Mental and emotional health, forging a new path

They have been veiled, discouraged, and even denied. As they are an innate part of human life, they have not been given the attention they deserve in many regards. Until now. 

No matter what nationality, age, gender, or job, all of us have to take care of our mental and emotional health and understand that these go hand in hand with other areas of health – physical, social, and financial. This is not just some trend. 

Even though mental and emotional health are used interchangeably to refer to the same thing, there are specific differences between them. Here are a few of them: emotional health is responsible management of feelings and the ability to channel them and use them in a positive way. Mental health is the balance of the psychological, cognitive, and emotional states, thus allowing us to manage different situations, whether positive or negative, with emotional and behavioral control. Personally, I consider them to be interrelated concepts, so I will refer to them as if they were “almost” the same.

In the workplace, where we spend 1/3 of our lives, the impact that our organization and the way we work has on our mental health is critical. Each of us is just that, one person. We are the same at work and at home; what happens to us at work affects us personally and vice versa. Therefore, companies have the responsibility and moral duty, including a legally binding duty, to implement integrated health and safety strategies that cover prevention, early detection, and support for their partners.

Affective Leadership 

We can say that the company’s health depends on the health of its people. With this understanding, aspects such as overwork, conflicts, and a lack of disconnection are some examples of threats to mental health. In this regard, an organization’s level of maturity – among other things – could be measured by the leadership style; at the same time, effective leadership can recognize its own limitations, abilities, and skills, a leadership capable of “soul-searching” and ensuring high levels of psychological well-being. These healthy, people-driven leaders can balance the interests of the company, its employees, and its customers. 

I believe that, when organizations succeed in transcending the mere labor strata and positively influence the lives of the people who belong to the organization, that says a lot about their leaders, which guarantees success at all levels.

What happens if mental health is lacking in an organization?

Today, there’s no longer any doubt that a business area or department with rather chronic, unaddressed psychological malaise – whether individual or widespread – is an unflattering diagnosis. This poses the risks of having to assume not only economic losses stemming from absenteeism, leaves of absence, and lack of productivity, but also losing valuable human capital and damage to the brand’s image.

We therefore see that the impact is not minor. Health care implicitly entails aspects such as performance, commitment, or the business’s sustainability, factors that directly impact the organization’s competitiveness. No one said that managing people is easy: it requires technical knowledge, especially skills that many people must learn, such as individual and collective occupational health and well-being, innovation, and emotional intelligence. So if we can identify the problem and put relevant solutions in place, we will be taking a first – and major – step to show that our organization genuinely supports its people.

It’s time to take care of ourselves

In reality, it always has been. Taking care of ourselves and helping/teaching others how to take care of themselves, whichever one is right for our position, should be a non-negotiable priority. Feeling good at work means carrying out one’s tasks with meaning, being motivated, maintaining good relationships with colleagues, feeling recognized, taking on and keeping up an appropriate work rate, etc. These first “well-being and job satisfaction requirements” can be constructed naturally, or they can also be created with the help of well-being policies that will help transform the organization’s culture if necessary. However, the company can do much more to ensure mental and emotional health. This is the case with organizations that are increasingly starting up specific programs to support employees – and even their families – that offer personalized and professional support in times of crisis or psychological difficulty (much more common than often thought, and which affects us all at some point in our work and personal life).

This trend in health and well-being has been ongoing in the business world for a few years, and I find that this shows positive change in the steps taken and the achievements reached thus far. There is always some exception, but I am glad to see that most companies are seeing the value of caring for the health and well-being of their employees.

Fortunately, we’re taking health and well-being more and more seriously, and mental health has taken giant steps forward in ways we wouldn’t have imagined just three years ago. For these reasons, I am optimistic about a future where health and well-being are really taken into account by all as a fundamental value for the success of any business project, any family, and society at large.