Mental Health, Well-Being and Cricket!

I am someone who has experienced a first hand mental health crisis. The first time was in my teens during a family discord. Second time was during the early days of work life and the third time was while going through various treatments to have a child. During each of those episodes, thankfully having supportive family members, treating my mental health crisis was normalised and no one made a big deal out of it. So much so that at one point, in spite of everything going smoothly in life, for something that triggered a bottling up of emotions which was lingering for weeks, made me immediately call up a counsellor and attend a session to chat about it.

These are real emotions which made me incapable of taking charge of and operating my normal day to day life in the happiest or effective way possible. But I am very proud of myself to be able to acknowledge it and not put it under the carpet which is something which I have seen many in my environment doing everyday of their lives.

That makes me think, are we really creating an environment where we normalize the conversation about mental health; an environment where mental well being given top priority; an environment where just like how you treat your fever or take a leave to recover, one can easily take a day’s off if they feel not at peace in their head; a conducive environment where we are not just driving to focus on the top line but taking all decisions keeping people in the centre of it?

Before doing a self assessment on how the environment is at CricHeroes, let us know exactly

What is mental wellness?

As per WHO, mental wellness is a state of mental well-being that enables people to cope with the stresses of life, realize their abilities, learn well and work well, and contribute to their community. In simpler words it means that minds are working in our best interest and we are able to think, feel and act in ways that create a positive impact in ourselves and in our environment.

Mental health is more than the absence of mental disorders.

Why Mental Health and Well Being should be a company’s top priority?

The team is made up of people. Just basic acceptance of the fact that people will bring the various challenging realities of their lives into the workplace everyday should be an important first step necessary to keep the company’s mental wellness fine! This is especially true keeping in mind how much of our lives we spend at work. Ignoring this, will not help in achieving any of the company’s goals in the long run.

Now, asking myself how the environment is at CricHeroes? What are we doing to ensure mental wellness?

Driving it through Sense of purpose

As Steve Jobs said, “Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do”. We help team members find a sense of purpose and connect their purpose with that of CricHeroes’. To be honest, being in the space of the biggest sport in the country, most of our hiring has been of talent who are generally enthusiastic about Cricket and want to work towards making cricket better. It is always an added advantage when our team members use the product almost everyday while playing cricket and easily connect to the Vision/purpose.

One of the pillars of our culture is to always create Context instead of Control. When every team member is well aware how their work is impacting the company’s North Star Metric, helps each one to surely feel a higher sense of purpose.

Creating a Culture of Candour with Care

Our other pillar of creating a culture of candour helps us to be able to share our thoughts and opinions in an easy manner in a safe environment without a fear of negative consequences.

The effectiveness of this is achieved through the underlying thought of Aiming to Assist.

The one who is sharing the feedback is doing it with the sole reason of aiming to assist the individual in front to get better. When the feedback is shared in an actionable way, the one who is receiving the feedback gets the clarity and feels strongly that someone is concerned for their growth.

Has it always been easy this way? No. However creating a safe environment where we are practicing exchanging our thoughts freely everyday helps tremendously to establish the sense of candour with the sole purpose to assist another.

We are not just our behaviour. We are the person managing our behaviour.

Our efforts at CricHeroes have always been towards separating the person from the behaviours. Quoting from the book The New One Minute Manager by Ken Blanchard and Spencer Johnson,

“You want to get rid of the bad behaviour but keep the good person, so you don’t attack the person just because they’ve made a mistake. The goal is not to tear people down, but to build them up. So you want to separate their behaviour from their worth.” As a practice, while giving serious feedback we follow the rule of telling people what they did wrong; tell them how you feel about it; and remind them that they are better than that.

In other words, their performance is bad, but they are good.

Adding to this at CricHeroes what we value the most in our team members are values that they bring instead of just evaluating them on their short term performances; we value efforts more than the numbers they achieve, we give importance to honesty and integrity, than any specific skills for the job.

Recognizing team members demonstrating such values have helped us to make our foundation stronger in our less than 60 member team.

Empowering for a healthy work life balance

At CricHeroes, it is crucial for us to create an environment where not only can someone tap on their full potential at work, but can have ample time to pursue their passions. Without having any strict in and out timing, having unlimited vacation policy, empower team members to have the necessary flexibility but yet be responsible for their work. Presently one of our key team members is taking a 100 days of spiritual break and we are very fascinated and proud to be able to accommodate such time offs.

Practicing Passive communication

Distraction drains our energy, divides our attention and increases anxiety each time the phone buzzes. To reduce distractions at work, we at CricHeroes practice passive communication. In passive communication, instant reply is not required until it is extremely important. So no one has to hurry up to reply back to the mail in the next minute of receiving it, or consciously avoid walking up to someone immediately when they require something. This is our subtle way to focus on the quality of work and restore the peace of our mind.

Cricket!

Something that bonds everyone in the team, no points for guessing that, is Cricket. And we play it quite often. As a part of our Capping Ceremony (that’s what we call our Orientation program for new joiners), playing a match of Box cricket is mandatory. Cricket has been a powerful way to break ice, not only with the new joiners but also between team members growing to have a strain work relationship between themselves. It has worked brilliantly!

We are aware how these are all our indirect ways to ensure team members can reduce their stress at work, connect their passion with a bigger Purpose, openly share their feelings with the intent to assist one another and generally maintain an upbeat environment at work.

What we are yet to do or should do, find various wellness interventions for team members at work. And that is what we will make it a priority in the upcoming months.

Economics and mental health are intertwined. Poor mental health days may cost the economy billions of dollars. With various countries like the UK, Japan has started appointing Ministers for Loneliness, because of the rising cases of serious mental health disorders, it only strengthens the importance of the point that mental wellness is a key factor driving business or economies. And thus it should be a Global Priority!

While Monday mornings are not-so-blue at CricHeroes (as it’s always buzzing with great numbers, thanks to all the grassroots cricketers, playing cricket on the weekends), however being someone who have experienced mental health challenges, I determine to work towards being mindful to create a safe environment at CricHeroes, ensuring to keep our team’s mental well being, at the centre of all our decisions.

Here is our well-being pledge at CricHeroes:

We will proactively take necessary steps when we see signs of possible struggles.

We will continuously promote awareness and create a community for support.

We will collaborate and promote a culture of inclusion amongst ourselves.

We will engage in open and healthy communication with one another.

Lastly, we will prioritize mental well-being over work.

I am Amrita Sengupta, VP People at CricHeroes.

CricHeroes is the world’s largest Cricket Network with more than 15 million registered cricketers. A platform to live score and live stream grassroots cricket matches, get recognised for your talent and become better with data.