Index to support mental, physical and emotional well being

Over recent weeks, as I've delivered "soft skills and mindsets for unprecedented times" sessions, I have been heard to say "I've written a blog on that" - with over 500 posts in this blog alone you'd like to hope so. 

Here's a list of just some of those very posts that I think would be helpful as we face what were unimaginable situations only a few short weeks ago.

Just pick one that resonates, read a few or read them all over the next few weeks.

What ever works for you.

• I've not got the bandwidth at the moment - a reminder to cut yourself some slack as everything we do has been brought into conscious awareness.

• Unprecedented times - a reminder that words have power and the words we choose to describe the current situation have the power to push us away or towards well-being. 
• The difference that will make the difference - what will help each of us at the moment to find balance will be as unique as we each are and it's about finding the difference that will make the difference - here's another post in the same vein but using the local jet skiers as an example of what not to do!

• Motivation is an inside job - a reminder to not give our power away to a virus or other people.
• Absurdity - sometimes the only way to shift our thinking is to get silly with it all.  
• Do need to take your rose coloured spectacles off - self awareness will help point you in the direction where change is needed in order to find that balance of well-being.
• What role are you playing - perhaps worthy of an update very soon as the roles we play in a pandemic will certainly support or hinder our personal flourishing and will be very different to the roles we were playing only a few weeks ago!
• Juggling balls or spinning plates - when in overwhelm it's easy to forget to put the balls down or stop spinning those plates.   

• Being on the same page as others - with such unimaginable things happening it's easy to get out of sync with others and also the facts and data. Whilst not written with the pandemic in mind I wonder whether this more metaphorical exploration might help get us all on the same page, or at least feeling like there's less of a mismatch? 
• My advent series of posts using unconventional tools to provide different perspectives to a situation might provide a few interesting ideas from which to view the current situation and more importantly find a more resourceful mindset to cope with it from.  

and just been reminded of a couple of short stories I've written that might help too

• The wave - my favourite short story I've written about a wave - you need to read it to understand why I love it - mindfulness meets landscaping your life 
• The stone - another short story about the impact of being off kilter!

An index of posts using metaphor to help find that place of calm and balance can be found over on my over Landscaping you life blog.

You may also like my keeping afloat vlogs too :-) or join us on the let's get zagging facebook page were I share regular posts to help keep afloat.

Do let me know if something I've written resonates - and do please also share this index with others who you think might benefit.

If you'd like to be kept up to date with what I'm up to you can sign up for my newsletter here.

The Mental Health Continuum

Much like the sky has a continuum of cloud cover we all have a continuum of mental health.

Which is why my good friend Amy Macdonald at Headtorch frequently reminds us in their workshops, training and elearning that the answer to "how many of us have mental health" is

You'll find some short stories I wrote to support my own mental health over on my Landscaping Your Life blog.

We all have Mental Health

It's Mental Health Awareness Week the above video shares insight from the sea relating to our mental health.

As those at Headtorch remind everyone at their conferences, workshops and elearning the answer to "How many of us have mental health" is

Yes, we ALL have mental health, not just on bad days, not just when we’re feeling down, not just when we’re off work.

Every minute of every day of every year we have mental health - 100% of the time, 100% of us.

Mental health, that just like our physical health shifts up and down a continuum. Which means there’s different strategies needed to support our mental health dependent on where we’re at in any moment. Sometimes the strategy involves visiting the doctor, other times medication, other times talking, a walk, painting, the gym, time with friends or in nature, writing 😉 and so on. As many different strategies for mental health as there are for physical health.

Mental health awareness week is an opportunity for us ALL to consider what we can do to support our own, friends’, family’s, and colleagues’ mental health.

In previous years I’ve shared here insight from Headtorch’s conferences, explored what we can do to support suppliers’ mental health over on the Purchasing Coach blog, and written about strategies for taking care of my own mental health, and even the menopause, a time that significantly impacted my mental health.

This year I thought I’d share some short stories I’ve written. Short stories that explore different aspects of our own mental well being. Not at the very edges of the mental health continuum but of the every day thoughts and beliefs that impact our mental health. They're short stories I originally wrote as a means of reminding myself of the need to support my own mental health.

