Mental Health & Ginger
Shout out to Russell Glass, CEO of Ginger, a mental health platform targeting enterprise clients that spun out from MIT Media Labs moons ago. Russ has become a spokesperson on the topic and was recently featured in Fortune on the topic of prioritizing employee mental health.
I’ve known Russ for many years. He’s an inspiring and thoughtful leader — a leader I greatly respect. He joined the Outsell Leadership Community yesterday for a conversation with our client CEOs about what we can do to improve the mental health and well-being of our teams during such a challenging time. Be on the lookout for some new studies they have done.
As always, Russ provided must-have guidance:
1. So many of the issues driving mental-health concerns among our ranks boil down to loss of control.
2. Communicate more, communicate openly — talk about your own issues or struggles right now.
3. Create regular routines for folks, meetings that happen at a regular cadence or anything that gives rhythms to otherwise uncertain times.
4. Provide more opportunities for independent decision-making.
5. Accept that 100% productivity isn’t realistic right now.
6. Ask employees what they would like to see happen, and ensure that their voices are heard.
7. Make sure employees get “brain rest” so they have better work-life balance. Consider giving everyone a Friday a month off or some other routine break.
8. Have leaders take time off and unplug, and ask their teams to take time off and unplug. Don’t email on evenings and weekends — if you do, make it clear that a response isn’t required.
9. Normalize grief. Many of us have lost family members or friends. We’ve lost people in our lives and we’ve lost a way of life that for so many of us no longer exists.
10. Invest in employee mental health. It is not an expensive benefit and is essential right now. Visit www.ginger.com/roots for free resources, and I’m going to do a shout-out for their services: Run, don’t walk, to add Ginger to your repertoire of essential benefits.
Most of all, Russ points to the importance of compassion right now and instilling it in our culture and in our leadership. He said compassion = empathy + action and I can’t think of a better mantra to lead with right now. Thank you, Russ, for your wisdom yesterday and for helping us all be better leaders. You’re an awesome leader doing awesome work!