We all know that we need the commitment and sponsorship of the leadership to introduce and embed new initiatives and mental health is no different.
Leadership know the right thing to do but giving real time, commitment, sponsorship and funding to Mental Fitness at work is one of the biggest challenges faced. It could be argued even more important to have the leadership personally invested and engaged in the organisations Mental Fitness and Wellbeing activities, particularly when companies need to demonstrate abolishing the stigmas that exist around the subject.
At Mind & Mission, we discuss the varying levels of leadership engagement.
High attention & high engagement = ENGAGED
The leadership associate the initiative with a solid achievable result that has meaning and value to all parties. The entire organisation will demonstrate commitment and will persist even when faced with difficulty. Learning will be high and change will be adopted and embedded quickly, delivering great results for the business.
High attention & low commitment = STRATEGIC COMPLIANCE
The initiative is seen as having little direct value to the organisation, however leadership associate the initiative with the outcomes and results that do have value (ie productivity/reduced cost). The organisation may start the work but will easily abandon or fail to drive its completion, meaning extrinsic goals are never realised and traction will be easily lost.
Low attention & high commitment = DIVERTED
The direct opposite of strategic compliance but with similar results. Initiatives are seen as hugely beneficial to the organisation and leaders are highly motivated, however the amount of real time provided means there is little traction and interventions ultimately fall by the wayside.
Low attention & low commitment = RITUAL COMPLIANCE
The organisation is willing to expand efforts to avoid negative consequences, but nothing more. The emphasis is on meeting the minimum requirement and not best practice. Benefits will only be at a superficial level, never achieving prevention or tangible benefits.
RETREATISM
The organisational leadership is disengaged, sees the problem as someone else’s. There’s no sponsorship but areas of the business are not actively stopped from interventions. Without role modelling from the leadership, employee participation is negligible as they believe nothing will change, little is learnt and no benefits are seen.
REBELLION
Leadership refuse to see any issues or the importance of mental health intervention. They are disruptive to employee attempts to implement as they see other more important tasks. Negative attitudes develop within tiers of the organisation and employees become fearful of admitting to having mental health issues. The organisation is at risk of
increasing sickness absence, lost productivity, attrition rates increase and ultimately customer dissatisfaction.
Think about which one you see in yourself or others.
