Latest / Daily Influence / 717. Breaking the Stigma: Mental Health as a Foundation for Productivity and Influence

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717. Breaking the Stigma: Mental Health as a Foundation for Productivity and Influence · Daily Influence

• 0:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to Daily Influence, your daily dose of positive influence.
• 0:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: I'm Brian Smith founder of IA Business Advisors and co-author of the Iain team series.
• 0:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: Each day we share stories and insights to help you find be and build your influence in a positive and responsible way.
• 0:27
  [SPEAKER_00]: And I'm Greg Clino, partner at IE Business Advisors, and co-host of Daily Influence.
• 0:32
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• 0:39
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• 0:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: Hey, everybody, Brian Smith here with the iM team series and your daily influence.
• 0:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Today, we are going to talk about mental health as a foundation of our individual influence.
• 1:02
  [SPEAKER_01]: And what we as leaders and influencers can do about that.
• 1:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're all influencers.
• 1:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: You know that that's what we believe here at the iM team series.
• 1:10
  [SPEAKER_01]: And what the daily influence is all about.
• 1:12
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's about our individual influence and how we can
• 1:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: do that to the best of our abilities with responsibility and being positive.
• 1:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: But first, I want to talk about how mental health has always been something that's been kind of swept under the rug, not talked about, has this stigma about it and it really shouldn't.
• 1:33
  [SPEAKER_01]: All of us struggle at some time in our lives with some kind of mental challenge.
• 1:38
  [SPEAKER_01]: It can be depression.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: It can be because of a breakup, things that are happening in our life, grief from loss, just challenges every day and as life gets faster.
• 1:50
  [SPEAKER_01]: And by the way, it doesn't just get faster because we become adults.
• 1:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's getting faster just because of the way society is.
• 1:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: technology, social media, the way we interact with our data, carry in our phones in our back pocket, all of this leads to some of the mental challenges that we have and it's not something that we should be sweeping under the rug and that's really one of the first things that you could do is that within your area of
• 2:16
  [SPEAKER_01]: of influence, foster mental well-being, in a way that's positive for your team.
• 2:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: Identify that there could be challenges.
• 2:25
  [SPEAKER_01]: Identify that some of the stresses, either in the work environment or that come with your employees from their personal lives, can have an impact, have an influence on your business on your area of influence and on the relationships within it.
• 2:41
  [SPEAKER_01]: Recognizing these challenges,
• 2:44
  [SPEAKER_01]: And identifying that they're important to you and your organization can really help open up that line of communication that can be needed.
• 2:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: That can be the difference between mental struggling alone and knowing that you have an environment and an organization that supports you and that can help you do better.
• 3:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: better, encouraging that open dialogue, things for self-care break times, tools that will help people organize better.
• 3:14
  [SPEAKER_01]: When you support your employees to be more organized, to communicate better, to collaborate better, you are actually helping in this issue, you're helping destress, you're helping deep clutter.
• 3:27
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the way to do that is be positive, have empathy
• 3:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: When we open ourselves up to having these discussions, we build trust and we reduce that stigma that goes with mental health issues and you can attack mental health problems the same way you attack business problems in a smart way.
• 3:52
  [SPEAKER_01]: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely.
• 3:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can talk about being specific about how things are affecting you.
• 4:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you have somebody that comes to you with a struggle, encourage them to be specific.
• 4:06
  [SPEAKER_01]: If they can't be specific with you, be specific with them on giving them access to people or programs that can help them.
• 4:13
  [SPEAKER_01]: Your organization should be understand that if you don't have health insurance, if you don't have partners that do that look into it Just so it could be as simple as a phone number and measure the number of times if you see somebody struggling over and over and over again You can find measurement to that you can see that there's this continuous Consistent issue with a person or a group of people
• 4:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can't just sweep it onto the rug and address it because resolution isn't attainable if you just keep ignoring it.
• 4:42
  [SPEAKER_01]: And the only way to be real about it is to have these conversations are to offer an offering for them.
• 4:48
  [SPEAKER_01]: A place for them to go.
• 4:49
  [SPEAKER_01]: And timely means when you see it do something about it then, don't wait.
• 4:54
  [SPEAKER_01]: Waiting to address mental health issues is one of the most dangerous things we can do as leaders and as individuals.
• 5:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: When we recognize that we're struggling individually, reach out to somebody in your area of influence that you trust.
• 5:08
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you see somebody struggling, proactively reach out to them and if they don't want to confide in you, encourage them to go someplace that they're comfortable confiding with.
• 5:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And don't take it personal.
• 5:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: These are very personal things.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: They're there things to deal with.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: If you offer your help and they don't want your help, at least offer a path for them to get
• 5:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: and know in your heart and tactically that you did that.
• 5:36
  [SPEAKER_01]: And breaking the stigma is our responsibility as leaders.
• 5:40
  [SPEAKER_01]: It's amazingly important for us to take responsibility for these things for the teams that we've built.
• 5:46
  [SPEAKER_01]: If we don't, how can you say you're inclusive?
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  [SPEAKER_01]: Inclusivity means we have a stigma free culture.
• 5:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're not talking about the media version of this.
• 5:56
  [SPEAKER_01]: We're talking about being human in our organizations and opening ourselves up to helping people be their best selves.
• 6:05
  [SPEAKER_01]: and recognizing one nice struggle that they may need help and offering that.
• 6:09
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you want them on your team and you want to have your organization be its bestseller, you have to do this because we are only as good as our weakest person.
• 6:19
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if our weakest person is struggling, we have to lift them up, especially when
• 6:23
  [SPEAKER_01]: mental health issues and approach this from a continuous improvement point of view.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: In other words, we as an organization will continuously strive to be better at this.
• 6:35
  [SPEAKER_01]: We will make mistakes, you will trust me I have through the years.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: Can I try to learn from every one, every mystery, every missed chance, every opportunity that I've had and failed to act in supporting a team member through one of these types of issues
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  [SPEAKER_01]: to do, go get trained, go get help.
• 6:57
  [SPEAKER_01]: Reach out to some mental health professionals, have them come in and talk to you about things that you can do.
• 7:04
  [SPEAKER_01]: Sit down for an hour and learn about some of
• 7:07
  [SPEAKER_01]: The key indicators that might be going on get some help from professionals invest that time so that you are better at recognizing and addressing them.
• 7:18
  [SPEAKER_01]: Even if it's just giving a referral.
• 7:21
  [SPEAKER_01]: It has to start somewhere and as leaders, it must be us.
• 7:24
  [SPEAKER_01]: You can't rely on your teams to do this.
• 7:26
  [SPEAKER_01]: And if you have team members that are good at this or that are trying to engage in this and brace them and learn from them.
• 7:34
  [SPEAKER_01]: If they want to take the lead, let them follow along.
• 7:37
  [SPEAKER_01]: If you feel like you don't understand what they're doing, get a professional to help define it for you.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: The point is, is mental health issues are part of all of our lives in some way.
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  [SPEAKER_01]: So make sure that you are removing that stigma.
• 7:53
  [SPEAKER_01]: You are creating an open line of communication and a path for people to feel comfortable to get help if they need it.
• 8:01
  [SPEAKER_01]: And when you see them struggle, help them.
• 8:03
  [SPEAKER_01]: This is a topic that requires focus, help them through it, give them a path to feel more included to feel supported, and make this a priority for your organization, not just now, but for the future and continuously improve yourselves in your organization in this specific area of influence, mental health for you and your team.
• 8:30
  [SPEAKER_01]: Have a great remainder of your weekend?
• 8:32
  [SPEAKER_01]: Look forward to talking to you again next week.