Previously a topic plagued by taboos, mental health has become such a common concern for organizations that the doors of discussion are opening. For change strategist and governance professional Shona McGlashan, that conversation has become more prevalent in her work, offering leaders organizational insight in the areas of governance, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) and, increasingly, wellbeing of the mental sort. That all three speak to a unity of greater purpose and profitability is the mark of an evolving economy grounded in greater demands from talent and greater stressors for everyone—leaders included—than ever. We sit down to better define workplace responsibilities, as well as leave leaders with a few healthy practices of their own.

Key Takeaways:

• Leaders are not responsible for curing mental health problems in the workplace—they are responsible for not adding to them;
• Leaders need to not only take care of their own mental health, but look to the obstacles inherent within their organizations impinging on the mental health of others;
  
• Leaders need to accept that managerial relations often have a greater impact upon employee mental health than doctors or therapists; and
  
• Leaders need to look at mental health not as a problem to be fixed, but a shared reality akin to physical health upon which to build.
  

“Ultimately, leaders should be looking at the wellbeing of their teams because it is the right thing to do. What higher goal is there than human wellbeing? That said, where you can capture most leaders’ attention is by looking at costs and productivity,” said Shona. “For most organizations, their short- and long-term disability claims are now more than half mental health-related and going up. They’re losing hours, losing productivity, and accumulating costs. So even if leaders don’t buy into the importance mental health on a values level, you can reach them through the data.”

Recognized as Canada’s Governance Professional of the Year in 2023, Shona spends a good deal of time helping organizations better their decision-making, which increasingly draws clients into those discussions around EDI and wellbeing—particularly in a post-pandemic world in which many leaders felt their own mental health suffer for perhaps the first time.

“What I saw in those executive teams pre-Covid was that their mental health was generally better than individual contributors because that group has agency, money and control. But in those early days of the pandemic that got flipped on its head because the leaders were taking on these huge responsibilities,” said Shona. “So talking to that C-suite group about how they can take care of themselves was often new—it wasn’t something they had necessarily thought of before that—because often it takes a crisis for us to truly pay attention.”

The fact that the conversations are happening at all mark a change in mindset for many leaders, moving beyond taboo and to-do to recognize mental health for what it is—one of the primary drivers of individuals and organizations alike.

“By trade, I am a governance professional, but I followed my nose into leading EDI and workplace mental health initiatives because those were important to me, and my work is now about half and half, which I love,” said Shona, who now finds herself filling a unique niche in the evolving spectrum of EDI efforts—reminding everybody they are part of the solution, much akin to mental health.

“Because I started my EDI work working with a lot of boards and executive teams, who tend to be a group of quite privileged people who are often white, male, middle-aged and university-educated—sometimes that group can feel quite alienated. But what I think I do well is help people understand that no matter your background or privilege, you have a part to play in this,“ said Shona. “Privilege isn’t a moral failing, but it is a responsibility. We’re not looking to push people down, we’re looking to lift everybody up.”

Most importantly, Shona helps leaders understand what they do and don’t need to be doing regarding mental health in the workplace—while offering tips for taking good care of their own.

“It is harder for us as a society to talk about mental health disorders more than physical health disorders. Leaders don’t really know how to deal with them. We’re all bit skittish about them. However, we’ve become pretty good about talking about physical health disorders, so I invite people to use that analogy to think about mental health,” said Shona. “For leaders to get over this fear, they need to understand their responsibilities. If someone in your workplace breaks their leg, the workplace is not responsible for treating and healing that broken leg. If someone in your workplace is experiencing a mental health disorder, the workplace is not responsible for curing them. They’re responsible for connecting the person with resources and support— and not making the situation worse.”

Shona looks to Steven Covey’s model for defining those responsibilities.

“There are things you can control, things you can influence and then there are external factors, areas of concern” said Shona. “There are an awful lot of external factors that are contributing to poor mental health in the world right now. There is the climate crisis, the economy, a lot of conflict, housing affordability, which all impact people daily. Now, most organizations can’t fix those things, but often they can contribute in some ways to the solutions.”

