How to Improve Employee Mental Wellbeing
The Covid crisis, lockdown measures and home working, have brought mental health and wellbeing into the foreground of discussion.
Here is the question we need to answer: How can we help people regain and retain a better level of mental health and well-being, especially when faced with difficult circumstances?
In order to achieve any goal, the first step is to clearly define it. If our goal is "good mental health", then we need to define the term.
What is good mental health?
Good mental health may be defined as, "A sense of emotional stability and well-being, based upon a mind that has achieved steady-states of Clarity, Rationality, and Positivity".
Clarity, Rationality and Positivity.
People with good mental health have three key distinguishing characteristics:
- A high degree of mental clarity; they know what they want and why they want it.
- The ability to judge rationally and think logically.
- A positive, optimistic outlook for the future, and positive intentions towards themselves and others.
People with poor mental health show the opposite set of characteristics:
- Unclear, uncertain and confused thought-processes and a distinct lack of optimistic goals.
- Irrational, illogical thought processes, resulting in many behavioural errors, which leads to loss of self-confidence and increase in self-doubts.
- A negative, pessimistic outlook for the future, and negative emotions directed at themselves and others.
How can we support people with mental health problems?
Let us assume that we are not doctors and cannot prescribe medications, nor can we give them a nicer place to live.
But what we can do is to give them help, in the form of coaching, mentoring and skills training, in order to create the internal conditions for better mental health.
- Clarity in thought, words and goals. We help people to construct long range, valuable and worthwhile goals.
- Guidance to build rational, logical modes of thought which will help people avoid making obvious errors and will empower them to build practical plans that will achieve their goals.
- Coaching to transform "emotive pessimism" into "rational optimism", and skills to help them create positive relationships with themselves and others.
Understanding negative concepts.
There are many concepts that denote not "things-in-themselves", but rather, "the absence of other things".
For example:
- Cold is not a thing. It is the absence of heat.
- Poverty is not a thing. It is the absence of wealth.
- Darkness is not a thing. It is the absence of light.
In the same way, poor mental health is not a thing, but may be regarded as "the absence of good mental health".
The best way to eliminate darkness is to switch on the light.
The best way to eliminate poor mental health, is to teach people the skills consistent with good mental health.
Mental Wellbeing Training
Corporate Coach Group have training programmes designed around the three core skills, each one has multiple layers of complexity, but may be summarised in three major concepts.
- Clarity
- Rationality
- Positivity.
If you want to know more about our Mental Health programme leading to better mental health, then please contact us.
good mental health
In business, good mental health is a steady state of mind. The person sees goals with clarity, reasons in a logical way, keeps an even mood under pressure, and holds a hopeful view of the future for self and others, which guides helpful action.
CG4D Definition
Context: Business
Genus: State
- High mental clarity about aims and motives
- Habit of rational, logical thought
- Positive and hopeful outlook towards self and others
- Stable emotional balance when under pressure
Article Summary
When leaders give staff clear aims, coach sound thinking and build a positive outlook, employee mental wellbeing rises; this clarity, reason and hope cut stress, lift output and guard the bottom line.