Your how-to: Promoting mental health as a key leadership competency
Promoting mental health as a key leadership competency involves prioritising and incorporating mental wellbeing into the essential skills that define successful performance at the leadership level. It centres around the concept that leaders within your organisation have a foundational role in shaping and influencing the mental health environment of their teams. This competency fosters resilience, supports workers who may be experiencing mental health issues, and works towards reducing the stigma associated with these challenges.
In the Australian context, according to the Safe Work Australia guidelines, employers have a duty of care to ensure both the physical and mental health of their employees, which underpins the importance of making mental health an integral part of leadership competencies.
This approach goes beyond the traditional aspects of leadership skills, incorporating awareness and understanding of mental health, effective communication around sensitive mental health topics, and implementing strategies that contribute to a psychologically safe and supportive workplace.
It requires instigating systemic change and equipping leaders with the knowledge, skills, and resources to champion mentally healthy best practices in the workplace – linked to tangible outcomes such as improved employee wellbeing, productivity, morale, and business performance. In essence, mental health becomes a defining aspect of leadership, a form of corporate social responsibility, business ethics, and ensures organisational resilience in the face of challenges.
Step by step instructions
Understanding and Implementation: First, invest time in comprehensively understanding the significance of mental health in the workplace and how it impacts overall organisation performance. Read thoroughly about the benefits of a mentally healthy workplace and understand the legal requirements you have as an Australian employer according to the Safe Work Australia guidelines.
Training and Development: Provide rigorous training to your leaders to ensure they have a deep understanding of mental health issues. This training could be in the form of workshops, webinars, or hands-on training drills. They should be taught to communicate effectively on sensitive mental health topics, identify warning signs of mental health issues in their teams, and implement supportive responses.
Cultivate a Supportive Work Environment: Encourage leaders to foster an open, non-judgemental atmosphere where employees feel comfortable discussing mental health concerns. This supportive culture can be cultivated by normalising conversations about mental health and openly recognising the importance of mental well-being in the workplace.
Measure Outcomes: Set benchmarks to measure the effectiveness of this initiative by collecting data on employee satisfaction, productivity, turnover, and sick leave. Conduct regular feedback sessions and surveys to learn about the perceived impact of these changes.
Select a Leadership Team: Identify a core group of existing leaders within your company who are passionate about mental health or have lived experiences. These individuals will integrate mental health practices into their leadership styles and actively promote their importance.
Policy Development and Review: Develop a comprehensive mental health policy and make it an integral part of your company’s code of conduct. This policy should clearly define expectations around mental health and provide guidelines on respectful and supportive behaviour towards coworkers dealing with mental health issues. It might be beneficial to get expert advice from a mental health professional to ensure it reflects best practice.
Adaptive Leadership: Equip leaders with the skills to adapt to changes without negatively impacting the mental wellbeing of their teams. Adaptive leaders elicit genuine empathy, compassion, and resilience, thus further strengthening the mental health culture within your company.
Continuous Improvement: Are the changes making a positive difference? What areas need more work? What new approaches could be adopted? Continuously reassess these questions, improve the policies, review training modules and adapt them to the needs of the staff.
Use this template to implement
To ensure you can execute seamlessly, download the implementation template.
Pitfalls to avoid
While focusing on mental health as a leadership competency, do not neglect other competencies like strategic planning, decision-making, conflict management and team-building. Striking a balance between various competencies is essential for comprehensive leadership development.
Employees might hesitate to discuss their mental health issues for fear of it affecting their career progression. Ensure strict confidentiality and create trust within the organisation, so employees feel safe discussing their mental health concerns.
Leaders need proper training to understand mental health and offer appropriate support. They need to recognise signs of mental health struggles, understand their role in supporting employees, and know the resources available. Lack of sufficient training could lead to mismanagement of mental health issues.
Despite social progress, mental health stigma still exists within the workplace. To counter this, organisations should prioritise awareness and education initiatives and reinforce that seeking help or discussing mental health is not a sign of weakness, but strength.
In Australia, mental health policies and practices in the workplace must adhere to Work Health and Safety Act 2011. Non-compliance risks not only penalties but also reputational damage. Regularly review your policies to ensure they align with any legislative updates.
Remember that everyone's mental health journey is unique — a one-size-fits-all approach will not work. Leaders should have the ability to understand and adapt their approach to the individual needs of their team members.