Dear Friends,
May is Mental Health Awareness Month…
I appreciate how topics of the month bring more attention to important issues.
Personally, I think about mental health every single day. I think about mental health daily because
Ten years ago, I lost my cousin—who was like a sister—to suicide.
Through that experience, I’ve come to realize that mental health, just like physical health is a broad continuum from deep illness to thriving. Since then, I’ve been committed to the cause of ending the stigma associated with mental illness. While we may not all struggle directly with mental illness, we all need to pay attention to mental health, both in ourselves and those around us.
I also think about mental health daily because it relates to my profession: leadership development.
While mental health may never be mentioned in a leader’s job description or performance goals, it is in fact a crucial contributor to leadership success or failure. Just as parents in an airplane need to put on their own oxygen masks before they can effectively help their children, leaders in organizations need to ensure their own wellbeing before they can effectively lead others.
One leader that I recently coached provides a good example. This executive (I’ll call him “Dan”) had received some tough feedback. Dan’s colleagues complained that he was over involved in his employees’ work, to the point of micromanaging; he changed direction and priorities far too often; and he came across as impatient, moving too quickly to hear and understand other people’s perspectives. They had clear ideas of what Dan could be doing differently, and some of our coaching focused on those practical skills, including effective delegation, work management, and listening. And much of our work focused instead on being - attending to Dan’s mental health.
Before he could consistently change his behavior, Dan needed to shift his internal state, from agitated and reactive to centered and grounded.
He needed the presence of mind to tolerate uncertainty and to pause before speaking or jumping into action. His habitual ways of working—including late nights at the office at the expense of family and restorative personal time—were getting in the way. Only by consciously and persistently attending to his mental health, through critical lifestyle shifts, was Dan able to gradually step back and lead more skillfully. The result: improved wellbeing and fulfillment, better relationships, AND greater work effectiveness.
Dan is not alone. Many of my coaching clients and other leaders I work with face similar challenges. So, during this Mental Health Awareness Month, one of my goals is to help spread awareness of the how mental health affects all of us.
I’d love to hear your own experiences surrounding this issue. Are there ways that you’ve seen a focus on mental health and wellbeing contribute to more effective, sustainable leadership? Or have you observed the opposite—a neglect of mental health contributing to ongoing leadership challenges that impact a team and/or organization? What do you do, personally, to help maintain your own mental health as a leader? And what can we do to prioritize mental health all around us?
Take care of yourselves and each other –
Lori
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