Enthusiasm, communication skills, integrity, loyalty, decisiveness, and empowerment: are the qualities that every successful leader requires. Books on leadership in the management section of most UK bookstores acknowledge these qualities; however, they rarely teach leaders how to juggle their mental health and that of their employees.
30% of the UK population live with mental health issues, so naturally, you will encounter them in the workplace sometime during your leadership career. More shockingly, a large percentage go untreated.
One of the main aspects of your leadership role is promoting a work environment that supports emotional/mental well-being – but how do leaders achieve this? To help, we’ve created this article outlining how leaders can look after their mental health (and their employees!), from outsourcing tasks to digital consultancies to keeping lines of communication open.
Keep Communication Lines Open
In our modern business world, where more and more people are becoming open about their mental health struggles, it is essential to show that your door is always open if an employee ever needs to talk about them. You can encourage this by offering one-to-one virtual sessions, checking in on your team frequently, hosting team meetings, etc.
However, ensure you don’t bombard them with opportunities to talk, as some people aren’t as open to socializing as others. Ultimately, they will make the first move if they want to discuss their issues with you. So, as pure as your intentions might be, give your employees some space and rest assured that they will approach you when ready.
Relieve Workloads By Outsourcing
As a leader, you will wear many hats; over time, the weight of all these responsibilities can soon cause strain which is why relieving your workload as and where you can is essential. Some of the most effective ways to alleviate your workload (or other people’s) are effective time management, delegating tasks to others, learning to say ‘no’, and understanding how locum tenens work for surgeons when you need temporary staffing solutions in healthcare for outsourcing.
The latter is fast becoming one of the best ways to achieve a lighter workload since just about any aspect of working life can be outsourced, creating more time, focus, and money for your company. For instance, suppose that you do all your marketing in-house; you could consider enlisting the services of a digital consultancy like Medico Digital to do this on your behalf.
From video marketing and search engine optimization to website design and email marketing, digital consultancies can help healthcare businesses offload various tasks, which can help reduce mental health issues from developing. Consider learning more by visiting their website and seeing how their services could help your and your employees’ well-being today.
Don’t Hold Yourself (Or Others) To Unrealistic Standards
Sometimes you must hold yourself and your team to specific standards to ensure quality control. However, there is no reason why you can’t modify them slightly when team members (or yourself) are exhibiting signs of stress or other mental health issues. For instance, if your team is already struggling with their workload, they probably won’t be overjoyed if you shove more work on them.
Instead, listen to your employees when needed, and if one of them voices that they’re struggling, you can explore different methods that might make it easier for them to manage their workload. From lowering performance expectations for a specific time to helping them discover ways to manage their time, you can make standards more realistic in various ways.