Apart from the fatalities and long-term effects of the virus itself, the extended restrictions, the change, chronic concern and bad news is taking a toll on the mental health of many.
A leader’s role amid the uncertainty of Covid-19, is to continue to operate the best way possible, provide everyone else with direction, encouragement and answers. Many leaders come to us with a grave concern for their teams’ mental health and stress levels; working from home, full time or part time add a lot of strains on single people as well as parents and couples.
Many leaders are taking it upon themselves to play a part in the mental support of their employees and teams. This places an unusual stress on leaders.
The most important way in which to support your team, is to take care of yourself first. Here are three things leaders can do to take care of themselves. Consider this the leading in Covid “put the mask on yourself first” guidelines.
- Stop for a while, every day.
We are human beings, not human doings. Leave the home office, turn off the devices and stare at the snow for a while, even a few hours.
Our most valuable tool to get through this is self care. Unplug and look inwards to better understand our own emotions, and make sense of where we are at the moment.
Barez-Brown says “’I encourage everyone to dedicate time daily to invest in your mental health and spend time understanding how you feel and why. Then you can use this to make a conscious decision to enable you to move forward.”
2. Talk openly about mental health:
Pretence and putting on a braver face is not always the best choice. It is hard work and draining. Josh Krichefski, Global COO of Mediacom started a company wide newsletter called “my mental health story” with his own story. The purpose was to normalize the conversation around mental health. All cultural changes start form the top. Krichefski says “Sharing something very personal to the whole company, with my name attached to it, is quite powerful and impactful. I am very open about the benefits of going to therapy and everyone at work knows I go.”
3. Exercise:
The emotional and mental benefits of exercise has been researched and proven over and over. However, with limited access to group exercise, gyms and sports, we easily turn to the couch and Netflix as a refuge.
For beating the Covid blues and being an inspiration to your team, a light run, ski, yoga, dance or anything that increases your heart rate will help to alleviate worries and stress.
This is a time where emotional intelligence, discipline to work on oneself and resilience is a leader’s greatest asset.
“Mental health…is not a destination, but a process. It’s about how you drive, not where you’re going.” – Noam Shpancer, PhD
For more way to support yourself and your team through this, contact us at https://sage-summit.ca/contact/
