As a leader, when we celebrate others’ success by recognizing their wins frequently, expressing our appreciation, and acknowledging all the things someone does, the person feels valued. The few words showing authentic praise can then sustain their enthusiasm and contribution.

As a leader, when we celebrate success, we reactivate our success patterns. It helps us express self-appreciation, and clarify and highlight our value and relevance. It keeps us passionate about continuous growth and exceeding our previous accomplishments.

Celebrate successes every day – for ourselves as a leader and for the people around us, including our work teams.

In psychology, negative bias overestimates threats and underestimates our ability to manage them, causing precursor and companion of burnout.

Research has shown it takes at least five positive reinforcements for every negative one. Positive reinforcements build up our inner reservoir to counter setbacks as well as strengthen our relationship muscles.

As we deepen the grooves in our brain that store positive experiences, our automatic reaction to stimuli becomes more life-affirming than inadequacy or survival-based stimuli. These experiences help produce feel-good hormones like norepinephrine, dopamine, and oxytocin. These neurotransmitters contribute to our mental health and resilience and; therefore increase our productivity and motivation. So it is essential to give clear and authentic feedback to ourselves and others that highlight our strengths, talents, skills, willingness, and work ethics.

A positive foundation of self-awareness and awareness of others builds all of our sense of well-being. For example, people are more motivated and excited about work if they feel good about what they are doing and positive. Conversely, as high as 79% of people quit their jobs due to lack of appreciation, according to O.C. Tanner.

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more in life to celebrate.

Oprah Winfrey

NEW HABIT: CALM THE JUDGMENTAL VOICE

Most of us have an inner judgmental voice that is oppressive, degrading, burdensome, and taxes our emotional and mental energy. Working each day with a barrage of negativity brought by the judgmental voice causes internal stress, ultimately costing us our creativity and productivity. It also limits our hope and stops us from successfully pursuing our dreams.
Critical inner voices often copy childhood trauma dialogue. The brain continues working, but its growth rate slows right down, creating a vulnerability to anxiety, and depression, and less resilience to stress.

We understand that the judgmental voice is a habit. It’s a habit that is detrimental to our health, including our physical health. It hijacks our logical and positive thought processes, thereby suffocating our emotional well-being. This habit is no different than any other unhealthy habit. As habits are, they can be broken!

Once we can stop the judgmental voice – and break the habit – we have the potential to see, focus on, and grow what’s positive inside of us and in our lives. If we are doing something wrong, it allows us to observe the error and move on. Instead of having the negative/judgmental voice continue to punish us. At this point, we are free to successfully!

As a leader, we must have tools to help people break through their inner judgment and focus on building positive will that ensures that the negative voice will not weigh them down destroy their morale, and derail their productivity. Instead, they can replace their negative self-image with a clean canvas to paint their new aspirations, and hopes and follow positive guidance for their projects and life.

Once they are on the track to focus on the positive, their life will change for the better because they will be able to choose to follow different inner guidance and adjust their negative behaviors.

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By Bonny Llyn, M.A.

While taking care of one’s mental health often seems like a deeply personal thing, the emotional and mental well-being of your employees plays a larger role in your business than you might expect. According to Exude, one in every five US adults will struggle with their mental health in the workplace. Happy and well-balanced employees tend to be:

• More intrinsically motivated
•  More productive, resilient, flexible, and strategic in the face of obstacles
•  More satisfied with their work environment and more likely to stay with current jobs

So, how can you ensure that your employees know that you genuinely care about their emotional well-being? The first step is learning how to identify the employees who might need your support. This article will highlight both the 5 common signs of employee mental health challenges and the 5 solutions managers can provide today.

1. Absence
Persistently being late or missing work and/or work functions could be a sign that there is something more to the situation. They could be struggling with severe stress, anxiety, or even an undiagnosed mental condition.

2. Burnout or Fatigue
Burnout is a serious and urgent condition that a good night’s rest simply won’t fix. Employees who are burnt out need empathetic and sincere support to help them get back on track. The signs of burnout include extreme fatigue, lowered engagement, self-doubt, indecisiveness and negativity towards a job that was once a source of pride.

3. Change of Behavior
Is the once bubbly, positive employee suddenly distant or moody throughout the day? Sudden changes in behavior, for no apparent reason, could be a sign that that person is struggling to manage their mental health or going through something that is draining their energy and throwing them off balance.