Short stories I hope you’ll enjoy - you'll find them over on my Landscaping Your Life blog  

Mental Health in Procurement

Just as we all have physical health, we also all have mental health. 

A conversation about mental health is however never as easy as one about physical health. Initiatives such as #MentalHealthAwarenessWeek aim to rectify this oversight. 

In support of Mental Health Awareness Week I'd like to invite you to consider what you're doing to support your own, your colleagues' and even your suppliers' mental health.

Over on my Landscaping Your Life blog this week I explore that one place in nature that helps me find balance for mind, body and soul - the local beach here in Scotland as shown below:  

In that post I ask you to consider what landscape keeps you mentally healthy? (Having a landscape that supports me when I'm out of balance is on my prescription for positivity that I refer back to in times of need.) 

Other posts over recent years where I've explored mental health at work include:

• That's just the way business is - my plea to bring our humanity to work with us, and not to condone unacceptable behaviour and hide behind "That's just the way business is".
• Let's talk about it - notes from attending a HeadTorch conference on changing attitudes towards mental health at work.  
• It's not about the Toast - notes from an earlier HeadTorch conference where a piece of interactive theatre (HeadTorch's USP) highlights the need to be aware of what's really going on.    
• Dear Human Being, with love from your Mental Health - a post card sent from our mental health. What would your post card say? And more importantly, would you listen to its advice? 
• How's your suppliers' mental health? A reminder of the stereotypical behaviours buyers exhibit that can have a dramatic and negative impact on suppliers' mental health.
• A Postcard, with love from your Supplier's Mental Health exploring the six key areas that the HSE say cause stress, and exploring what buyers can do to avoid increasing stress in suppliers in these six areas. 
• Are you a toxic leader? Not something anyone would put their hand up and admit to, and yet something I'd suggest is too easy to slip into in business, and often found where we hear "that's just the way business is".

The first of these posts says it all for me - we're human beings with continuum's of mental, physical and spiritual health. Denying our humanity, and leaving it at the office door, means these continuums are frequently compromised. Burying our head in the sand and denying their importance is counter intuitive, and is not the means of achieving a flourishing and sustainable business. 

We have a choice - ignore mental health at work and hope for the best, or embrace it's importance and ensure our actions support personal and organisational flourishing.

What can you do today to ensure your actions support mental health at work? 

Alison Smith

The Purchasing Coach

Supporting mental health at work

With love from your suppliers' mental health

It's Mental health awareness week (#MHAW17), and with that in mind I wrote a postcard yesterday entitled Dear Human Being, with love from your Mental Health. 

Today I wondered what postcard our suppliers' mental health might write to procurement. After all, we all have mental health, and that includes our suppliers. 

Please note: This is a postcard I'd suggest that is written to the wolves that still exist within procurement, and not to the more enlightened procurement professionals. (A term coined by a group of suppliers at a workshop last year).

POSTCARD

Dear Procurement,

I'm sending this postcard because I know your supplier won't. After all, like you they believe it's just the way business is - dog eat dog an all that!

We just wanted you to understand how your actions negatively impact us, and plead to your own sense of humanity to think about the repercussions of those actions. After all, we're human beings like you, not bar codes or robots!

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) suggests that there are six key areas of work that can cause stress, and in turn impact mental health. The six areas are; role, relationships, demands, change, control and support. 

Let's consider the impact you can have on each of these.

Role
Clarity of role is often a given in buyer/supplier relationships. Although there are times when your actions bring up conflict when you ask your supplier representative to take your side against their own organisation. Perhaps an area our own organisations can impact the most, by understanding this will happen, rather than pressuring them about it. Perhaps even championing our staff for being client centric.

Relationships
The HSE talks of avoiding conflict, and dealing with unacceptable behaviour.

Conflict is often a given in buyer/supplier relationships which means it's up to both parties to understand how to manage their own reaction to conflict, and to understand their style - both the pros and the cons of that style - and on self and others.

Just letting a supplier have it in a rage, and believing your behaviour to be an acceptable reaction to the 'poor' performance you're receiving is unacceptable. So too bullying behaviour, and abuse of your power. Don't leave your humanity at the door - you wouldn't act like that out of the office 5-9 - so why do the rules change 9-5.

