, “In war, morale is to the physical as three to one.” History is covered with the bodies of victims to armies boosted by the power of morale. Armies who were outnumbered, less equipped, and often out-positioned fighting with the intensity of lions. Led by leaders who’d mastered this emotion. All these leaders had one thing in common: They understood the power of morale.
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