Clinical psychologist says it’s time to prioritise mental health in the workplace

CEOs, HR professionals, and people and culture professionals are doing a wonderful job in moving into greater awareness around the next-level challenges that organisations are experiencing around mental health, but there are always opportunities to be more proactive.

I’m seeing a greater awareness around how anxiety and mental health can undermine our capacity for productivity and performance, and an understanding that anxiety is the protective instinct at play. Building mental health and wellbeing in the workplace is crucial in moving forward to building high performance and thriving teams.

One of the mechanisms around the subject is prevention, and the strategies we can put in place to prevent and manage anxiety, stress, low mood and burnout. To achieve high performance means taking things to a deeper level.

Connections and conversations

A key topic that I’ve been talking about is psychological safety in the workplace. Specifically, the importance of it to enable organisations to authentically lean into the fundamental message of: It's not weak to feel. It's human to feel.

The key challenge for leaders of people and culture that I speak to is having the courageous, yet necessary, conversations authentically and transparently about what we are all in together.

Adjusting to all of the changes and the rapid pace at which change comes can be tough, and it’s the common human experience. It’s time to equip managers and leaders with toolkits that can make a difference in their employees' lives. Empowering their own capacity to manage mentally and have those conversations, allows them to pass those skills on, too.

Strength methodology to develop high performance, alongside mental health and wellbeing awareness, is not only about the metrics of reducing turnover and absenteeism, but also about the recognition that building a high-performing organisation is the same as building a mentally healthy organisation.

The culture of psychological safety

The neuroscience behind psychological safety supports the mentality of collaboration and connection, while the opposite increases cortisol and adrenaline – fight or flight chemicals – that promote anxiety and procrastination.

When I work with CEOs and they recognise that psychologically safe workplaces empower people to put their best foot forward, take steps out of their comfort zone and take measured risks for increased performance, the lightbulb moment comes with the realisation that mental health is not a bolt-on, it is core to high performance.

The most effective leaders will embrace this and ingrain it into their strategy for achieving a high-performance culture. It makes sense that organisations are only as good as their people and their mental capacity. Investing in their wellbeing unlocks potential.

Anxiety is something that impacts a vast number of people; many of those in our workplaces, daily. Even high-performing individuals cannot soldier through, it’s like walking through sludge.

If leadership doesn't invest in the wellbeing of their teams, to pre-empt and prevent mental health issues, they risk undermining the performance of the individuals and long-term exposure to serious mental health disorders and clinical problems.

Leaders, and individuals, should recognise that the right mental health strategies, with scientifically supported tools from appropriately trained mental health professionals, can help.

Psychologically safe workplaces should be considered a community where it is okay for individuals to seek out help and be supported to be the best version of themselves possible. People shouldn’t be limited to only connecting with loved ones, it’s critical they be able to connect with people at their workplaces, too.

As the founder of an anxiety clinic and as a doctor of clinical psychology, I want people to feel hopeful, as we are truly all in this together, and the workplace is a frontline community, considering how much it impacts our identity and our lives.

Dr Jodie Lowinger (DCP, MSc, BSc, University Medal) is a Harvard-trained, award-winning clinical psychologist, and bestselling author of ‘The Mind Strength Method: Four Steps to Curb Anxiety, Conquer Worry and Build Resilience’.