If you want to know what it feels like to be on the receiving end of your behaviour, and it is such a great technique for facilitating change, try standing in our shoes for a moment.

And for anyone believing this postcard is aimed at others and not them - you may want to look at the behaviours you've buried your head in the sand about - those behaviours that others see and you deny.

Demands
This area includes work load, work patterns and work environment.

It's perhaps the key area where you impact us. For example tenders with questions you'll never assess, short deadlines, deadlines that mean we have to cancel plans, work the weekend and late into the night. Often passing your own ineffective planning and organisation onto us.

Or what about telling us we are in with a chance when we're not! Or setting selection criteria that might as well mean it's useless us responding to you.

Change
Change management is something managed ineffectively in many organisations, and we're not sure procurement is the sole contributor to it done badly. We'd even suggest that it's one area where suppliers impact procurement's mental healthy badly.

Control
Mental health is achieved by having control over the work we do. Procurement has such a huge contribution to make in this area. Output vs input specs being just one of many contractual changes that could be considered that would significantly impact the mental health of those responsible for delivering a service to you.

Support
When did you last say thank you to a supplier, or show them your support? And before that, when did you do it. A thank you can go a long way, and when stressed I'd suggest it can go even further.

We hope something we've said has triggered a thought about how you can behave differently to your suppliers to support their mental health. In turn we will encourage the suppliers to do the same, and to consider you're mental health - after all you are human just like us, and not a bar code or a robot.

With Love from your Suppliers' Mental Health

It's also interesting to consider what behaviours buying and supplying organisations demonstrate that are counter to their own organisational values statements. After all the majority of values statements include openness, honesty, trust and respect - more here. Adoption of these values would certainly support everyone's mental health.


If you like the idea of aspects of yourself writing postcards to you, you might also like my Soft Skills Toolkit where different soft skills have written postcards to you.

The aim of the toolkit is to provide discussion points for personal or group exploration of your soft skills, allowing you to understand what options you have, should you decide to develop a particular soft skill.

There's 2 versions of the toolkit - Dear Procurement, with love from your soft skills aimed at procurement professionals, and Dear Human Being, with love from your soft skills aimed at a wider business audience. They're only £4.99 for personal use, with pricing available on request for organisational use.

Alison Smith
Unlocking personal and organisational potential using unconventional tools
alison@alisonsmith.eu +44(0)7770 538159

Dear Human Being, with love from your mental health

It's Mental health awareness week (#MHAW17), and with that in mind I wondered what postcard my/our mental health might write to us. After all, we do all have mental health. 

Later in the week there's a postcard To Procurement, from their suppliers' mental health.

POSTCARD

Dear Human Being,

I saw this postcard and it reminded me of your relationship with me!

It can often feel as if I'm the invisible part of you - always there and yet not always acknowledged.

Do you know what that feels like? To know that my own existence is denied by the very person I love and support.

Denying my existence is like denying you have a mind, or a body, or, if you've had them, denying you have children. It's a lie, and a lie you seem to feel comfortable telling.

Your relationship with me should be very similar to those you have with your children; nurturing and supportive and allowing me to flourish. Planning for the day when you don't have to look after my every need as I can now fend for myself.    

I thought that the style of parenting where children are seen and not heard, told to speak only when they were spoken to, and sent to their bedrooms for some minor indiscretions, were only stories told from days gone by. Yet that's how I'm treated - in 2017 no less - told to be quiet, ignored, and pushed away.

How do you bring out the best in your children: you listen to them, you believe what they tell you, you support their strengths, you help them develop the areas they require development in, you encourage them, and you help them build their resilience and confidence. You love them.

To bring out the best in your children you don't ignore them, disbelieve everything they say, call them a liar, or act as if they mean nothing to you. You also don't bully them or shout at them when they make a mistake or don't know what to do. You certainly don't hate them.

As someone I consider to be my guardian all I ask of you is to apply your very best parenting skills, so that we may flourish, grow and succeed - together.

With Love from your Mental Health

If you like the idea of aspects of yourself writing postcards to you, you might also like my Soft Skills Toolkit where different soft skills have written postcards to you.

The aim of the toolkit is to provide discussion points for personal or group exploration of your soft skills. Allowing you to understand what options you have should you wish to develop a particular soft skill.

