Leadership and the Impact On Your Team’s Mental Health
A new study published by the Workforce Institute at UKG which included 3400 employees across 10 countries concluded that a person’s manager has the greatest impact on an employee’s mental health (69%), on par with one’s spouse and significantly higher than one’s doctor (51%) and one’s therapist (41%). For most of the respondents, they cited job stress as it relates to their boss as the greatest contributor. In fact, according to the study, 43% of employees report they are exhausted, and 78% say stress negatively impacts their work performance. Other aspects of life are also affected as 71% say stress at work negatively impacts their home life, 64% say it detracts from their wellbeing and 62% say it degrades their relationships.
When I read this study, it made me think and reflect on my own leadership style. Sure, there were definitely some dark days when my own pressure and expectations would carry into the conversations I would have with team members. Never being one to mask my emotions very well, I’m sure anyone who walked into my office could tell when I was having a bad day, when we lost a big forecasted deal, or could sense when we were falling behind in our quarterly goals. But I always believed it was a leader’s job to shield the team from the “noise” and keep them focused on the big, newsworthy items. The minutia was for me to worry about; after all, that’s why “I got paid the big bucks”.
It didn’t help the team to get them mired in my crap nor share in my drama. Sometimes, with those who are highly sensitive or in-tuned to my emotions, they would ask or probe, to see if they could help. They would see if there was anything they could do to lighten the load or take anything off my plate so I could focus on the “bigger rocks”. You have no idea how much that meant to me. Just the very thought that someone might be in the boat with you, to grab an oar to carry some of the burden, whether they were able to help or not, was an emotional lift. Truth was, in a sales organization, I needed them to focus on selling and closing business. Any distraction from that was a disservice to the team and company.
There is a big difference between management and leadership. Chip and I talked about it at great length this weekend. Differentiating between the two is the difference between a successful organization and a dying one. With the example study above, a great leader would never let that happen. A great leader, like my wife, Kim, would never have allowed either the health of the organization nor the individual to get so far out of line. She knew that larger the organization, the more critical the communication and transparency, at both the aggregate and individual levels. She went out of her way to keep tabs on everyone on her team, no matter how time consuming it was, especially during the busiest and most stressful times. Years later, I would hear from her employees about how much they appreciated her compassion and concern for their well-being, the fact that she remembered their kid’s names, celebrated birthdays, and genuinely cared when they were going through some personal challenges.
And there is definitely a trickle down effect, too. It’s not lost on me that these stress numbers from individual contributors are probably even higher on managers. That’s because pressure only increases the higher you rise.
Suggestions:
Take a short walk once or twice during the day with a friend. Do not take your phone. Talk about anything other than work.
Instead of eating lunch at your desk, be social and go out with a friend, at least once a week. No phones!
Set up a regular 1:1 with your boss to discuss everything on your plate and provide progress. Remove the mystery on your performance. Better to know how you’re doing vs. wondering how he/she thinks you’re doing. With all the remote work over the last 3 years, time to start building a personal relationship.
Document your accomplishments regularly. Even if you don’t feel like you have to, your accomplishments document will now be updated for your annual performance evaluation and you won’t have to try to remember what it was you actually did all year.
Seek out a mentor for career development advice. Make sure it’s someone who can be honest, unbiased and who has nothing to gain. It should not be someone within your current organization. I had 4 great mentors during my career that I leaned on over the years. I owe them all a debt of gratitude. Their contributions to my career development were at different stages, and they served different purposes at different times, but each of them offered their time and gave me sage advice.
Exercise and eat better. I wish I had done a better job of this when I was still working. Sound body, sound mind.
