Leading the way to workplace culture: Change your mindset to get unstuck [Part 2]

Before leaders can expect to have an impact on workplace culture at large, they need to build their self-observational skills. Having a strong sense of self-awareness and self-reflection makes it possible to see how your habits affect you, your loved ones, and your teams. You become more capable of bouncing back from challenges and breaking patterns that don’t serve you.

“Mindfulness is an important professional skill because it can really help us be present. When we can be in the moment and take pause, that’s going to strengthen our ability to decide how we want to respond to our thoughts and feelings instead of letting our habitual responses take charge.”

• Phoebe Jenkins, Health Coach at Headspace Health

Your thoughts shape your actions. So getting in touch with your thoughts and being kinder to your mind can be a transformative step in improving your relationship with mental health.?

Self-awareness: Observing yourself clearly

Decision-making is an important part of what leaders do. Sometimes you’re asked to make decisions without as much time or information as you’d like, so you rely on “your gut.” It’s the intuition you develop over years of experience in similar situations — but your gut also includes all of the assumptions, biases, and preferences you’ve built up.

Not all assumptions or biases are bad. You can assume the best in people or have a bias for action. But when you lose awareness of your internal influences, you also miss out. Without self-awareness, leaders can struggle to explore new paths or connect with different perspectives that help their businesses evolve. In the workplace, it can determine your ability to build relationships, collaborate, and reach consensus.?

You can cultivate stronger self-awareness by taking a moment after important decisions to identify the values and beliefs that shaped your approach. After building that list, get feedback from trusted peers and team members to see if those elements are consistent with how you’re seen by others. Seventy-five percent of employees appreciate their leaders’ transparency about mental health1, which means that seeking feedback can help you build trust and confidence with the rest of your team. Contrary to our instincts, it’s not perfection that makes great leaders. It’s the vulnerability to practice what you preach.

Self-reflection: Deepening your understanding

Self-awareness is an important first step, allowing you to see your feelings and motives clearly. Self-reflection helps you turn knowledge into understanding. Digging into how your internal world was formed and shifted can reveal important clues about how to become the best version of yourself.

“People use the word ‘should’ a lot. They ‘should’ be feeling better, or they ‘should’ be doing something. They are setting standards that they think are reasonable, but a lot of anxiety comes from not being able to meet their own internal standards. They think they should be able to handle it on their own. And through coaching, therapy, and psychiatry, we help people challenge those narratives.”?

• Dr. Neeru Bakshi, Psychiatrist at Headspace Health

As you learn more about why you developed different values, beliefs, and patterns, you’ll gain the ability to break out of your default mode and be in more control over how you engage with your work and life. When you have to manage challenging conversations with your team, you’ll have an easier time understanding how others feel and acting from a place of empathy.

It takes time to build your ability to reflect. Meditation and journaling can be powerful tools for opening yourself up to examination without judgment. If this is a skill you want to focus on, be kind to yourself in the process. The goal isn’t to punish or judge yourself for past actions but to gain understanding and insight that can help you in the future.

Bring change to work

This Mental Health Awareness Month, we’re encouraging you to model the change you want to see in the workplace by being open and honest about mental health. This series of articles will help you focus on caring for your personal mental health so you can create the world you want to work in. Join us next week as we show you how changing your mindset translates to healthier habits.

In the meantime, start building more resilience, focus, and self-compassion with short exercises in the Mental Health Matters collection in the Headspace app.

If you’re ready to explore more tools and resources for encouraging a culture of mental health at work, get your copy of our toolkit for workplace mental health here: https://www.headspace.com/model-what-matters.

1. 2022 Workforce Attitudes Toward Mental Health Report . (2022). Headspace Health.