How to Foster Empathy in Mental Health Initiatives

🌟 Leading with Empathy: Supporting Your Team Through Life's Challenges 🌟 I had some amazing conversations this past week and wanted to share my thoughts. As managers, we're not just responsible for driving business results; we're also entrusted with the well-being of our team members (contractors and employees). Life's challenges, whether it be divorce, loss, or personal struggles, can deeply impact an individual's professional life. Here are four ways we can foster a supportive environment for our team during difficult times: 1️⃣ Create a Culture of Compassion: Lead by example by demonstrating empathy and understanding. Encourage open communication and assure your team that it's okay to discuss personal struggles without fear of judgment. By fostering a culture of compassion, you cultivate a supportive work environment where individuals feel valued and understood. 2️⃣ Clarify Roles and Responsibilities: Provide clarity on job expectations and responsibilities, ensuring that your team members understand what is expected of them. By making their roles crystal clear, you alleviate unnecessary stress and uncertainty, allowing them to focus on navigating through life's challenges without added work-related worries. 3️⃣ Flexible Work Arrangements: Recognize that employees may need flexibility to attend to personal matters during challenging times. Offer flexible work arrangements such as remote work options, flexible hours, or additional time off to accommodate their needs. By prioritizing work-life balance, you demonstrate that you value your team's well-being beyond their contributions to the business. 4️⃣ Provide Resources and Support: Ensure that your team members are aware of the resources available to them, both within the company and externally. This may include Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), counseling services, or support groups. Encourage individuals to seek the help they need and reassure them that it's a sign of strength, not weakness, to ask for support. By proactively supporting your team through life's challenges, you not only foster loyalty and trust but also enhance overall morale and productivity. Let's lead with empathy and compassion, creating a workplace where every team member feels supported and valued. Tag a fellow manager who prioritizes employee well-being, and let's inspire others to lead with empathy! 🌟 #LeadingWithEmpathy #SupportiveWorkplace #TeamWellBeing Personal Reflection: I was homeless for a month when I was starting Syssero® and while I didn't have a manager, I had friends (Ryan Massie, Cassandra (Cazzi) Coleman, Julie Christenson and many more) and family who supported me along the way. You never know what others are going through, they don't have to tell you, but you can be the empathic leader that gives them clarity through the chaos.

In a recent podcast episode I was on, I shared my perspective: "You can't templatize empathy." Today, when faced with a local, national or global tragedy, organizational leaders will often wonder how they might respond to or address the incident with their company or team. Research demonstrates that today's employee may even expect such acknowledgment in the workplace. So often, when I've witnessed these conversations, leaders end up asking each other a series of "what-about"isms, such as "What about when [another similar incident] takes place for [another community]? Will we be expected to say something then, too?" Why, when dealing with very human feelings, should we resort to a system devoid of nuance? In these conversations, I often encourage leaders to consider the following ways that organizational culture can support employees during times of tragedy: 💗 Equip managers: Managers need the skills, confidence, and empowerment to get to know their teams and understand what good support looks like to them. Though a blanket message may signal company allyship, it can be even more meaningful for a manager to check in, offer resources, or even a break from work where appropriate. 💗 Evolve practices: A practice for acknowledging human pain should never be a "set it and forget it" one. Leaders should prioritize listening to their people to understand what has been helpful, what has felt shallow, and what they'd like to see more of. Prioritize this listening even when there's a lull in the news. The responses should adjust accordingly. 💗 Extend resources: Organizations and individual teams should visit and revisit their menu of benefits to understand what might be most supportive to employees that are experiencing pain, trauma, or heartbreak. For example, leveraging a therapy practice that intentionally and explicitly prioritizes cultural competency and empathy may be preferable to a standard EAP counseling offering. Like anything related to #diversityandinclusion or the human experience more broadly- there is not a one size fits all model. Leaders have the opportunity to not only evaluate their immediate response, but the surrounding ecosystem as well.

I love to make up words that fill in the gaps in the English language. Even though our dictionary has more than 200,000 words, it’s not enough. I love my wife. I love hot dogs. We need more words for love. So I’m working on my own dictionary. Sometimes I modify an existing word or couple two existing words to create a third meaning. For example: Ø Prosilience: Prospective resilience, developing mental toughness before being called upon to need it. Ø Focish: Focusing on what’s important and finishing what you start. Ø Nedlog Rule: The Golden Rule in reverse – anything you would be willing to do for someone else if they asked you, be willing to ask for that same help if you need it. Ø ExGen: Being extravagantly generous in small ways. Today I’m working on a new word: Teampathy. We’ve all heard and used the word teamwork – to work together as a team. Teampathy means fostering empathy within the team. It is an essential complement to team work. According to Gallup, one of the best predictors of employee engagement is having good friends at work. One of the vital catalysts of friendship is mutual empathy. Working together (teamwork) will help the organization hit targets and achieve goals, but it will not in itself foster meaningful friendships. That requires Teampathy. Especially today when burnout, moral distress, and the emotional drain of social and political polarization can be so wearing, leaders need to consciously promote a spirit of mutual empathy. Here are three practical suggestions for fostering Teampathy. Suggestion #1: Increase cultural intolerance for toxic emotional negativity. Bullying, rumor-mongering, and belittling criticism are dispiriting and demoralizing and contribute to a culture of distrust and “not my job” apathy. Download the free DIY Implementation Guide at www.PicklePledge.com to share The Pickle Pledge and the Pickle Challenge for Charity with your team. This is the most powerful and effective tool I have for raising awareness of and intolerance for chronic complaining, pessimism, and learned helplessness. Suggestion #2: Encourage peer-to-peer recognition, gratitude, and encouragement. The DAISY Foundation, Wambi, and NDORSE are platforms that make it easy for people to appreciate their colleagues. Suggestion #3: Make better use of daily team huddles (or start doing them if you are not already). Encourage people to share personal stories, publicly recognize a coworker, or ask for support. Do something fun. Get people to laugh (you don’t need to be a comedian to tap into the power of laughter – google Laughter Yoga). Working on Teampathy might do more for teamwork in your organization than working on teamwork will do.