Today is #worldmentalhealthday2020. Mental health is a complex animal, not to be understimated. It consists of chemical, cognitive, physical and experiential components and so I'm not looking to simplify it here. What I will share however, is the importance of positivity and mental wellbeing in the workplace. Without doubt health and safety of individuals is of primary importance, but we underestimate the impact that wellness has on business performance. The World Health Organisation quotes $1tn each year as being the cost to the global economy, whilst the Mental Health Foundation in the UK suggests that companies are losing out on 12% productivity by failing to tackle this issue head on.
It starts with leadership. Healthy minds mean a healthy business. Healthy minds seek opportunity, new leads, fresh ideas, productivity gains and better ways of working. If you are embarking on the recovery and turnaround for your business, then look no further. One of the singlemost powerful enablers of business turnaround and transformation in my experience is leading with hearts and minds; building trust and respect. Creating that belief, confidence and positivity in people - ultimately everyone realising that anything can be achieved.
I have been a part of some quite thrilling turnarounds, each with people at the epicentre, the heartbeat, unleashing some incredible talent to achieve things that had been previously thought impossible. I remember one CTO telling me "my god we did some amazing stuff there and do you know what, we had a great time doing it!". But this isn't all just 'happy clappy tubthumping'. There is science and evidence that this is fundamental cog in the turnaround playbook. This coupled with eloquent strategy and inspiring leadership.
An A-Z of transformational hearts and minds leadership
A - Authenticity in your story-telling so that people can believe in the journey. Clear, crisp, understandable communications are vital. People want to be able to see, feel, hear and touch the message and so it will be repeated, become part of the company folklore and common, everyday language.
B - Being Brave. Remove the fear of failure and tell staff that it's OK to have a go; stick their heads above the parapet. People become creative, get ideas and act on them more quickly. I've had people achieve some hugely agile gains by embracing a 'have a go' attitude. You can build safety nets around them to mitigate risk and agree an acceptable impact.
B - Building Belief. I know another 'B'! Anything can be achieved with hearts and minds. Create self-belief in people that they can achieve anything. Remove boundaries to really unleash gems in the organisation. Belief builds pride and pride breeds self-esteem and reinforces belief in the mission of the business .
C - Confidence and Capability. It's important to build confidence in people. To empower them. To build their self awareness in their potential and capability. To allow them to fly, develop, learn new skills and grow further. Equally it's important not to raise anxiety by throwing someone in at the deep end without a life line. You need to be the responsible parent and check in whether they are swimming or whether they need a life jacket. If someone really is out of their depth it can be damaging to them.
D - Being Deliberate in executing your strategy. Staff gain confidence and belief if they can visibly see and understand the golden threads of deliberate action matching the strategy that they have been shown. Accidental action or reactionary behaviour can have the opposite effect and people lose belief.
E - Energy. Energy breeds energy. As a leader you need to set the drumbeat, the atmosphere and the tempo. Building a culture with a belief and a buzz about it improves the feel good factor, the will to win, creativity and productivity.
F - Flexibility. Lives are becoming more complex and the interaction between home and work more fluid. A little give here and there reaps huge rewards in discretionary effort and productivity. Staff really fight for the cause if you have been flexible and supported them. They will have your back.
G - Setting up Governance and structure to detect unhealthy culture is important. I remember speaking with one chair who had a great culture around the board, but whose culture was appalling further down the organisation, muddied by mistranslation of middle management. There needs to be multiple detectors. This isn't just asking HR. It can be reps, agents, shadow boards or other mechanisms.
H - Humour and being Human - not taking yourself too seriously allowing humour to be OK. Humour and self deprecation helps people relate and shows we are human. It's a great ice-breaker, stress release and stimulates creativity
I - People follow Inspiring leaders who have Integrity. They aspire to be that person. If your style resonates, people will want to be you, believe in you or please you. They'll go the extra mile.
J - Removing Judgement. Make it OK for individuals to be themselves and not need to conform, putting on their 'workface' and using the language of 'workspeak'.
K - Kind. This is not being soft and fluffy by any means. It's being professional, mutually respectful, embracing constructive challenge, understanding each others buttons and collectively working towards success. I think my mother would say it's just being a decent human being.
L - Looking forward to. Mental health struggles when there is nothing to look forward to. It's helpless. The problems of today will be there tomorrow. People see no change or way out. On an individual basis and collective, paint a clear picture of what everyone has to look forward to as the business moves through change. What it means to them.
M - Mojo. Help staff to absorb the organic and genetic identity; 'the mojo' of the business. On an individual level, has anyone lost their mojo? Why have they lost it? Can you help them get it back?
N - Giving people the permission to say 'No'. If someone has too much on for a sustained period, they burnout, become unproductive and can be a danger to the business. No one has limitless capacity.
O - Openness. Encourage honesty amongst the group. Create safe places to share what's on their mind. Some will like it in groups, some on a one to one basis. Reduce anxiety and create safety.
P - Principles. Sometimes policies and rules can be too rigid, making the situation much worse. In unhealthy atmospheres, jobsworths will sit behind the rules, rather than using core values, common sense and principles to do the right thing. Make sure it feels right and have the right outcome in mind. If the rules need challenging, so be it.
Q - Quorate. You'll never have everyone onside, all of the time. Especially in turnaround. In the first 6 months you may get 33% on board, after 12 months 66% on board. It's the direction of travel and momentum that's important
R - Relationship building. Knock down those silos. Get people having conversations and knowledge sharing. Progression is often from those unintended conversations and verbal explorations whilst we are at the coffee machine. We are better informed, more productive, more effective and more efficient.
S - Setting the conditions for Success. Change can be unnerving. People will need support to help them comprehend and navigate what's going on and what's going to happen. How does this impact me?
T - Trust. Building trust in the leadership team, amongst the leadership team and between the staff. These are important social contracts that we mentally sign to say that we are in this together and we have each others back.
U - Unique. Understand that everyone is unique and has different motivations. How do I enable you to be the best that you can be? How do we help you be the best you? It's never a one size fits all.
V - Vision. A common issue that creates dismay and confusion is the lack of vision being articulated. You need to test with staff that they can see it and feel it. Not merely that you've e-mailed it out or relayed it on a conference call. Did people really get it? Can they really see it playing out here?
W - Walk the talk and truly live your values. Staff switch off if you release a set of values and then do completely the opposite. Make it clear that you are walking the talk, emphasise and celebrate living these values.
X - X-ray. Mental health can be an invisible disability. You can x-ray a leg and see that it's broken. You can't always see visibly a broken mind. Research further into detection protocols to spot signs and triggers. Educate managers and colleagues how to spot the signs.
Y - The 5 Y's. A technique for problem solving; asking "why" 5-times to get to the root cause of an issue. Give people the tools and confidence they need to resolve problems themselves. There are 100's of helpful methodologies. Lean, six sigma, systematic inventive thinking, et al. Share them with your staff and tool them up.
Z - Zebra. Couldn't think of a 'Z', but you had two 'B''s, so we're good.
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