HRHeadStart #66: Leaders' Impact on Mental Health; Personal Branding

The Talent Agenda

As employees continue reporting high levels of stress and burnout, companies are pouring money into mental health solutions. These include counselling, coaching, more paid-time off, meeting-free days/weeks, meditation apps etc. These are all good, but one of the biggest impact on employees’ mental health comes from their manager.

A new meta-analysis shows the impact of different leadership styles on employees’ mental health. It analyzed 7 different leadership styles and how they affect employees.

The research found that managers with a transformational leadership style had the highest positive influence on employees’ mental health, whereas a destructive leadership style had the worst effect. Interestingly, the study also found that transformational leadership was just as powerful in explaining positive mental health outcomes as destructive leadership was in explaining negative outcomes.

What this means is that making average leaders better can have just as much of a positive impact as minimizing destructive leadership. While we pay a lot of attention to minimizing toxic behaviours in the workplace, we also need to invest in building better leaders. That could be just as effective (or even more) than other mental health programs.

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Working Better

One might think that the concept of Personal Brand came about in the age of social media. It actually goes back to a brilliant article by management guru Tom Peters in 1997 (I am unsure if others have used this term before that).

The reality of organizational life is that working hard and being great at your job is a necessary, but often insufficient condition for success. How do people know what are the “features and benefits” you offer? How do people recall you? How do you stand out? Check out this article for some really practical things you can start doing to build and market your personal brand.

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Tiny Thought

Build your brand, else you will be a commodity.