As we work to create a positive culture, it’s vital that we address the need for accountability in our leaders, and their people, to ensure that agreements and commitments will be seen through and not abandoned before we reach our goals.
Everyone has a role to play in looking after their own mental health and creating a mentally healthy workplace, however the development of such workplaces depends on leadership from the top.
“22% of employees think that lack of commitment at the very top of the organisation is a barrier to improving workplace mental health and wellbeing”
Leaders are better equipped to build a mentally healthy workplace culture when they have the necessary capabilities, skills and mindsets to drive change.
So, we need to develop and support our leaders in positive behaviours, such as:
Legitimacy – how we conduct ourselves and use our authority to remain lawful, honest and maintain respect
Communication – the language used by leaders sets expectations for employees and helps build cohesion in teams
Mindfulness / attentiveness – a mindful and attentive leader displays a compassionate and non-judgemental approach to leadership
Trust and vulnerability – when a leader shows vulnerability, it opens up the possibility of positive and genuine work place relationships. This creates space for honest conversations and builds trust with our employees to speak up
Growth Mindset – increase workplace engagement and openness to giving and receiving feedback
Self-awareness – leaders who can identify how their behaviours, emotions and stress levels at work affects the people around them will help them in building supportive working relationships.
WorkWell Toolkit page, Show Leadership Commitment to Creating a Mentally Healthy Workplace.
LINKS BETWEEN THESE BEHAVIOURS AND THE THREE LEADERSHIP STYLES
Legitimacy and Communication sit within the Participative Leadership style of Transformational Leadership. They provide employees with a strong sense of relatedness and their sense of status is strong as they feel supported and respected. Employees are better informed and when they feel heard, they tend to listen more to others.
Mindfulness / Attentiveness and Trust and Vulnerability are Inspirational Leadership styles. They provide more certainty for employees, who feel safer and more self-assured because they have clarity and are therefore prepared to take more initiative.
Growth Mindset and Self-awareness are Coaching styles of Transformational Leadership. They result in less stressed and more secure and less distracted employees, with greater team cohesion, who feel able to speak up more and share their ideas. Under this leadership style, employees will feel well supported, have a strong sense of autonomy and grow in competence as they feel valued.
Providing Transformational Leadership development for leaders with a focus on building Inspirational, Coaching and Participative Leadership capability is a key element of the Integrated Approach and gives leaders the skills and capabilities to create accountability — in themselves, and in the people they work with.
To successfully create accountability, an organisation needs leaders who demonstrate Inspirational, Coaching and Participative Leadership behaviours.
Visit the Lysander website to explore how they can help your organisation’s leaders better understand their influence on mental wellness in your organisation (and how this approach incorporates the building of transformational leadership capability into the Integrated Approach.)
When our people trust that we will do the right thing and that we'll do what we said we'd do, they perform better. This is about taking accountability.
It’s about leaders demonstrating ownership and initiative. This means that when we say we will do something, we follow through and get it done.
Accountability leads to greater workplace mental health through:
Increased team morale
Clear priorities being set across the team
Employees becoming more engaged
The team or individual being more likely to meet goals
Higher levels of trust
Lower turnover
It’s important for leaders to approach accountability with a lens of self-awareness — understanding how their people view their own accountability, and how that can inspire accountability in their people.
Leaders can positively influence change first by defining the change that is to be seen within the organisation, and then identifying and acting on ways they can improve how they lead the change.
The behaviours employees expect to see their leader’s role-model include:
Endorsing and actively supporting the change, where leaders are seen to be actively working to create the culture; and encouraging action and promoting the initiative
Role modelling the change expected, by how they model the expected values, behaviours and emotions
Creating cohesion; by communicating the benefits; communicating openly, honestly and frequently; inspiring trust; actively addressing resistance; and rewarding and giving recognition
Supporting people to adopt the change, by actively supporting those adopting the change; being accessible and listening to their people; providing useful and constructive feedback; and providing development opportunities.
The WorkWell Toolkit page, Show Leadership Commitment to Creating a Mentally Healthy Workplace provides great examples of how you can support leaders to take accountability for workplace mental health and wellness.
“When employees have more control over how they do their jobs, lower workloads, and more support, their health improves.”
Call To Action
Work with your leadership team to create individual and shared accountability to create culture change.
Building self-awareness through reflection may help leaders recognise any unhelpful patterns. Leaders should approach accountability with a focus on mental wellness.
Follow the steps below to help create accountability in your leadership team.
1
Assess your leaders’ ability to positively influence change and provide feedback on areas for improvement. Get your leaders to agree on which specific actions they can take to increase their commitment to creating a mentally healthy workplace.
Tip: Use the Leadership Action Plans template from WorkWell Toolkit page, Show Leadership Commitment to Creating a Mentally Healthy Workplace to record outcomes from these discussions.
2
Commit to setting those you work with up for success. This is the only way to make sure you are both set up to win.
Ensure your leaders have the tools available to support their great work by updating your workplace resources, including policies and procedures; performance and development frameworks; employee programs including training and development, health and wellness programs, peer support such as mentoring and coaching, and support programs such as EAP.
3
Regularly review the initiatives - track and measure progress, don’t just set it and forget it. Put the plan in writing so you can revisit it again if there are ever any questions on what was originally decided. Return to the Leadership Checklist results from your initial assessment of your leaders to track their progress improving in the areas identified.
Tip: Schedule the review of your leadership team’s actions at the same time as the review of your mental health strategy, as they are closely linked.
Visit the WorkWell Toolkit page, Show Leadership Commitment to Creating a Mentally Healthy Workplace for more information, tools and templates to help create accountability.