Are you getting to understand how your team are really coping ?
Time for Change have launched a new initiative to better support our friends and their mental health https://www.time-to-change.org.uk/asktwice
Ask Twice
1 in 4 of us experience a mental health problem in any year. And worryingly, the current restrictions on our lives mean men are missing out on support from those around them. So if a mate says he’s fine, he might not be. A second ‘how are you?’ can make all the difference.
This advice isn't just a fundamental for friendship it is the easiest tool in the mental health armoury for managers.
At work we are even less likely to say how we are coping. We still believe that truthfulness around how we are coping may effect our standing in the workplace.
#AskingTwice really helps to open up honest conversations with those in our teams, especially f we recognise and share our own struggles. NO ONE is fine right now. NO ONE is lacking financial, family, health fears right now. We are ALL suffering struggles because of the pandemic.
What we should also remember is that these issues won't magically disappear post max vaccination and a reduction in risk.
We still have the uncertainties of Brexit looming ( no opinion here - just a reality) and we will still be dealing with the delayed ordinance of the pandemic. There are lit long fuses burning in our mental health - anxieties and PTSD may not be so visible now but trust me they're there.
Asking twice should be a standard , not just for 1:1's conversations but for those everyday meetings in a lift or to fill that silence when we get onto an online meeting together.
Ask then ask again. Share your own frailties right not, improve relationships, support and grow together. It will not just pay off on the bottom line in better staff retention, and lower absenteeism rates, it will also fill the karma bank.
And that's the most important one.