Great Minds

Almost half of employees who go to a manager about their mental health feel like nothing improved.

Let that stat sit for a second

They found the courage to speak up, but it made no difference, that's according to Mind's big mental health report

With Mental Health Awareness Week now behind us, my social media feeds were filled with incredible wellbeing initiatives, messages, and information promoting mental health and wellbeing at work. But I wonder how much of that has resulted in an actual behavioural change for the organisation and the people within it.

Here's another statistic for you to consider below

Only 13% of managers have received any mental health training.

This means that the vast majority of managers in organisations across the UK are expected to support their team, but they're lacking their confidence and capability to do so.

When I was a manager, Mental Health Awareness Week actually never really existed. We never spoke about it. And I was never taught how to have those conversations. I was deeply fearful of saying the wrong thing and making it worse, even though I knew that I should have

Mental Health Awareness Week is not a problem. It's the energy that fades and the conversations that stop following this week. And just like it says in the title, it's about awareness, but awareness is not action.

And what we know according to CIPD is that line management capability is the number one barrier to effective wellbeing in an organisation. Not the budget, not the strategy, the managers.

This post isn't a question about whether your organisation cares about mental health. Most do. The question is, do the people who work closely, closest to your employees every single day, the managers, have they been given the skills to make the difference?

Because right now, for me, most organisations, the answer is no.

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By the way — if you're wondering how well your organisation is really doing when it comes to all of the above, I've built a free 2-minute Wellbeing Strategy assessment that gives you a snapshot of where the gaps may be https://wellbeingstrategyhealthcheck.scoreapp.com/

The green ribbons are now coming down...as mental health awareness week is now behind us..I hope alot changed for your organisation

What was your biggest takeaway from this incredible initiative?

No doubt your feed was full of lots great wellbeing messages, pledges, activities and initiatives, and they are all great. They really do matter.

But I've seen this cycle many times before, and I'm sure you have too. The energy and awareness peaks during the week, then it fades.

Unfortunately, the posters come down, the conversations stop, managers continue to struggle to support the mental health of their team, and the people who were struggling before are still struggling now.

This is a good time to think about what are you doing to ensure these initiatives are sustainable and actually create real change in your organisation?

Someone asked me recently why I do this work.

Not what I do. Not how.

Why.

And I surprised myself with the answer. Because it wasn't about training or frameworks or methodologies.

It wasn't about The BRIDGE or scorecards or implementation plans.

It was about a version of me — over 20 years ago — sitting in an office, struggling, and not telling anyone.

Because I didn't think anyone would understand.

Because the culture didn't make it safe.

Because my manager — who was a good person — simply didn't know what to do.

Nobody failed me deliberately.

The system just wasn't built for that conversation.

That's what I'm trying to change.

Not with a single training day.

Not with awareness campaigns. With systems that make it possible for a manager to say the right thing, at the right time, in the right way.

Every organisation I work with is one manager conversation away from changing someone's experience completely.

That's why I do this work, and I have to say a truly love it

What do you love about your work?

Something I got wrong for a long time.

I used to think that being an expert in mental health meant I had to have all the answers. That showing uncertainty would undermine my credibility.

So I delivered training with total confidence. Answered every question without hesitation. Presented frameworks like they were certainties.

The truth is messier. Every organisation is different. Every person is different. What works in one room falls flat in another.

The moment I started saying "I don't know — but let's work it out together" was the moment my work actually started making a difference.

Expertise isn't having all the answers. It's knowing which questions to ask.

I've spent a lot of this week talking about what's broken in the workplace and some of the initiatives needed to fix them!

What I found is some of the simplest interventions are the best ones.

For me nothing beats getting out in nature. I love long walks along the Thames Path near Reading.

This is my view this morning. This really sets me up for the day and the rest of the weekend before returning to a house of three noisy kids!

What are you up to?

What are your weekend 'go-to's?'

I got to meet the incredible Louise Mortimer yesterday for the first time at her in-person leadership event in Southampton, and what a session it was!.

Louise presented her amazing methodology S.P.A.C.E framework which challenges traditional leadership thinking & champions of humanistic empathy-led approach to leadership. I really love and connect with that.

I believe we operate on two sides of the same coin. Louise from a leadership and management perspective and me from a wellbeing strategy perspective.

Both align to help achieve high performance culture in the workplace. This is what I believe every workplace needs to thrive

I love the work that Louise does. It was an absolute pleasure to meet her. As well as the other incredible people in the room.

Also big shout out to Alice Hendy. Her powerful presentation promoting her charity R;pple which grew out of lived experience, Which provides incredibly important resource to help support su***de prevention. Absolutely aligned with a lot of the work that I do - I believe every workplace should have R;ipple

great way to end the week - hope yours was productive too!

I ask the following question in almost every training session I deliver - 'do you understand what your EAP is and where to access it?'

Typically, less than half the room puts their hand up, and even less have actually used it.

Then somebody normally adds, 'Well I know where it in on the intranet, but I've never actually clicked on it, and I certainly wouldn't know what to do if I did actually have to use it'

Personally this is a little concerning, as if/when they might need to refer one of their team members to it, they wouldn't be equipped to do this effectively.

And this is typical for the vast majority of organisations, as the EAP is significantly underused,and many organisations actually rely on it as a wellbeing strategy,
but it's not, and it cannot Be, and here's why.

An EAP is a useful resource for when an employee is struggling and needs some support.

However, the biggest factor about this is that it's a reactive support resource,
not a preventative one.

So although it can be helpful in address the problem, it never proactively prevents it. So typically, it tends to address the symptoms, not the cause, so the problem never really gets addressed.

What do I think of EAPs in the workplace?

I think they can be helpful, however, they are NOT a well being strategy.

I believe organisations need to look at is what else have they got running alongside the EAP?

What other wellbeing initiatives and support resources do they have in place to prevent issues from developing in the first place?

That's always a good place to start.

How well used is the EAP in your workplace?

Have you ever used it?