Great leaders invite you to bring your whole self to work
In February 2020 Mental Health First Aid England started a new campaign for workplace culture change called My Whole Self. They wanted to encourage employers to create cultures where employees felt psychologically safe enough to bring their whole selves to work, thereby both improving individual mental health and performance.
They also started collecting data.
Last week they published a new report based on that data, in partnership with Henley Business School: The business case for belonging – How psychological safety drives engagement, wellbeing, and performance. One key finding:
The number of employees who feel they can bring their 'whole self' to work has fallen by 25% since 2020 - from 66% to just 41%.
“Creating and maintaining positive, safe workplace cultures is one of the biggest challenges leaders face. ”
Given the wholesale defunding of EDI programmes and policies in the US and US-funded agencies, this data is particularly worrying.
What does it mean to able to bring your whole self to work?
· It means you feel safe and seen
· It means you can relax and bring all your energy and creativity to what you’re doing without fear of gossip and whispers
· It means you trust your leaders, and your colleagues
· It means you can make jokes, throw out crazy ideas, challenge others, admit mistakes and ask for help
· It means all your energy goes into your work, not hiding yourself
· It means you don’t dread Monday mornings
· It means you can feel successful, grow and learn and build a career you love.
82% of the 2000 people in the sample thought it was important that people are able to bring their whole self to work
41% of people feel they can
31% felt their colleagues actually could
This is particularly true for those with protected characteristics:
54% of black employees say not being able to bring your whole self to work impacts productivity
51% of gay or lesbian employees say it impacts their mental health
75% of people with metal ill health felt they could not bring the whole self to work.
Lack of psychological safety can be devastating: it ruins careers and lives and destroys self-confidence. Many of us know this from personal experience. We gradually hide more and more of ourselves and become quieter and quieter. We stay in our offices and we begin to shrink. We don’t want to stay, but we don’t have the energy or confidence to leave. We spiral down.
In the language of Apple TV+ hit “Severance” it can lead to the separation of your “innie” - or work self - from your “outie” - for everything else. It speaks to a compartmentalisation that’s a form of self-protection. There’s a reason why those words are going viral.
On the other hand, as this report shows, psychologically safe workplaces are huge multiplyers, not only improving individual and collective mental health, but also building shared purpose, performance, productivity and retention.
Creating and maintaining positive, safe workplace cultures is one of the biggest challenges leaders face. It’s also a key part of the work I do with new leaders. It all starts with values. Good leaders know their values and use them to guide their decisions. Whole, happy teams know their value and feel aligned with the values of their colleagues, leaders and their organisation.
None of this is easy, but as the report notes, it could not be more important.
You can read the full report here: https://hly.ac/3XIAcfo
There are a lot of good, practical resources here: https://mhfaengland.org/
