Why you need to understand mental health to be an impactful leader

The workplace mental health landscape is rapidly evolving, with an average 48% of employees around the world currently grappling with burnout. Pre Covid an estimated 15% of working age adults have a mental disorder with $1 trillion USD lost in productivity globally due to anxiety and depression. Today’s economic uncertainty and global challenges have only intensified anxiety levels, making mental health awareness an essential leadership skill.

This is a tsunami hitting workplaces. You can no longer consider ‘hiring the fittest’ as an option or considering it a problem ‘over there’.. You need to learn to surf this wave. This isn’t about managing complex psychiatric conditions – it’s about understanding and addressing the two most prevalent forms of mental ill health: anxiety and depression. While some cases have genetic or traumatic origins, many stem from uninformed daily choices in an increasingly volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA) world. If you don’t understand how vulnerability to poor mental health can be exacerbated by the culture you create as CEO, you will cause a tidal wave in your organisation.

You are just as vulnerable as the next person. Mental health challenges, once discussed in whispers, can affect everyone regardless of position. We are all at risk of deteriorating mental health, just as we are of poor physical health, if we aren’t making proactive health choices. To be an effective corporate athlete, you must proactively look after your mental health. Your leadership impact directly correlates with your mental state, no matter how well you think you can mask struggles.

It’s an opportunity to unlock even greater potential within you. When you proactively invest in your mental health, you learn more about yourself and start making more intentional choices in how you interact with others. You become a more impactful leader and you enjoy your role and life more.

It’s an opportunity to unlock the potential of the organisation. As the CEO you cast a very large shadow over the organisation. PwC research demonstrates that every dollar $1 invested in mental health yields a $2.30 return. This investment isn’t ‘fruit bowls and yoga’. This is about creating common language and rituals and skills that unlock performance in a psychologically safe environment.  When you can show up in a grounded, fully present state; intentionally helping people feel seen and heard by the way you connect, coach and maintain curiosity; you unlock organisational productivity and effectiveness.

So, where do you start? 

Understand the neuroscience  

• The human brain constantly scans for threats and can’t tell the difference between a physical and psychological threat. Either way, cortisol is spiked.
• Learn to recognise when your own or other’s cortisol has spiked and how to reduce it before it becomes chronic, leading to deteriorating mental health.

Influence your own brain chemistry 

Complement work-related dopamine (achievement) with:

• Oxytocin through connecting at a human level with others inside and outside work (we are tribal by nature).
• Serotonin through helping others and giving structured positive feedback.
• Remember: Achievement-based dopamine alone isn’t enough for sustainable mental health.

Influence the brain chemistry in your Executive 

• Build genuine connections with your executive team on things that have nothing to do with work to elicit their oxytocin.
• Create a psychologically safe environment for them to thrive in, fail fast and deliver their best (versus pitting them against each other), providing encouragement and coaching not criticism to elicit serotonin.
• Facilitate productive creative conflict to debate and solve issues (eliciting dopamine) while watching out for and stopping and harmful social conflict (which causes unhelpful sustained cortisol).

Mental health isn’t an HR issue to outsource – it’s a leadership imperative. While Safety and HR can provide guidance on psychosocial risk assessments and potential strategies, a healthy organisational culture starts with you. When you understand mental health fundamentals and what your brain needs to thrive, you can make intentional decisions that have an ongoing positive ripple effect.

In today’s business environment, understanding mental health isn’t optional – it’s essential for impactful leadership. The question isn’t whether to address mental health, but how to integrate this understanding into your leadership approach effectively. The ball is in your court. What’s the next play?

Written by Genevieve Hawkins.
Have you read?
Countries in the world with the most female billionaires.
Countries ranked by the percentage of the workforce that is made up of women.
Countries with the most (and least) personal space.
World’s Most (And Least) Religious Countries.