Actually they could be one and the same. Put another way, how many people in your organization are mentally incapacitated, or on the verge of some kind of mental break down?
Are managers trained to deal with these kinds of mental disturbances that are affecting the workplace? No.
Dealing with employees' mental illness is not part of the job description. Managerial training programs assume people are mentally "healthy."
One might say this is the millennium of the mind -- the good, the bad, the ugly and the beautiful. Only the resilient and the emotionally intelligent will do well. How are you doing?
So, before we move on, let's get an idea of what constitutes mental disturbances. The obvious ones are depression, schizophrenia, obsessive compulsive behaviours, various addictions.
Some numbers to consider: In the USA about 22 percent of the population over 18 struggles with some form of mental illness. Depressive turbulences are ranked as the top five cause of disability in the western world. Estimates are that a depressive employee operates at about a 20% efficiency.
So, it takes 5 depressed people to do the job that one mentally healthy person can do well. Ka-ching!
In the graying world, the number of people over 50 who were admitted for drug abuse, doubled from 1992 to 2008, cocaine being a favorite drug of choice.
But we also need to recognize that marginally, undiagnosed, socially acceptable mental disorders such as sexually inappropriate behaviours (which cost HP $$5 billion in valuation), workaholism, out of control anger (think the Jet Blue steward here), pornography (estimates are that some men spend as much as 40% of their time doing this), extreme internet social networking, substance abuse, sleeplessness (a tired person is a mistake-prone person), post traumatic stress syndrome, are a major factor affecting a significant minority of employees.
Then we have those people who
are under pressure to do more with less and who are transitioning from comfortable old roles into new more demanding ones,
have - or are about to - lose faith in themselves because of more stress,
are collapsing mentally from workplace and personal life turbulences,
are turning bitter, and
are feeling guilty about their failure to measure up.
So what's a manager to do?
Be aware that this is going in your organization so you can understand why some people may be behaving in "strange" ways, or, why you do not seem to have the influence to get people to perform better.
Accept that this is the "new normal." Your job as manager is becoming more difficult because of these mental stresses and strains in the workplace. This does not mean you should become a psychologist. It requires that the best you can do is create a working environment in which the stresses and strains are minimized.
Develop your emotional intelligence so you can effectively create a work environment in which people are listened to, respected and given the right amount of help to do their job. These three tactics are proven to increase people's well-being that contributes to a job done better.
My forty years of being a psychologist tells me that an empathetic work environment is a powerful antidote to the mental turbulence that many people are feeling these days. Many of my clients have told me that their healthy workplace is a refuge from some of their personal problems.
Make sure you take time off. Something like 51- 64% of managers do not take their entitled vacations.
Short breaks, like 5-day weekends are useful mental rechargers.
But even better, research tells us that a minimum of a 14 day break is necessary to adequately recharge one's mental jets.
These breaks, in combination with getting enough sleep, doing some exercise and eating nourishing food are incredibly helpful to keeping stress levels down.
Do you see Mental strain on these people who work and people working for you. You can meet these challenges is how
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