Barclays gets it. EY understands. Facebook is making headway. What these companies and others understand is that mental health is vital to the overall corporate health and sustainability of an organizations and its employees. They realize investments in mental health are good for business, too.¹
We’re confident these companies also grok the sobering statistics:
- In the US nearly one quarter of the workforce experiences a mental health or substance use problem each year.²
- In Canada mental health issues account for 30 to 40 percent of disability claims, “with the prevalence of claims for mental health diagnoses climbing by 0.5 …
“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”
Contrary to popular belief Plato probably didn’t coin this phrase. Rather, Rev. John Watson (pen name Ian MacLaren) is believed to have championed the oft-quoted maxim starting in the late 1800s.¹
The original wording is slightly different: “Be pitiful, for every man is fighting a hard battle.”
In Watson’s time, pitiful would have meant compassionate — a feeling of showing concern for others. This is the backdrop for our third article. How does one show compassion to those suffering from mental health challenges? …
Editor’s note: COVID-19 was hardly on the map when we began writing this series. Today the Coronavirus is top of mind for nearly everyone. While this series isn’t focused on COVID-19 exclusively, we feel it’s important to provide resources to help you care for your mental health during this global pandemic. Here are just a few.
- Coronavirus Anxiety — Helpful Expert Tips and Resources — Massive list of resources continually updated by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America.
- How to Be Together Apart In the Time of Coronavirus — “In this time of increasing social isolation, gathering to stave…
We’re so glad you’re here. 💛
Anxiety. Depression. Stress. Uncertainty. Sleeplessness. Isolation.
Mental health and mental illness are tough subjects to talk about, especially in the midst of a global pandemic. Like the emotionally charged debate about how to pronounce GIF¹ (“gif” or “jif”?) there is much debate about mental health, what it is, and how to improve it — not the least of which is how to talk about it. And it’s far more serious than a silly pronunciation debacle.
Performant Mental Health is a five-part series designed to ignite greater awareness of mental health issues at home and…
Editor’s note: The information contained in this series is based on reputable medical studies, training and knowledge gained supporting others, and the authors’ own personal experience. However, we advise readers to call a crisis hotline or seek professional help to address their unique personal circumstances.
If you or someone you care about has been impacted by mental illness, or you’re just beginning a foray into understanding mental health, this series is for you.
Performant Mental Health is a series designed to ignite greater awareness of mental health issues at home and at work, encourage more candid conversation on the topic…
Recently I had the opportunity to present “When We Align” at Front Conference in Salt Lake City. I shared three axioms for aligning teams: unity over uniformity, chemistry over culture, and people over process.
At the end of my remarks I emphasized the human component of these axioms by sharing two fail-safe principles for retaining great team members:
Team members stay when they believe in the trajectory of the company/product/team, and when that trajectory goes off course or stagnates they feel empowered to course-correct.
Team members stay when they’re operating at or near their full potential sustainably, and they feel…
Here’s how I handle it.
If there’s one principle that has guided my time usage as an adult, it is this:
Work expands or contracts to fill whatever time it’s allotted.
If you give a task 3 hours, it will take 3 hours. If you give it 3 days, it will take 3 days. If you consistently put in 60 hours a week, your workload will require 60 hours. If you restrict yourself to 45 hours, you’ll find a way to do it in 45 hours.
This principle is generally referred to as Parkinson’s Law.
Over the years people have asked us how we’ve made…
This week I had the privilege of speaking to design students at two universities about my career. Here are some of the things I shared, most of which were answers to their questions.
1. The greatest output of your careers will be relationships. When you and I are sitting on a porch in rocking chairs some 50 years from now, I’ll care less about what we produced and much more about how we got there together. Was I a jerk to work with? Did I try my best to understand your viewpoint? Did we bring people along with us in…
Instead of culture, let’s talk about chemistry in the workplace.
Disclaimer: I’m just as guilty of referencing ‘culture’ when describing teams, workplaces, and companies. Recently I’ve grown unsettled with the term. I offer a replacement: chemistry.
Culture = similar things
Culture suggests amalgamation and assimilation of similar things that begin similar or evolve to become similar. Historically when describing societies, it generally refers to shared customs and behaviors. No doubt there are positive things to be said about shared behavior. On the surface this is a good thing.
However, things go awry when poor behavior is amplified by the absence of dissimilarities that would otherwise offset bad actors. This is why in many cases…
The Boss shares how to boss — or rather how to become one.
Years ago as a high school student I was driving to school and Bruce Springsteen came on the radio. Except he wasn’t singing. He was answering questions from a local radio host.
At some point in the interview, Springsteen shared an uncanny observation about parents, paraphrased as best as I can I recall:
The best way I know how to honor your parents is to take all their good attributes and incorporate them into who you are, and leave behind all the bad ones.
That observation has stuck with me for more than 20 years.
If given liberty with “honor”…
Cameron Moll
Former Head of Design @ Facebook Events. Passion for mental performance. Father of 5.
