LEADERSHIP: Promoting employee self-care

MARCH 2, 2021

BY ROD BRANCH, AUTHOR, SPEAKER, HR CONSULTANT

Check out my website:

It's up to you

What specifically do leaders need to do for employees suffering from mental health challenges?

• Be available and keep confidences
• Listen until employees feel heard
• Expand Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)
• Resist solving their issues, but refer them to a professional
• Train managers in caring conversations

Chip Gaines calls it a satchel in his "Time Spent on Purpose" (Magnolia Journal, No. 18, Spring 2021). However you describe it, we all carry something that limits our time, resources, and emotional capacity to what we can carry. Self-care should be at the center of it all.

Empathy is the one element of leadership that gets overlooked. Employers rewarded us for charging hard, stretching people, and knowing it all our whole career. Now the world is asking us to be understanding, patient and caring. The need for empathy, a cornerstone leadership skill, existed before COVID, but lockdowns brought it out into the light during the lockdowns. We see what is inside each of our coworkers' satchels when we enter their lives in zoom calls, but it was always there. They just carried it invisibly at their sides, or at worst, on their backs around the office. They were, and still, are weighed down.

THERE IS JUST TOO MUCH

When we added childcare, homeschooling, unemployed or furloughed spouses, compromised parents, delayed elective surgeries, Zoom call fatigue, trust by and of employees, and simply learning new disciplines related to working where we live, our already full satchels got crammed to overload. We found ourselves making choices as we allocated time, attention, and resources. Either I am late submitting this work report, or my child fails algebra, or I don't sleep for the third night in a row. Each choice has a cost. That cost causes us stress. It's easy to feel alone, helpless and abandoned.

People want "attention," according to Buckingham and Goodall, or "belonging," according to Simon Sinek.

The struggle for mental stability is real. The January 2020 NPR study on loneliness indicated social media and your age play a statistically significant role in loneliness. Gen Zs who spend more time on social media are worse. (Occupational Health and Safety Online, 1-28-21). Loneliness can cause stress, which can lead to anxiety, and all of it could end up in the lap of depression. According to The Standard insurance company and reported by CNBC on Feb. 10, 2021, "About 46% of the more than 1,400 workers surveyed at the end of last year reported that they were struggling with mental health issues, compared to 39% a year earlier. And more than half of workers — 55% — said a mental health issue has affected them more since the pandemic began." When anxiety and stress become a work distraction, or worse, absence from work, it becomes a workplace issue. Specifically, it's a leadership issue.

LEADERS ARE NOT EQUIPPED

Today's leaders are not built for this. We raised leaders from kindergarten with the mantra of being the smartest person in the room. Being first and smartest was all that mattered. At every significant intersection in life - like honor roll, rank in class, scholarships, college acceptance, summer internships, and even the first three or four steps on the career advancement ladder, being the smartest was the most important. It is almost unfair because now we say, "That's not all!" Empathy, caring, respect, trust, and building relationships are at the center of leadership. Relationships grow followers. With empathy, caring and trust, we mitigate loneliness and the follow-on stress and anxiety. Working for these career-manufactured know-it-alls creates withdrawal and anxiety. Empathy consumes loneliness.

Buckingham and Goodall in Nine Lies About Work start Chapter 1 asserting people will stay at a bad company if they are on a great team. People want "attention," according to Buckingham and Goodall, or "belonging," according to Simon Sinek. I call it significance, but whatever word you choose, people need it.

IT'S OKAY TO EXPECT PERFORMANCE

Forward-thinking companies are now promoting mindfulness as an additional work tool to help employees focus, prioritize, and increase effectiveness. Mindfulness has an overall positive impact on mental wellbeing (April 2017, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 26(4)).

The naysayers right now are thinking, "If I am too soft on people, the work will never get done!" Leaders must arrest performance issues to ensure the overall strategy's achievement and avoid creating a culture of accepting mediocrity. It is entirely fair to call attention to behaviors or work product that is not desirable. How do we correct destructive or non-productive behavior with empathy?Non-productive behavior often is a product of disinterest, demotivation, betrayal, loss of trust, fairness perceptions, or external influences. All of these get stressed when we add in the contents of the satchel. Getting at the root cause of the underperformance is the key. Is the manager not properly motivating employees with caring, respect, and trust, or is it something else? Are they showing empathy that empowers a struggling employee to push through? Addressing underperformance must be done with facts and caring and with a view to a more desirable future. The leader paints a picture of belonging. The leader leans into the absolute necessity of the employees' contributions and their connection to the strategy or cosmic purpose. The conversations become motivational instead of deflating.

STATS SAY IT ISN'T GETTING BETTER

"More than three in four U.S. employees (76%) have dealt with issues negatively affecting their mental health, according to a new survey from the American Health Association (AHA)." "We are surely entering a new era in which corporate wellbeing and mental health support are no longer perks or status symbols. They are simply the requirements for doing business." (Gallop, Employee Wellbeing & Mental Health: 5 Strategies From Top CHROs, by Ellyn Maese and Larry Emond).

WHAT LEADERS NEED TO DO

Forward-thinking companies are now promoting mindfulness as an additional work tool to help employees focus, prioritize, and increase effectiveness. Mindfulness has an overall positive impact on mental wellbeing (April 2017, European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 26(4)). Whether guided or self-directed, mindfulness to begin and end the day should be encouraged by leaders. Driving and demanding more and faster work can spiral employees to withdraw, which feeds loneliness and stress.

To be a leader is to create followers. Followers who have a respectful and caring relationship with their leaders are more loyal and more productive. They stay during the rough patches. When they feel valued by an empathetic boss, they find ways to produce. Empathetic leaders increase productivity.

What specifically do leaders need to do for employees suffering with mental health challenges?

• Be available and keep confidences
• Listen until employees feel heard
• Expand Employee Assistance Programs (EAP)
• Resist solving their issues, but refer them to the EAP
• Train managers in caring conversations

Rod Branch

Rod Branch is the Owner and President of WholeHeartMind Business Consulting, LLC, a full-service human resources consulting firm in Cypress, Texas. Rod has 40 years of professional experience including serving as an engineer in the Alaskan Arctic, a Government Affairs Director in Washington, DC., and 26 years in Human Resources. Most recently he served as Chief Human Resources Officer for a $1 Billion oilfield service company and was previously with BP, Enron, and The Coca-Cola Company. Additionally, he served in leadership roles with privately held companies such as Hoover Ferguson and HydroChemPSC. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from Oklahoma State University and a Master’s in Global Human Resources Management from the University of Liverpool (UK). He is a certified Human Resources Professional (SHRM-CP and PHR) and is a Certified Executive Coach Practitioner. Rod is a leadership development teacher and the author of many leadership and professional development articles. He is also a frequent keynote speaker and panelist on leadership topics for various professional and trade associations. He is a professional musician and holds one US engineering patent.

All photos are used by permission and sources from https://pixabay.com/