Leaders Crucial to Building Healthy Minds

Healthy minds are critical to a happy, productive, and loyal workforce and fundamental to resilient organizations, and corporate leaders play a larger role in promoting mental wellness than many imagine. Companies with grand policies yet implicit pressure to constantly check emails, work longer, and be always available are sabotaging their own explicit programs. The best managers understand investment in recruiting and training can be wasted if working conditions don’t match expectations – a reality that applies across generations.

Indeed, a July, 2022, World Economic Forum report stressed that an “always on” culture has affected the mental health of employees worldwide and collectively costs companies $16.8 billion in lost productivity each year. “Organizations that ignore or downplay these trends do so at their peril,” it concluded.

Today on World Mental Health Day managers will see many individual and organizations offering advice and training opportunities to help them and their employees cope with challenging situations and remain well balanced in uncertain times. I would like to contribute to this conversation by offering observations about how we at Siemens support our workers feel better in performing their jobs and uncovered stress points that can be eliminated. Efforts in both these areas have helped create an environment that supports healthy minds.?

Leadership support for healthy minds

But how much can responsible executives actually contribute to the mental well-being of their employees? Quite a bit, to be honest. Positive mental health can arise from a variety of sources at the workplace. Strong contributors include when employees have all the right skillsets for their roles, are tasked with an appropriate amount of work, and perform under clear job expectations.

Company leaders have two primary avenues to promote the mental well-being of their workers. The first is at an organizational level, which addresses working conditions, and the other is at an individual level, which focuses on strengthening health competence, building resilience, mindfulness, and other positive habits.

At Siemens, my corporate health management unit works with various departments, particularly human resources and legal, to create policies that contribute to mental well-being and to re-evaluate any that don’t. The scope embraces how the work itself is organized and the processes used to complete and track the work. Levels of collaboration, the safety and comfort of the physical work environment, and the tools available are also crucial components of healthy workplace conditions.

Research has confirmed that work conditions have a direct impact on whether employees are motivated, engaged, bored, or stressed. Supportive conditions establish role clarity, offer control over how work is done, provide a variety in tasks, and enhance performance and personal well-being. In contrast, poor conditions create excessive demands, provide little or no support or recognition, and are often perceived as unfair.

Beyond the immediate, building mental well-being within the workforce creates resilient organizations that are better prepared to handle disruptive changes.

Practical steps for managers

Shifting a company’s focus to include meaningful considerations of mental well-being can be challenging. Managers have the ability and responsibility to translate well-meaning corporate policies into daily practice. For many, the effort might seem daunting. We have found, however, that three practical steps can be powerful tools in creating a mentally healthy organization.

Honest conversations

The first is to have honest, future-oriented conversations with employees. Managers should have dialogues with individuals or teams to understand what is needed for staff to stay resilient and relevant in challenging times and for personal and professional growth to reach their full potentials. This must be a continual effort to explore what’s working or not working today, how jobs connect to workers’ aspirations, and how they can contribute and add value in the future. The core question to ask: Are you getting the support and resources needed to be succeed?

At Siemens we call these Growth Talks, and from my own experience “autonomy” has emerged as one of the strongest attributes for mental well-being. Workers are less stressed when they can decide how and when to fulfill their job obligations appropriately. Leaders should avoid micro-management and give their workers as much flexibility as warranted and the appropriate tools, including development and training opportunities.

The next attribute commonly mentioned is getting the appropriate amount of work. This doesn’t entail wall-to-wall tasks, but providing time for breaks, wellness training, and self-management, among other beneficial pauses during the working period.

Walk and talks

Senior managers should also use site inspections as an opportunity to learn more about the factors that influence employee well-being and performance. In a program we call Walk & Talk 2.0, we’ve turned traditional site inspections into opportunities for open conversations and real experiences on how work is performed. They are also helpful in assuring that work processes are smooth and not bureaucratic. In addition. these visits have sparked ideas of how work and processes can be improved.

The effort demonstrates managers’ curiosity and interest in the grassroots functioning of an organization and builds relationships that transcend the hierarchy. They offer a chance to ask workers directly about how well they feel in workplace. By listening and showing interest, managers can discover ways to craft environments and responsibilities more conducive to healthy minds.?

Psychosocial Risk Assessment

A third step is conducting psychosocial risk management assessments. Many jurisdictions require such evaluations to meet safety requirements related to psychological injury. Beyond the legal mandate, however, these assessments can be invaluable in discovering work conditions that benefit or harm the mental well-being of a company’s workforce.

These assessments should be conducted regularly to identify any changes that should be either reinforced or addressed. The results should be analyzed and discussed within the team and any necessary reactions considered together.?

Final thoughts

As we have seen, healthy minds are vital from both an ethical and corporate perspective and deserve greater emphasis throughout an organization. Mental well-being, of course, is a complex topic, and the ideas offered here represent just a small portion of what managers and companies can do to help safeguard the mental health of their employees.

Any other ideas or experiences our readers would like to share would be welcome. Please use the “comment” function.