As the importance of a company’s support of workers’ mental health grows, a regular refrain is how crucial it is for individuals right at the top of businesses to drive the agenda.
“The only way we’re going to get the message out is for leaders to stand up and be counted, be personal about this, and talk about it,” says Paul Feeney, chief executive of wealth management firm Quilter.
Feeney has certainly stood up to be counted. A 30-year veteran of the City of London, he believes that mental health is the last taboo of London’s financial services industry – and his description of the causes of poor mental health in the sector will likely resonate with real estate professionals too.
“It comes predominantly from a macho culture,” Feeney says. “It’s not just target-driven. In a lot of firms, some of the ones I’ve grown up in, it almost requires you to go to burn-out.”
Self-destructive behaviour
The mental problems that such pressures lead to are often in turn masked with self-destructive behaviour, he adds. “I’ve seen in the City what happens. People fall back on the old coping devices – alcohol and drugs, sex, gambling. It leads to eating disorders. People feel out of control.”
On a panel of chief executives from various industries at the This Can Happen conference about workplace mental health, Feeney said he spent 20 years suffering with his own mental wellbeing before seeking help. “I’m in a position now to make some change happen and speak up about it.”
Speaking up, for Feeney, means spreading the importance of mental wellbeing not only in London’s Square Mile, but also throughout his own company, where he has helped to launch initiatives such as Thrive, to support colleagues.
“I want to make sure that we’ve got, in my organisation, an area where people know it’s OK not to be OK,” Feeney says. “Some of the most accomplished people I’ve ever met have struggled with mental health.”
Normalising the conversation
Feeney was joined in the discussion by leaders from engineering group Jacobs, insurer Direct Line, oil and gas company Shell and advertising group Ogilvy, all of whom shared stories of their companies’ experiences of promoting positive mental health and supporting those suffering.
At Direct Line, chief executive Penny James says the company’s journey started about two years ago after four employees took their own lives. “We have about 10,000 employees – it’s not statistically awry, it wasn’t anything we could see that was due to us,” she says. “But none of that matters. The consequences are devastating for the people around them – family, but also colleagues – and it just didn’t feel right.”
The company has since trained all managers in handling mental health issues and has mental health first-aiders on every floor of every office.
Steve Demetriou, chair and chief executive of Jacobs, says that when he arrived at the company about four years ago, it was culturally “in disarray”, with a lack of diversity particularly notable. And as he worked to discover “what’s on the minds of our employees”, much of the feedback he received was around the need for more support for mental health.
Jacobs has now trained 1,600 mental health champions, and Demetriou hopes staff see a difference in him personally as he holds his regular town hall meetings at offices around the globe.
“When I do these town halls, I don’t talk about profitability, I don’t talk about the typical business things,” he says. “What we talk about is culture, and we talk openly about mental health and how to all feel that we can bring our whole self to work and what we need to do about it, and it has normalised the conversation.”
Accountability
When such initiatives come from the top, it is crucial that the rest of the business can hold leaders accountable for their success, says Michael Frohlich, chief executive at Ogilvy UK.
“Checks and balances are really important,” he adds. “In my business we have an inclusion board, which is not c-suite, not the board, it’s a separate group of people who hold us accountable [on issues such as] diversity, inclusion, mental health and wellbeing. We as a leadership team are held accountable to it.”
The panel’s chief executives are all some way along their own journeys in promoting mental wellness in the workplace. What advice do they have for a chief executive only just beginning on this path?
“It is as simple as: start,” says Sinead Lynch, chair of Shell UK.
“Start talking and start listening. Ask open questions, engage. Engage with some of your young professionals. Sit there and just listen to their stories and how they find your organisation. Unless you do that and ask those questions at different levels in your organisation, you don’t know your organisation very well.
“It’s crucially important that the leader does show curiosity, an emotional intelligence and empathy – and listens hard.”
To send feedback, e-mail tim.burke@egi.co.uk or tweet @_tim_burke or @estatesgazette
If you need help with any issues raised in this article, you can get support from:
- Mind, the mental health charity 0300 123 3393 – provides advice and support to anyone experiencing a mental health problem
- The Samaritans 116 123 – confidential 24-hour support for people who are experiencing feelings of distress, despair or suicidal thoughts
- Lionheart 0800 009 2960 or 0121 289 330 – charity for RICS professionals and real estate professionals