In fact, while saving the world might exceed corporate targets, aligning with such efforts can not only unite, but attract and retain valued talent.

“We know people experience better mental health when they are working in a company that is aligned with their values. So organizations that are part of something bigger and led by their values, let people feel they’re part of that bigger whole. That’s a really big 60,000 ft. picture of mental health and what organizations can do,” said Shona. “Work can be amazing for your mental health. It gives you structure, focus, purpose, human connection, money, status—work can be great for your wellbeing.”

That said, at the grassroots level, Shona also knows where most of the mental health challenges stemming from the workplace lie and offers a list of questions that go the heart of the matter:

• Do people have reasonable workloads?
• Do people have clarity on their objectives?
• Do they have the autonomy to achieve those objectives in a way and on a timeline that makes sense to them?
• Do people feel able to speak out and challenge, and ask questions about things they don’t understand?

“We know that people’s team leaders and managers have as much of an impact on their mental health as their spouses or partners and a greater impact on their mental health than their doctors or therapists,” said Shona, acknowledging the disparity between workplace cultures as promised and practised as a major contributor to mental health issues.

“It’s that disconnect. By and large, when I speak with leaders, they say, ‘If only I could make the people in the organization understand that I really do care about them.” I like to believe that people are genuine about that,” said Shona. “You can say all these things, but what are your people hearing and seeing at the end of the day? Are they seeing leaders work crazy long hours, never switching off their email and never taking priorities off their plate, but just adding more and more? If they’re seeing that and/or people get rewarded for behaviours that are bullying or belittling, there is a disconnect. You can say anything you like, but how is it really displaying itself in the culture?”

As for where and how changes needed begins, Shona likes to refer to Spanish poet Antonio Machado—‘Traveller, there is no path. The path is made by walking.’

“You really just have to start the work and see where it takes you. I think about this a lot. I’m going out and changing people’s minds one person at a time, but what is it that creates systemic change? What I have realized is that systemic change also happens one person at a time,” said Shona.

Giving leaders the firm nudge they need, as well as the room to be human, Shona also helps leaders focus on their own mental health, which in turn has led to a change in perspective and strategy for many.

“Organizations know the value of good workplaces, especially those built around values, and they know they need to have good, accessible resources as well. They want and need to have those world-class supports in place, but, more and more, they also want to talk about resilience—specifically, how can they foster resilience as a core capability within their organizations,” said Shona, who views this as a major step forward. “This marks a move away from thinking about mental health as something we need to fix towards thinking about it as a strength we can build. How can we build mental health in our people?”

Stepping beyond the first Buddhist tenet that there is suffering, Shona leans towards banking joy.

“One of the things I do with leaders is help them think about and identify what the things are that really fill their cup. Brené Brown has this great quote I like to share—‘Joy collected over time, fuels resilience, ensuring we’ll have reservoirs of emotional strength when hard things do happen,’” said Shona. “It’s about understanding the foundational level of things in life that you need to keep yourself in a good head space—and that’s not rocket science. But it’s also asking, ‘How are you connecting with people? Are you grateful for them? How are you being mindfully present in your life? How are you gathering joy? What ARE the things that bring you joy’?”

The value of asking those kinds of questions carries an ROI of its own—one which not only fosters resilience, engagement and trust, but also a greater understanding of mental health in terms of what makes us human.

That said, while keeping all of the above in mind, Shona drives home the importance of accepting that not every day is going to be a mental health home run—organizationally or individually.

“There are plenty of practices for good mental health, but helping leaders understand the Mental Health Continuum—a model developed by the Mental Health Commission of Canada—is also really useful because faking is exhausting,” said Shona. “The point is that we’re all somewhere on that continuum from healthy to troubled or unwell and that we move around on it—that’s a normal part of human life.”

Accepting that only further reduces the stigma and opens the doors to discussion further around mental health.

It also prompts another great quote from Shona—this time from Virgil’s Aeneid—to serve any of us well during those ebbs in the tide: “Endure and save yourself for days of happiness.”