Odds Are Your Team is Struggling and Not Telling You

One of the great­est things about the high per­form­ers we have the plea­sure to work with is that when the going gets tough, they get going to find solu­tions and to cap­i­tal­ize on oppor­tu­ni­ties — even when they aren’t feel­ing well or are tired. They almost always find a way to rise up and deliver.

That’s one of the rea­sons they are appre­ci­at­ed so much.

But the down­side of that high-per­for­mance men­tal­i­ty is that when it gets real­ly, real­ly, real­ly tough ‑and it will, soon­er or lat­er – it’s hard­er to admit when they need help. Like dur­ing this time of COVID-19 when we are see­ing record num­bers of peo­ple who are stressed and strained, and not rais­ing their hands to talk about it.

This arti­cle in Forbes mag­a­zine about a study on the men­tal health toll of the pan­dem­ic says it all: more than half of the 1000 respon­dents said they are afraid to tell their boss­es or to ask for extra help or some time off when they need it.

At the root of all of it is a fear of reper­cus­sions and of look­ing weak or inca­pable. The not-so-fun­ny thing is even though a huge por­tion of peo­ple in North Amer­i­ca are think­ing and feel­ing the same thing, they feel alone when they have dif­fi­cul­ty coping.

That’s no sur­prise when the cul­ture of many high-per­form­ing com­pa­nies is based on the attri­bu­tions of high per­form­ers who find a way to get things done. In a recent pod­cast, we talked about how even in the com­pa­nies that real­ly care for their employ­ees – and despite poli­cies like flex days, and time off to attend their kids’ sports days — it can be dif­fi­cult to say, ​“I need a break”.

If Your Team is Strug­gling Make it Easy to Ask for Help

The best thing you can do — as a man­ag­er and a leader, know­ing there’s a good chance many peo­ple on your team need a break — is to put the con­ver­sa­tion on the table, and to share and talk about the Men­tal Health Con­tin­u­um Model.

Image Source: BC Emer­gency Health Services

This is one of the tools we use when we teach com­pa­nies about men­tal health issues and their effect on indi­vid­u­als, the cul­ture and bot­tom line. We also talk about build­ing resilience (Chap­ter 3, Dou­ble Your Resilience, Your Oxy­gen Mask First), and share exam­ples of our own and oth­ers’ experiences.

Be open with your own expe­ri­ences to de-stig­ma­tize men­tal health issues in your com­pa­ny. We all get burned out and there are strate­gies to get back.

It’s impor­tant to nor­mal­ize that stress can be more than we can han­dle, and the longer we delay get­ting help and sup­port, the worse it gets. Make sure the peo­ple on your team gets the sup­port they need – includ­ing time off or help from coun­sel­lor or psy­chol­o­gist, if they are in the orange or red zone.

The ulti­mate chal­lenge to all of us, as lead­ers, is to be the per­son peo­ple can come to ear­ly, so that they can con­tin­ue to be healthy and productive.

As I recent­ly shared with a CEO who I encour­aged to take time off to reju­ve­nate, if we were a plant denied the water, sun­shine and fer­til­iz­er need­ed to thrive, we’d be a wilt­ed ver­sion of best selves.

The Chal­lenge

• Check in with your peo­ple to under­stand where they are now, and to make sure they have what they need.
• For your­self, take a look at the Men­tal Health Con­tin­u­um mod­el, self-assess and fig­ure out what you need to be at your best.
• If some­one on your team is stuck make sure they get the right pro­fes­sion­al help.

If you’d like some­one on our team to come and teach some of the prin­ci­ples of men­tal health, let us know.