Writing for The Leaders Council, Fotech Solutions CEO Chris Shannon discusses how business leaders that nurture the mental wellbeing of their staff and encourage meditation can reap huge dividends for their companies.
Looking after the mental health and wellbeing of the people under your charge has always been an important priority for a leader – and after the challenges of the past year it is now more crucial than ever. The pandemic’s devastating impact on mental health is well-documented, so creating an environment and internal processes that support wellbeing is top of any leader’s agenda. But, although people pay lip-service to it being important, how do you actually make sure that it really is part of the DNA of your organisation?
Nurturing the mental health of your team is not only ethically and morally the right thing to do, but also it’s critical from a business perspective. Creating an environment, culture and ethos that supports and enhances the mental health and wellbeing of your team is the fastest way to ensure that you and your business continue to thrive and to prosper.
When people are struggling to cope, it is generally not because they lack skills, but rather that they lack clarity. The pressure they are facing coupled with their high anxiety levels mean they cannot focus. In most companies today, people have too many projects going on at any one time and there is a lot of ongoing transformation. Additionally, many people are in roles where they are constantly challenged by their manager – part and parcel of the role, of course, but it can represent another pressure, especially if their mental health is not robust.
Leaders must implement a three-pronged approach: first, you create a culture that genuinely and proactively supports mental health and wellbeing; then, you cultivate a mindset in yourself and your team based on an understanding of mental health as something that needs to be consciously nurtured; and, finally, and perhaps most importantly of all, you lead from the front.
I believe passionately that leaders must set a good example and walk the talk. For example, I meditate. Even if I can only find five minutes, it helps me enormously. There are well-documented and numerous benefits to meditation – including the ability it gives you to identify and to prioritise your tasks because you have clarity. Meditation helps you take a step back and ask: “Is this important?” and “Can I influence it?”.
So many people are stressed about things that are either not important, or things over which they have no control. The ability meditation gives you to clear your mind, to step back, to see the bigger picture and to identify where to focus your energy is hugely important.
At Fotech, we actively discuss mental health during our regular team meetings. One of our wellbeing support methods is paying for everyone to have the Headspace app. Initially some of our engineers thought it was a little odd and wondered what they needed it for. But because we have actively encouraged people to use it, made it part of our on-going internal conversations and an integrated part of our working lives, it is now widely used by the team.
Supporting good mental health and wellbeing is not rocket science – you just need to believe in what you are doing and to embed awareness across your organisation. Alongside promoting meditation, there are a host of very easy actions leaders can take – actively encouraging people to take their holiday allocation, for example, and making sure that when they do and that they properly switch off. Another easy way to help address stressors at work is to normalise dialling into internal calls while walking the dog, perhaps, rather than sitting at your desk. In fact, just encouraging people to take a walk or to get active during the day is fundamentally simple and it helps give people a break from the sometimes-relentless inbox pings and video calls.
But leaders should not try to solve everything overnight. Changing mindset and culture is a gradual process. People should challenge their own ways of working, for example, are all those calls really necessary?
Leaders who want to improve their organisations’ approach to mindfulness, meditation and good mental health can make small, incremental changes that will significantly help people lead healthier, happier, more enjoyable lives – at home and at work.
Fotech, a bp Launchpad company, is a trusted partner to its customers in over 25 countries in the smart cities, infrastructure, security and pipeline sectors. Fotech combines photonics and technical expertise to deliver world-class, fibre-enabled sensing solutions and deep insights that empower customers to make data-driven decisions. Founded in 2008, Fotech is focused on innovation and excellence as it seeks every day to push boundaries.
