Time to Talk About Mental Health

“It’s not stress that kills us; it is our reaction to it.” – Hans Selye, pioneering endocrinologist

I’ve just returned from speaking , last month, at the sold-out Growth Faculty’s annual National Growth Summit, in Australia, with Patrick Lencioni and Whitney Johnson. What a thrill to be there! The audiences in Sydney and Melbourne were awesome, and the experience reminded me of how much I love to speak to big audiences, and to share the unique insights I’ve learned from others, over the years.

Whenever I share my experiences working with different leaders who give their best to grow their companies, and the mental health issues I’ve witnessed, it’s both a wake-up call and a relief for people in the room. A wake-up call for those who are experiencing issues, and a relief to learn it’s a normal part of the high performers’ game.

Over the last year-and-a-half since I wrote Your Oxygen Mask First, I’ve been amazed at how many of the highest performers have shared their challenges with me – about periods when it got very weird inside their brains, and what it took to get back on their feet again.

I consistently get feedback that naming mental health challenges destigmatizes them – and then talking about them, even more. It’s important to keep talking.

The Challenge

• How can you further destigmatize the normal challenges that we all have, when the stress becomes too much?