There's 2 versions of the toolkit - Dear Procurement, with love from your soft skills aimed at procurement professionals, and Dear Human Being, with love from your soft skills aimed at a wider business audience. It's only £4.99 for personal use, with pricing available on request for organisational use.

Alison Smith
Unlocking personal and organisational potential using unconventional tools
alison@alisonsmith.eu +44(0)7770 538159

That's just the way business is!

I started 2017 with an intention, or was it a plea, to ensure that Procurement didn't leave their humanity at the negotiation door. After attendance of a conference on mental health today I realise leaving humanity at the door is a challenge many in business face, not just procurement professionals.

The conference I attended was HeadTorch's #WorksMental in Glasgow. I was official tweeter sharing some of the snippets from the day, and connecting with other's from around the world also speaking about mental health whether at Davos, Westminster Palace's #Headstogether, or BellsLetsTalk over in Canada! (see the # link for more on the tweets shared).

The picture below shows us all celebrating our #mentalhealth, and acknowledging that it's something we all have, 100% of us, with NO exceptions. Acknowledging that just like physical health, mental health is something where we all have good days, great days, meh days and bad days. 

The challenge is whilst physical health is generally talked about and accepted in organisations, there's still a stigma associated with talking about mental health.

As I heard the stories of managers reactions to those with mental health difficulties today I was appalled and saddened. Bullying behaviour, disrespect, abusive language all being validated by the words "That's just the way business is"!

Interesting to consider of course that those business leaderships wouldn't feel the need to justify their behaviour if they thought it was acceptable.

With January 20th, and the presidential inauguration fast approaching, I'm also reminded of similar bullying responses that seem to suggest "That's just the way politics is" too! The same self interest, protectionism, bullying behaviour that justifies inhumane treatment has been seen there too.

I wish I could wave a magic wand and change the situation - but I can't - not over night anyway.

Here's where my thoughts are on WHAT WE CAN DO:

If "it's just the way business is" then it's like that because people acted without humanity and people accepted it. Over time we learnt that the values that drive our actions outside of work are certainly not the ones that can or should drive our actions at work! Somewhere along the lines we all started to believe the lie "That's just the way business is" and started to act from that belief. We accepted or turned a blind eye to those actions that, if undertaken in our personal lives, would have us disowning or walking away from the relationship.

I often get told I'm naive to expect business to operate differently. I also get told:

• You can't do that in business (about some of the unconventional tools I use) - when I do do that in business  
• You can't be honest to a supplier - when I get GREAT deals from suppliers by being honest
• You can't turn down work when you have no work just because it's unethical - when I did just that and survived to tell the tale, and didn't compromise my values as a result!

I also get told 

• You're different - you're not like the wolf like purchasers 
• It's a refreshing change for a purchaser to act like that

I'm not that different really - all I've done is not accept the belief that I have to leave my humanity at the door when I'm working.

Yes it is that simple.

Before you start with "But that won't work" or "If I do I'll get abused/harassed for it", please hear me out.

Firstly who is this "business" you're talking about - are you not a part of this entity called a business? And if so what are you doing to change your own actions to align with this better business we want to see in the world.

If you believe it won't work, and that's your reaction before you've tried doing it then you are still believing that business can not change - belief in the possible has to come first, otherwise change will never be possible.

I was the same over 11 years ago - I felt dis-empowered, bullied, and couldn't see that there was a different way for business to operate. Time and distance provides a perspective that says business can be all the positive things we want it to be - we just have to believe that it's possible.

It doesn't come, however, without making difficult decisions.

Just like the bullied wife, who can't see beyond the belief of her husband that she's worthless without him, and thus so far has stayed and put up with the bullying, disrespect, abusive language, self interest and protectionism, we each have a choice:

• Leave and find a relationship that enables us to take our humanity to work every day
• Have faith in the underlying humanity of the other person and work on the relationship, so it may grow into it's full potential 
• Continue to believe the lies that "that's just the way it is", and accept the consequences of that decision  

Together we can bring humanity back into business - we just have to believe it!

PS: Having just returned from hearing astronaut Colonel Chris Hadfield speak I've written a post "the sky is not the limit" where I end with the words:

"If humanity can do the impossible and go to the moon, humanity can certainly do the impossible and go into the board room." 

