Azizi Marshall explains what managers should and shouldn't do for employee mental health. Leaders aren't therapists, but they can reduce barriers to help by consolidating resources on one sheet, training managers to spot warning signs like mood changes, and building psychological safety so people speak up early.
What do you think is the expectation of leaders when it comes to supporting resilience and mental health when they're not therapists, when they have business goals, when they have financial goals, they have multiple priorities that they're juggling. Realistically, what do you think the. The accountability for a manager is in terms of supporting mental health?
I think the accountability for a manager is you have to take care of your people in order to take care of your business. So if you're pushing things under the rug, if you're saying, no, you don't need a mental health day, or like you're saying your son is asking for that, and no, you have to take time off and you don't get paid for this, that adds a layer of stress that when that person comes back, they're not going to be as productive. They're actually going to harbor some resentment towards you and therefore not do their best work. That being said, we can only do so much as leaders. We cannot be their therapists. I have talked to so many people in HR where they say, well, we give them the EAP and I'm setting my hard boundaries. And yes, there's definitely a need to set those boundaries in order for hr because y' all have so much you deal with on a daily basis to set those boundaries to take care of yourself. But there has to be some sort of one sheet or resources that you always go to. I would say the biggest thing that has helped organizations that we've worked with is to create that one sheet. So it's not just, oh, here's your eap, go and check it out. It is, here's the number to go to your eap. Here's also additional resources of community centers that we know give free mental health counseling.
Also, in addition to minimizing the barriers to getting information or knowing where to find it, leaders can at least make note of each team member's sort of set point so that they may at least be aware if something seems off before it becomes a crisis.
Yes, absolutely. And there's specific training that managers can get as far as what are warning signs for specific mental health issues. And they're just kind of the basics. You first have to know the people that you're working with and, and know, oh, oh, they always come in on time. And lately they. They've been late by 5, 10, 15 minutes, and it just seems to be getting later and later. Check in with them sooner than later to figure out what's going on.
And I think that's where there's the nice compliment. Between your work, which is solidly sort of in the mental health space, and my work, which is more workplace culture, there's the intersection, because leaders aren't therapists. They can't solve other people's problems. But to me, help number one, or being helpful number one, is just creating the environment where people feel willing to speak up, to share. Maybe I'm dealing with an elderly parent and I'm feeling really off versus. There's definitely some environments where you feel like no matter what, must be on my game. No forgiveness must. And so you, you hold it in because you're even afraid what will people think? You know, I don't want anyone to know. They're going to judge me. So I always tell leaders, the first thing that you can do is simply create the environment for the psychological safety.
