Azizi Marshall discusses how leaders build workplace cultures of care through training on mental health warning signs, boundary-setting, and psychological safety. An attorney prevented a costly lawsuit by training staff properly. Without psychological safety, workplaces show fear and poor communication.
Something that you want all leaders, all managers to know that would set themselves up for better support and success in this area of supporting employee resilience.
Yeah, you. You actually reminded me of an attorney that does a lot of corporate work. So he goes in and he supports the organization and the business to, you know, weed out any potential lawsuits and to handle all those. And he said it always goes back to training. If the people would have had the training they need to handle that situation, this lawsuit never would have happened. We wouldn't be. We wouldn't be spending all because attorneys charge so much money, y' all know, so it is. If they could prevent. He's like, I don't want to have to work for you. I want you to never have to call me. So I. I would say that if you can go to the training and actually learn what the warning signs again, of mental illnesses are, understand how to provide resources, understand how to take care of yourself as so you're not burning out and understand what boundaries look like for you. All of that can be so helpful. And like you were saying, Beth, that psychological safety, but then it also trickles out to your customers. So when you have proper training and how your employees can handle themselves and manage their emotions and deal with angry customers, the customers are. Then they're like, oh, wow, this. This is wonderful. The service is great. Everybody just seems happy. And you get even better employees coming in. Because I will tell you, so many places I' gone to where, when you look around, why would anybody want to work here? Nobody's talking to each other. People are afraid. I mean, I've had many times when we've gone in and done our workplace culture of care assessments, people were afraid to come talk to us. So it's. It's building. Like you're saying that. That psychological safety and that culture of care. But again, you do that through a lot of training and education of your people.
What, what advice would you give someone like me who. I just. I don't want to talk about all that stuff.
It's so funny you say that, Beth, because I. I recently worked with a group of attorneys and the. Let's see, the. The assistant brought me in to talk about how to take care of themselves. Stress reduction in the workplace. And the owner was there. We had never met. And by the end of the workshop, he was literally bawling in the room and just saying, I. I want the, you know, our company to be strong. And I. I don't want, like, his passion for what he was doing was just so palpable in that moment. And everyone in the room just looked at him and said, we never knew how much this meant to you. And checking in with him recently, they are working even harder for him because he was so vulnerable in this isn't just a business. It isn't just a company that I just, like, put together. It's like, this is my heart and soul and here. And it's shown through each one of you. So because of that, his team is now working harder for him again, taking care of themselves, because that was the whole point of being there. And that just shows that when we can be vulnerable in certain moments where it can make that impact, I really do believe that then your team sees you as a human instead of this boss that is above everyone, telling everyone what to do. They also then understand when you're having a challenging day and you may be a little snippy that day, or you may be a little bit more direct than usual, and they can go, okay, like, this is coming from his passion, not because he's annoyed with me, but then they're also feeling comfortable to then talk to him. Hey, how are you doing? Are you checking in with yourself? Like, we'll get that project done, no problem. But we're noticing, you know, it's a little bit different now here. So what. What can we do to help alleviate some of the stress for you? So they're. They're all working together now to make sure that that isn't overwhelming each other.
