Many of today’s leaders understand that improving their employees’ mental health is good both for their people’s well-being and their business. Unfortunately, while they get the importance of mental health rights, all too often they get the definition of mental health wrong.


Traditionally, mental health has been defined by what it’s not. If you’re not mentally ill, you must be mentally healthy. But mental health means much more than living without pain or disability. It is also about building strength and improving your well-being.


Leaders should view mental health through the same lens, starting with a new definition of mental health that incorporates the idea that people can be more or less mentally fit. Proactive action to increase mental health not only helps us weather storms like the current pandemic better, but it also enables us to perform better at work. Mental health is just another muscle we can strengthen with effort.


Once you look at mental fitness through that lens, the next question that emerges is: How can leaders help their teams build mental fitness? Decades of science suggests a handful of simple interventions can have a real impact.

 

• Foster shared meaning and purpose
   

Many people think burnout is about overwork, but we know from the scientific literature that’s not entirely true. One of the biggest drivers of burnout isn’t having too much to do, but rather not knowing why you do what you do. Giving employees clarity on their role and how their specific work contributes to your overall business strategy and goals can help protect against burnout.


One of the best things leaders can do to build the mental fitness of their teams is to make sure that managers are communicating the reasoning behind decisions.

 

• Encourage inner work
   

A key part of any manager’s job is defining, delegating, and ensuring their teams get work done. That is not the same as making sure employees are working all the time. Neuroscience tells us that people are more creative and effective when they build “whitespace” into their days for reflection and rejuvenation.


Help your people understand that part of their jobs as knowledge workers is to take time to work on themselves, and you will build their mental fitness. Actions like giving people space between meetings and encouraging mindfulness and contemplation can have a significant impact on performance.

 

• Create a flow-friendly environment
   

Decades ago psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi discovered that one of the best ways to improve someone's mental fitness and performance is to help facilitate the creation and maintenance of flow states. This feeling of being so fully engrossed in whatever you’re doing that time seems to stand still is deeply satisfying and incredibly productive. Yet many modern workplaces are actively hostile to the experience of deep, pleasurable concentration.


Constant meetings and interruptions disrupt the flow. Protecting your people from the need to constantly context switch promotes it. Leaders interested in building mental fitness in their teams should therefore constantly ask themselves: Am I increasing the propensity of my people to slip into flow states or not? How can I design a work environment that facilitates flow? The prevalence of remote work offers leaders a chance to craft new routines and procedures that promote focus. Seize that opportunity to consciously design opportunities for flow into your workplace.


The prevalence of remote work offers leaders a chance to craft new routines and procedures that promote focus. Seize that opportunity to consciously design opportunities for flow into your workplace.

 

• Build a meaningful social connection
   

Leaders can help reduce social isolation and build mental fitness by thinking of the workplace as an opportunity to construct community. Meaningful interventions need not be complicated. Managers can simply start meetings with brief check-ins where participants share whatever state of mind they’re bringing into the office with them.


This simple grounding practice builds social support and camaraderie and only takes a few minutes. If you do it once a day, people feel more connected, more loyal, and more satisfied with their work, boosting mental fitness and its performance.

 

• Coaching
   

If you want to get more physically fit, you can go to the gym and work out by yourself. That’s a perfectly reasonable and healthy thing to do. But working with a personal trainer will get you to your goals faster. The same is true for mental fitness. Coaching is the fastest way to build mental strength and resilience.


Leaders should consider following suit and arming employees with similar strength-based interventions through coaching.


Simple interventions like these really can make a difference for a happier, healthier, and more productive workforce. The choice isn’t between illness and basic functioning. With a proactive effort to build mental fitness, we can thrive, during the pandemic and beyond.


Source: Entrepreneur