4. Disengaged or Distracted
If an employee seems disengaged or has been struggling to organize, focus on, or follow through with tasks they used to excel at, then it could be a sign that they’re distracted by something their colleagues might not know about. Employees who struggle to focus or seem disengaged could also be feeling unmotivated.

5. Emotional Instability
Being emotionally invested in one’s career is a good thing! However, emotional outbursts of anger, sadness, or anxiety are signs of mental health challenges and should be treated with compassion and urgency.

Now that you know how to identify common signs that your employees might be feeling
overwhelmed, stressed, or burnt-out, it’s time to remedy them.
Here Are 5 Solutions To Help Your Employees
Manage Their Mental Health:

1. Authenticity and Transparency
Having an open-door policy is a sure-fire way to encourage your employees to talk to you about issues they might be facing in and outside of the workplace. Be direct about your stand to destigmatize mental health. Be outright transparent that their mental health challenges will not reflect badly on them. What also helps is to defuse workplace politics because they cause significant strain on the mental health of each individual team member.

e.g. In the weekly communications, encourage employees to use their mental health benefits (if available). Starting mental health dialogues demonstrate to your team that you care about them. An OC Tanner research showed 79% of employees that quit claimed that a lack of appreciation was a major reason for leaving. It helps to ensure employees that their challenges in no ways negatively affect their work reviews. Assure them of confidentiality. More support: In my workshops tailored to the organization, I suggest more ways for managers to approach this subject authentically.

2. Breathing
Doing breathing exercises together as a team is a great way to start the day on a balanced note. Getting more oxygen rejuvenates the brain. These exercises help keep your team grounded, connected, increase their resilience to be ready for challenges they might face the rest of their day.

e.g. A 3-minute of “intentional breathing” exercise can be easily integrated into a daily huddle.

More support: In my workshops tailored to the organization, I demonstrate how “intentional breathing” can be a great alternative for meditation or meditation apps.

3. Creativity and Curiosity
A creative workplace is a happy workplace. Being able to incorporate some creativity and curiosity into the individual’s daily tasks helps reduce stress, improve innovation, reduce silo, and strengthen bonds between team members. Even virtual events or parties are good for celebrating worthy achievements or boosting morale after hard week.

e.g. Set up a creativity corner at the lunch room or hold a weekly competition for creative ideas. More support: My workshops offer more original suggestions as well as lead the attendees through brain stimulating exercise(s).

4. Dietary and Nutritional Support
Researches have shown that our gut is our primary brain. Up to 50% of dopamine, the motivational, pleasure and reward-related hormone is produced in the GI tract. The amount and diversity of gut microorganisms or beneficial bacteria are also found to affect brain connection. Prebiotics (asparagus, dandelion green) and probiotics (apple cider vinegar, miso) are helpful in that regard. Supplements like B-Complex and Zinc are found to help anxiety and depression symptoms. Hiring a dietician or nutritional expert who actively updates their knowledge from an extensive information base to help your team navigate the nutritional resources could be one way to a happier workplace.

e.g. Have a monthly “Healthy Snacking Day” with your hybrid team or in-offer team. Make it a party! More support: In my workshops, I share many mental wellness lifestyle tips to help the attendees make the most out of their mind!

5. Emotional Support
Managers and HR department can connect employees to trained specialists who can help with ongoing mental health issues or sudden crisis, and healing untreated trauma – an often overlooked cause of mental health conditions. Encourage your employees to work with competent and compatible therapists available to them. It shows that you not only care about their productivity at work, but also their total health.
e.g. Individuals connect with different therapists and styles of therapy. Very skilled nonlicensed therapists/counselors are professionals that can be very effective. More supports: My workshops are great resources to also learn about other wholeistic/holistic healing support.

Mental Health Matters at Work

Ensuring that employees have the resources and support they need to improve their mental health isn’t optional – it’s essential for employers and managers who want to maintain the productivity, retain their talent and protect their bottom line.

Your employees are the driving force behind your business, and each of them requires your support and encouragement.

Here’s more resources on how to manage and encourage mental health in the workplace and beyond.

