Leading the way to workplace culture: turn thoughts into healthy habits [Part 3]

Last week, we discussed how self-awareness and self-reflection can help leaders break through patterns and see situations more clearly. These two skills are essential for understanding ourselves and our impact on others. For any leader who wants to model the culture they want to see in the workplace, shifting your mindset is the foundation for making positive change happen – our thoughts shape our actions.

This week, we’re helping you turn thoughts into habits. When you start to see the patterns in your thinking and where they came from, it’s easier to see the path toward better mental health. And as you practice better habits, your employees will too.

“If we have good mental health routines, we’re better able to rebound and get back into things. When something throws us off course, those routines make us stronger and capable of engaging with the situation.”

• Dr. Neeru Bakshi, Psychiatrist at Headspace Health

Every leader can benefit from practices that respect their strengths, joys, and limitations. So let’s learn how self-care and self-direction can help everyone bring their best to work.??

Self-care: Turn thoughts into action

Although the idea of self-care has become mainstream in recent years, it has stretched beyond its most intentional definition. In its truest form, self-care is about using your self-knowledge to take action that keeps you happy and healthy.?

Caring for yourself takes many forms, and what it looks like for you can change from day to day. You may need to set boundaries on your time, ask for help, forgive yourself for making a mistake, or spend time enjoying your hobbies. Without thinking about it, you practice self-care just by sleeping well, drinking water, and fueling yourself with good food.

But the pressures of work can often hinder leaders’ ability to put themselves first. As morning routines and mealtimes take a back seat to urgent demands, you may be building up a deficit of the care you need to keep performing your best.?

Your employees struggle with it too, and your example can help them feel more secure about taking the breaks they need. Globally, 20 percent of employees say that their confidence in taking time off depends on their boss’s mood1. So when you take PTO, you’re not only caring for yourself, you’re showing the whole team that they can care for themselves, too.

“If we speak about mental health but don’t model it, it’s tough for people to believe it exists in your community.”

• Dena Scott, Director of Adolescent Services at Headspace Health

Taking action to maintain your health and happiness is one of the most important things you can do for yourself — and all the people who depend on you. To deepen your commitment to self-care, consider building it into your schedule for the day, starting with a few of the practices that make the biggest impact on how you feel day-to-day.

Self-direction: Find your focus

Finally, self-direction is where action meets performance. It’s your ability to manage your time, tasks, and energy levels to get things done. Although this may seem surprising in a discussion about mental health, your ability to know your limits and protect them is an essential tool for your well-being.?

In an always-on world, it’s important to know where to draw the line between work and life. 24/7 internet access, constant notifications, and competing priorities can make it difficult to feel like it’s ever okay to unplug. But our capacity for work isn’t infinite, even if the workload is.

It’s up to you to be aware of your limits. And once you’ve hit your limit, it’s up to you to hold healthy boundaries that allow you to rest. When your sense of self-direction is working its best, it’s easier to focus on what’s in front of you and give it your best effort without burning out.

“One popular tool for focus is the ‘parking lot.’ When someone is distracted by a thought or feeling, they can write it down on a piece of paper or digital location and ‘park’ it there to revisit later, then return to the task they’re focused on.”?

• Phoebe Jenkins, Health Coach at Headspace Health

To build up your self-direction, look for ways to minimize distractions. Turn off unnecessary notifications and put your phone out of view. Take note of how long it takes to lose focus so you can learn when to build in mindful breaks during the workday.?

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. Follow along next week as we examine what it means to take action through the lens of self-care and self-direction.

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 a leader’s toolkit for workplace mental health here: https://www.headspace.com/model-what-matters.

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