Happiness and mental health really matter!
Since I read the book, Permission to Feel: Unlocking the Power of Emotions to Help Our Children, Ourselves, and Our Society Thrive by Dr. Mark Brackett, director of the Yale Emotional Intelligence Research Center, I’m asking harder questions: Why are mental health and emotional well-being, and therefore happiness, in decline?
Here are my thoughts also supported by a short evaluation process within your management team – worth thinking about in 2024 – after all #happiness matters and it is the foundation of your organization’s happiness, growth and prosperity.
Why is our world so stressed compared to when I was growing up?
There have always been global wars and conflicts, the 1960s saw the Korean and Vietnam wars, the war in the Horn of Africa (Somalia and Ethiopia), the Iran-Iraq war, the war between Ukraine and Russia and the recent war between Israel and Hamas (Gaza).
There have always been problems with climate change struggling with our world, although more recently we are experiencing increasing intensity of wildfires, a decline in ice caps and more and more species are becoming extinct, so no one can put back into question question that Mother Earth needs more protection.
We have always had noble, stately politicianslike Winston Churchill (UK), Barack Obama (US), Angela Merkel (Germany), come to the top of people’s minds, but lately we seem to have more dramatic politicians, like Donald Trump (US) or Boris Johnson (UK) – and of course a series of leaders in Russia and Iran who are anti-democracy and pro-equal rights, our world definitely feels more politically polarized between East and West , which is very worrying on a geopolitical level.
What is different in my world and what our children take as normal is mainly the large-scale technological innovations that are omnipresent.such as television, cell phone (iPhone), personal computer (I love my Apple Mac), Internet, social networks (Facebook, Instagram Linkedin), ChatGPT4, electric cars (Tesla), rockets that take citizens on the moon, AI. which underpins all economic models, and of course gluten-free foods, etc. We’ve always had pizza, although now we enjoy thin crust pizza more.
There are even more alarming things: anxiety + depression + suicide = > medical health claims, > cybersecurity risks = ransomware attacks, > divorce rates = more family complexities, > junk food = > diabetes and children, adolescents and overweight adults, etc., > inflation => cost of living, > robots/cobots=< jobs, ChatGPT =< jobs in very repetitive roles/tasks.
As a result of our changing world, we find ourselves in a place where humans are increasingly exhausted and show up to work sad or angry. As I have written repeatedly in several of my Forbes articles, 20-30% of employees wake up sad or angry every day.
The time available for play at work is limited as companies continue to eliminate functions that can be automated or outsourced.
Yet we know that as leaders we need our people to be empowered and show up to work happy to be more productive and we must strive to keep our organizations on a healthy, positive growth trajectory (this i.e. upwards). This is not an easy task, as our leaders are always stressed and many are operating on the brink of burnout.
If you’ve spoken to a CEO over a quiet cup of coffee recently, you know it’s not an easy role.
To help leaders think about the importance of mental health and wellbeing and invest in more employee engagement support systems, I developed a short assessment survey to help leaders reflect and take stock of where their organizations are on their mental health and wellbeing journey. The end goal is to help them develop a sharper view of outdated operational practices, with a clear focus on increasing employee happiness.
From difficult annual employee surveys, which are too late to be useful and whose data is often 50% unreliable, we really need to modernize our methods of employee engagement in HR, because the happiness indicator is not not in the right direction.
Ladder: 1-7 1 – No evidence – 7 – Very sturdy and solid
- Why: the case for action – Have you developed a strong action case or business case with clear validation/relevant facts gathered on why mental health and happiness are important to your organization? Do you understand the root causes of employee dissatisfaction and what steps are you taking to improve employee engagement and retention?
- What: Integrated context: Have you identified a holistic model with integrated mental health/well-being dimensions/pillars to guide your employee experience maturity (i.e.: reflection, refresh, integration)?
- How: Role Model – How equipped are your leaders to lead by example, deliver authentically desired mental health and wellness outcomes, and be effective coaches?
- How: HR practices – To what extent do you design and implement HR programs and practices to attract, develop and retain employees based on a measurable set of mental health and well-being key performance indicators?
- How: Cultural sustainability – How has your company culture developed to demonstrate your authentic support for mental health, wellbeing and safety?
In my mind, there is nothing more important than knowing that when your employees wake up in the morning, that they feel motivated to tackle the challenges of the day, that they feel empowered and know that you truly care about their unique voice.
Protecting your employee voice anonymously is essential to building trust, but also if employees want to be known for their voice, giving them the opportunity to openly share what they think is a path to building a culture more resilient who has a strong sense of the company’s purpose.
Remarks: Check out the most recent article written by Dr. Cindy Gordon in her #HappinessMatters series below, with more facts and references to innovations that can propel your organization forward.