We are in the midst of a mental health crisis and 59% of your employees are quiet quitting, 18% of your employees are loud quitting, and your teams are telling you that they’re washed up, burned out, needing mental health days (or weeks) and you feel out of control. Let me ask you a question: Are you or your team tipping the scales of “work-life balance”?
What do you want most for your team?
Hold on, let me clarify – I didn’t say “What do you want most from your team…” I asked, “What do you want most for your team?”
There’s a difference, and it’s a big one. On any given day, your team comes to work and they trade their time (approximately 6-8 hours a day or more) for Money (their salary.) Now of course, depending on your industry they may trade more effort for more money, or they may be doing the jobs of 15 people because your company doesn’t have the budget to hire more people, but the fact is they come to work and trade their time for money. Anything you receive beyond that is a bonus for you and anything they receive beyond their base salary/paycheck is a bonus for them.
Every leader has different goals for their team
Every leader has different goals for their teams, and every employee does too. You may want a team of experts who know their job inside and out and who are all eager to climb the corporate ladder. You may want a team that provides a great workplace atmosphere so that you and your employees don’t hate your job when you come to work. Some of you may even want a team that overachieves for every metric so everyone gets the maximum bonus payout at the end of your year. But what does your team want from their life?
Every one of your team members has different long-term and life goals and aspirations. Some of them want to climb the same ladder that you climbed, while some of them could care less about the ladder and are there because their paycheck provides them a means to an end. Most of your employees sit comfortably in the middle of those two attitudes. The question for you stands somewhere in the middle too… What do you want for your team?
I want to shift your perspective on balance
If what you want for your team is a pipeline of leaders, the highest metrics, or the most fun and most engaging team members you’ve ever worked with… That is what you want FROM your team, and it should be spelled out in your expectations of them. I argue that what good leaders want for their team is for them to come to work every day and experience fulfillment, inspiration, clarity, and growth. I also believe that good leaders want happiness, peace, fulfillment, and love outside of work too. That’s why it is so important that our leaders start to shift the way they approach their teams. Work/Life balance is a lie. People work to have a life and if they are struggling personally, work is only one piece of the puzzle.
Leadership is about more than growing the company.
Your leadership responsibilities are about more than growing the company. Yes, of course, those should be a key focus for you, but that is your responsibility, not your team’s. It’s through your guidance and leadership, execution, and empowerment that your teams get an awesome opportunity to impact the growth of the company, but the responsibility for that growth lies with you. Many people want to champion the idea that the growth of the company lies with every individual on the team, and yes, I will buy into that to a point, but there are going to be times when your team has to hold the weight for others, including you.
Leaders have a responsibility
The responsibility to help their team beyond training and development rests solely with leadership. Not those in the board room, but you. If front-line leadership doesn’t take the responsibility then who will? Board rooms and C-suites are too far removed from what your employee’s day-to-day looks like… That rarely gets brought up in board meetings. But, your team spends 40 hours a week with you (we’ll say – on average) That’s more than they spend with their families and friends. What you say and do has a direct impact on your team’s mental health. Your team works for you, but what do you do for them? How do you support the ability for them to find happiness, peace, fulfillment, and love?
Shifting Perspectives on the scales of work/life balance
This is a complicated discussion but the fact remains that we need to shift the perspectives on mental health in the workplace. With that perspective shift comes a need for better work/life balance. If your team is performing the job of 3 or 4 people right now, there isn’t balance. You have the responsibility of ensuring that your team is taking care of themselves first and foremost, including their mental health. That responsibility falls to you because society has trained people to think that they must be doing 150% 100% of the time, and corporations continue to take advantage of that. Take care of your employees first and they’ll take care of you and your company.
More on tipping the scales:
Recently I did a podcast interview with John Skomski on Think. Live. Repeat. Think.Live.Repeat. gives you behind-the-scenes access to transparent conversations with some of the world’s most influential authors, speakers, and celebrities. You will get tools for going the distance and putting anxiety, panic & negative self-talk in the rearview mirror. It’s all about choosing to INvest INward – both in yourself and in the people around you. There will be stories to make you laugh and advice that will leave you motivated and inspired to level up. New episodes drop every Tuesday…join the INvest INward squad today!
I loved the conversation John and I had on understanding mental health and why it’s so important for leaders to step up to the plate so that we can find a way to reduce the rates of Mental Health Crises right now. To listen to that episode check out: https://thinkliverepeat.buzzsprout.com/2010974/15496597-stephanie-kunkle-your-boss-needs-to-hear-this-episode-ep-102
For more of John’s Episodes click here: https://thinkliverepeat.buzzsprout.com/2010974
Emotional Intelligence is a good investment for you.
Listen, the thing is that as a leader your job description never said anything about emotional intelligence or understanding mental health, BUT… With 30% of adults having been diagnosed with depression – and only 40% of employees thinking that their employer is trying to help them upskill, it is our responsibility as leaders to invest in our employees and ourselves. Invest in understanding how to motivate the 59% of employees who are quiet quitting.
Yes, it’s a wise investment for your company, but it’s also a wise investment for you. This information and understanding doesn’t go away it stays with you through this job and the next, with this team and the next, with this crisis and the next. It’s time to change the way we perceive our responsibilities to our team… You can’t change them, but you can attempt to understand and sometimes that’s all the change they need.
Upcoming Opportunities to Shift
The Perspective Shifters Hub, along with some guest experts, hosted a Mental Health at Work Summit: Perspective Shifting on Leadership Responsibilities. You can watch the replay by joining: https://www.facebook.com/groups/perspectiveshifters
If you want more information on depression in the workplace, check out my book, Perspectives Through Broken Glass: Managing depression at home and in the workplace.
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