Aug. 28, 2017 "Picking the right mental- health support": Today I found this article by Bill Howatt in the Globe and Mail:
When it comes to determining the causes of stress, understanding the divide between professional and personal challenges is crucial
Leadership can be exciting, especially when the team is working well together, the product or service is being well received by customers and the executive leadership is happy with your results.
And if you find your work meaningful and it gives you a deep sense of purpose, this makes it much more rewarding.
And if you find your work meaningful and it gives you a deep sense of purpose, this makes it much more rewarding.
But getting to the above state and maintaining it can be challenging. It’s not uncommon for leaders to be like their employees; they have good days, bad days and stressful periods that, if not dealt with, can create mental-health challenges. Leaders may engage in unhealthy behaviours such as drinking or overeating to try to feel better.
Human-capital support systems are typically built for the average employee.
This article provides guidance for leaders who are not sure what type of professional support they could benefit from with respect to executive and leadership coaching or mental health support.
I started my early career providing mental-health support and went on to teach others how to become professional counsellors. Then, after an enjoyable golf trip to Hawaii with a two-year pit stop in Chapel Hill, N.C., I landed on Wall Street for more than a decade, where one of my regular roles was providing coaching to leaders, up to the chief-executive level.
Since I had credentials in both coaching and counselling, leaders would come to me for what they said was coaching. However, more than once, I quickly told them that they needed professional counselling, not just coaching.
Setting professional boundaries as a coach is important, so I would refer them to a mental health professional and, if appropriate, support them as a coach to help them with their day-to-day job.
In some cases, I might take on the role of professional counsellor and bring in an executive coach. Whatever role I took, it was important not to mix it with another role.
It’s helpful for leaders to understand what kind or combination of professional help may be of value, based on current interests and needs.
It’s helpful for leaders to understand what kind or combination of professional help may be of value, based on current interests and needs.
Emotions can run high under constant work or life stress and it can be challenging to figure out the root cause of stress.
It’s beneficial to understand that there’s a divide between professional-health and personal-health challenges that will determine the kind of support that makes most sense.
Professional health
A large project isn’t going as planned, results for two quarters are off, the project is over budget, the firm is experiencing increased turnover and a pending promotion may be blocked. This type of challenge, if not addressed, can result in increased risks to job security, personal job satisfaction, title or compensation.
Personal health
There are challenges with a leader’s marriage, they’re not getting along with their oldest child, work stress is compounding and they begin to compensate by drinking a bit more each night – up to four or more drinks a day from two.
The leader notices they’re losing blocks of time, falling down more, ending up in compromising positions and being late and unprepared for meetings. These are signs of risk for mental health issues, including addictions. Common symptoms associated with this profile are sleepless nights and increased periods of anxiety or depression that result in feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what to do.
The leader notices they’re losing blocks of time, falling down more, ending up in compromising positions and being late and unprepared for meetings. These are signs of risk for mental health issues, including addictions. Common symptoms associated with this profile are sleepless nights and increased periods of anxiety or depression that result in feeling overwhelmed and unsure of what to do.
Accountability
You ultimately own your career and mental health. Every top athlete has acknowledged their coach, meaning they proudly admit that their success would not have happened if they hadn’t embraced support.
Leaders who don’t recognize when they could benefit from personal or professional support put themselves, their loved ones and their organization at risk. Asking for support is not a sign of weakness; it’s a sign of humility, strength and responsibility.
In the end, you’re accountable to be at your best, and if you know you’re not, then taking action is smart business.
In the end, you’re accountable to be at your best, and if you know you’re not, then taking action is smart business.
When we’re open to learning and willing to do the work, good things can happen for us and the people around us at home and work.
Avoiding and denying can result in unhappy endings. There are key factors that should be considered.
Avoiding and denying can result in unhappy endings. There are key factors that should be considered.
When you notice something is off or not as you want with your personal life, professional life or both, the following checklist can help you act:
Motivation level: Personal and professional support requires your motivation and willingness to participate.
Coping skills: Picking the right kind of support, which will always be confidential, can help you solve problems and make good decisions to achieve your desired result.
Complete needs assessment: By answering the Q12 quick screen for evaluating your professional support needs, you can get some insight into your needs and interests. A baseline can be helpful to determine next steps.
Mental health first: Coaching is most beneficial when your mental health is where you want it. If you’re unsure and have questions about your mental health, begin with mental-health support.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/careers/leadership-lab/leadership-challenges-picking-the-right-support/article36039699/
Sept. 1, 2017 "Living a healthy life can be the best way to advance along your career path": Today I found this article by Harvey Schachter in the Globe and Mail:
Sept. 1, 2017 "Living a healthy life can be the best way to advance along your career path": Today I found this article by Harvey Schachter in the Globe and Mail:
The pressures at work these days are unrelenting. And they seem to point in one direction if you are trying to advance in your career: putting in more (and more and more) hours on your work.
But consultant Scott Eblin says it’s a trap. More significantly, he argues on his blog that there are people succeeding by taking an opposite tack. They aren’t slackers, but they have boundaries. And they can make it work.