Get the 24/7 Mental Wellness Tips for Work and Life from https://BonnyLlyn.com now and start making your mental health a priority

Contact Bonny Llyn about speaking at your next event!

Bonny Llyn, M.A. helps organizations create mental well-being support for their team to ensure increased engagement, resilience and retention. Her audience takeaways from her impactful

keynotes are practical tools of resilience and productivity, and empowerment to thrive under any circumstances, which is her own secret weapon of being successful despite her high functioning depression!

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By Bonny Llyn

Since the Covid-19 Pandemic, between 41% and 75% of U.S. adults (working or not) are experiencing symptoms of mental health conditions, according to the CDC. And while depression has been a hot topic, it is still not well understood. Depression often has more than one cause. Yet, considering the important role work plays in our life, work stress is often a significant cause of our mental health issues. How well we manage stress at work can make a big difference in our overall wellness. It’s very important to understand mental health in the workplace.

Mental Health is Total Health 

Yes, I speak about mental health in the workplace at a variety of organizations from start-ups to mid-sized to large corporations as well as Fortune 500’s. Meanwhile, I also always include the fact that we only have one “health” – our total health. All aspects of health within the integrated health are co-dependent and correlated. From that perspective, mental health is a total health issue. Vice versa, we can’t care for a physical health condition without addressing the mental health cause and effect of that physical condition.

How we can take care of our mental health is part of how we take care of our total heath including our physical health like diet and exercise.

Some workplaces offer exceptional employee benefit packages and wellness plans that encourage a healthy diet and regular exercise. While, what’s commonly known as a “healthy” diet is up for debate (see Article titled/hyperlink to Article Titled “….”), these are good start!

Many workplaces have not yet begun this wellness journey for their employees.

Workplace Stigmas on Mental Health Conditions

While physical health conditions may be visible or widely accepted as a “normal’ experience, mental health conditions have yet to see the light of day in our culture and many cultures in the world. Mental health issues are still largely stigmatized and yet, exactly like physical conditions, they are “normal” human experiences.

In the workplace, the individual’s productivity is directly associated with the organization’s “performance”. Often – while not necessarily accurate, having a mental health condition is looked upon as not being productive. As a result, the employees/team members with mental health conditions are further stigmatized and prejudiced. Having to hide their symptoms is an additional stress.

When an employee has physical injuries such as hurting their back or knees or ankles skiing, and asks for a couple of days off, it’s a no brainer – they get the days off, no questions asked. The reality is, during those days off for their “physical” health issues, they get a break for the invisible mental health injury that’s also part of the experience! We hardly realize that this is the case.

What Can Employers Do to Help Employees’ Mental Wellness

A challenge to mental health in the workplace is stress. Companies have been addressing work stress in recent years. Topics on managing stress at work are freely discussed and yet, not topics on a variety of mental health issues at work. Part of the effort in managing stress at work translates to the enhanced employee benefits like wellness practices for fitness and diet.

Some companies have expanded their Benefit offers to include telemedicine, including mental health support. What they can do next is to encourage or incentivize employees to actually take advantage of these benefits, and on a consistent basis. Another opportunity to expand the Benefit offerings is to include even broader and more detailed lifestyle choices, as well as emotional healing. In addition, personal development work, coupled with professional development courses can go a long way.

Normalizing Mental Health Dialogue

One mental health friendly workplace practice an organization can start today is for the managers to lead the movement of normalizing mental health conversations at work.

Adopting Neutral Languaging

They can also model non-discriminating language. For example replacing terms like “mental illness” with “mental health issues” or “mental health challenges,” and replacing “nuts” or “crazy” as if attacking someone’s mental health state, with “unreasonable”, “difficult”, or  “stubborn” or other factual descriptive words without making a mental health judgement.

Having Transparent Communication

Keeping the employees informed in a timely manner on new policies regarding inclusion, or the Pandemic, or future public health concerns and supportive resources like EAP can go a long way. It communicates trust and caring, which are invaluable in boosting morale in uncertain times.

Summary

Clearly, small steps can go a long way when it comes to making the workplace more friendly for people dealing with moderate and above mental health conditions. It can start with a department based or company wide awareness campaign, organized by HR. It can also start with leadership at any level: teams, divisions, or company wide.

The best time to start creating a better mental health supportive work culture is today.

Contact Bonny Llyn about speaking at your next event!

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