He tells the story of a workshop he led of high potentials, where everyone was lamenting how between their personal and company-issued smartphones, they were always available – expected to be on call and alert for e-mails they needed to answer.
But one fellow mentioned that actually wasn’t true for him: He had given back his company’s smartphone after realizing a year earlier that monitoring his company phone 24/7 was literally killing him; his blood pressure was high and his health was deteriorating. He decided that it was either going to be his job or his phone – one of them had to go.
“His boss asked if he really meant it and if he really wanted to work at the company,” Mr. Eblin writes. “The guy in my program explained that he did but not at the expense of his life.
A year later, he was healthier, more productive and sitting in a program with a roomful of colleagues who, like himself, were designated high-potential leaders. Giving the company-issued phone back worked for him.”
A year later, he was healthier, more productive and sitting in a program with a roomful of colleagues who, like himself, were designated high-potential leaders. Giving the company-issued phone back worked for him.”
Paying more attention to this phenomenon, Mr. Eblin says we don’t seem to notice that there is often one such person in each group choosing to do things differently in the interest of living at his or her best.
Here’s four guidelines he says to follow:
Know what you need: In the examples he has watched, each individual had a clear sense of what they needed, such as less chronic stress, more time for fitness and more space to work on important priorities.
To get what you need, you have to know what it is and be able to articulate it.
Set some boundaries: In each of the examples, the individual erected boundaries to get what they needed.
“There are two important questions to ask yourself about boundaries.
The first is, do you have any?
The second is, if you do, does anyone else know what they are? If they don’t, you may as well not have the boundaries in the first place,” he says.
Here’s four guidelines he says to follow:
Know what you need: In the examples he has watched, each individual had a clear sense of what they needed, such as less chronic stress, more time for fitness and more space to work on important priorities.
To get what you need, you have to know what it is and be able to articulate it.
Set some boundaries: In each of the examples, the individual erected boundaries to get what they needed.
“There are two important questions to ask yourself about boundaries.
The first is, do you have any?
The second is, if you do, does anyone else know what they are? If they don’t, you may as well not have the boundaries in the first place,” he says.
Do outstanding work: The only way you get the opportunity to set and enforce boundaries is to do superlative work. In all his examples, that was true. “When you do kick-ass work, you’re much more likely to get some margin. The great thing about that is that more margin enables you to do more kick-ass work. It’s a virtuous cycle,” he writes.
Be willing to walk: In a number of situations he studied, the individual was ready to quit if they didn’t get what they needed. This might sound radical but if you want to lead a great and long life, it’s essential.
New Zealand life coach Louise Thompson writes in The New Zealand Herald that we need to remember that, while boundaries can sound like new-age psychobabble, essentially they are just fencing – an internally defined fence that you use to keep good things in and to keep bad things out. “It’s literally that simple. They are just a series of psychological fences that you use to keep yourself safe,” she says.
She suggests pondering where that fencing is solid and where it is weak, giving yourself a score out of 10 on key areas such as
time and commitments,
your physical health,
mental health,
emotional health
and material financial requirements.
With boundaries, she says, clarity and consistency are critical (also, of course, as Mr. Eblin says, courage – the determination to push for what you want, even if it could mean risking your job).
time and commitments,
your physical health,
mental health,
emotional health
and material financial requirements.
With boundaries, she says, clarity and consistency are critical (also, of course, as Mr. Eblin says, courage – the determination to push for what you want, even if it could mean risking your job).
First, make sure your boundaries have been clearly stated. “This might seem pretty damn obvious, but I promise you the most usual cause of boundaries being stomped all over is that they have not been defined with clarity of expectation to the individuals in question in the first place,” Ms. Thompson writes in a second article.
Complaining solves nothing and sucks energy. Ask whoever you need to for what you expect.
And don’t worry excessively about conflict.
And be consistent.
You cannot expect other people to respect your boundaries if you are not consistently respecting it yourself.
And don’t worry excessively about conflict.
And be consistent.
You cannot expect other people to respect your boundaries if you are not consistently respecting it yourself.
One boundary you might want to consider is vacation e-mail. On Harvard Business Review blogs, Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the Huffington Post, points to two problems we face with e-mail on vacation.
The most obvious one is that even when away from work, we are still available to colleagues at work or likely to check up on things through scanning our inbox.
“After all, the mere presence of a phone, even unused, stresses us out,” she says, citing a recent study that found we give that mobile “privileged attentional space” so it represents more to us than whatever else is going on.
“After all, the mere presence of a phone, even unused, stresses us out,” she says, citing a recent study that found we give that mobile “privileged attentional space” so it represents more to us than whatever else is going on.
More insidious perhaps, but less discussed, is the mountain of e-mail that will await us upon our return. A study – U.S. Travel Association’s Project: Time Off – highlighted the great number of people not taking their full vacation and found an increasing number, 43 per cent, cited the fear of the stack of e-mail that would pile up as a reason.
As Mr. Eblin says: You can be the person in your group who takes the lead. It may seem scary. But he argues these decisions to stand up for your health pay off for your career rather than derailing it.
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