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring change inside and out

To provide more evidence of the possibility of taking our humanity to work I'm wanting to interview organisations where humanity is embraced in all of its daily actions, and especially procurement. I'm hoping that will include B Corporations, and that The Elders may also be able to point me in the right direction. Any suggestions of organisations to talk do please do get in touch +44(0)7770 538159 alison@alisonsmith.eu.

Attendance at other #worksmental conferences have had me writing the following posts:

• Let's talk about it - notes from January 2016 conference
• Are you a toxic leader - arising from an agenda item at Jan 2016 
• Is your head in the sand - about our contribution to others' mental health - because whether we like it or not we will be impacting others mental health - positively and negatively
• It's not about the toast - notes from May 2013 conference

And some posts aimed at Procurement professionals:

• How's your supplier's mental health
• Are your supplier's afraid to say no
• Is there room for kindness in procurement

Are you a toxic leader?

Toxic leadership isn't something to be proud of - is it? 

Certainly not when we look at the definition of toxic: poisonous, dangerous, destructive, harmful, malignant, pernicious, deadly! Not something we need in any organisation?

Yet many leaders see that heartless and ruthless streak to be a valuable asset to their organisation - and it can be - in a short term, bottom line, profit only sort of a way!

I recently attended Let's talk about it - changing attitudes towards our mental health at work.

During the session Professor Denis Fischbacher-Smith of The University of Glasgow's Adam Smith, as part of his presentation on: mental health in the workplace: the hidden problem for management education, put up this slide:

That is toxic leaders have:

• Self-centered attitudes, motivations and behaviours
• A lack of concern for others
• Inflated sense of self-worth
• Acute self-interest

Which sounds about right to me - you?

I do wish it were simpler to rid business of such leadership.

If it were then we'd be able to say without hesitation that the financial institutions' leadership are less toxic as a result of the crash in 2008? I'm not sure we can? do you?  

The biggest challenge to ridding the business world of toxic leaders is we don't really have many easy options open to us:

• Changing the toxic leaderships's behaviours
• Changing the toxic leadership's values and beliefs 
• Replacing toxic leadership
• Get the toxic leadership sacked 

Not really anything that easily fits within our individual areas of influence? We can try, but changing other people is never something that's easy to do - even when we have the authority to try. As I write in "Is your head in the sand" toxic leadership is not something many leaders will self identify with - so you've not got much leverage there either.

You only have to look at many of the current, and former, runners for president of the United States of America to realise that power and money, or should that be money and power, are a toxic mix that can get these leaders very far indeed. 

It's no different in many organisations - although I realise there are exceptions (e.g. B Corporation,  Arianna Huffington's Thrive and the third metric, The BTeam's plan B and so on to name but a few).

So if the above are not easy solutions you and I can have any influence over - what can we do? 

Well ...

.... You're not going to like it.......

I assure you you're not going to like my answer ....

.. I really mean it - you're not going to like it...

Here goes.... 

.... A deep breath 

......and my answer is.....

Ensure you're not condoning any of the behaviours demonstrated by these toxic leaders - ie stop behaving like these toxic leaders.

I did warn you.

Here's the logic for my rather bold statement:

If any of us demonstrate any of the following traits:

• Self-centered attitudes, motivations and behaviours
• A lack of concern for others
• Inflated sense of self-worth
• Acute self-interest

How can we criticise another for doing so.

It's too easy to say the repercussions are greater for those with power, and therefore forgive ourselves our little indiscretions.

That then begs the question "where is the line?" - when does someone move from good self interest to bad self interest, or move from acceptable lack of concern for others to unacceptable lack of concern for others?

I did type "How do we then teach our children where the line is", and that's taken the blog in a different direction as I ponder if the increase in bullying at schools is because we are teaching them to have:

• Self-centered attitudes, motivations and behaviours
• A lack of concern for others

Perhaps in the belief that others can look after themselves, and the impact isn't so great.

The problem of course is those bullies grow up.

The lack of action either towards little Alice's bullying, or our own indiscretions are found in the following excuses reasons:

• They shouldn't have done x 
• They had it coming to them
• They're not very nice people
• I didn't intend my actions to have that outcome 
• Everyone else is doing it
• No one will know
• They can look after themselves
• It won't hurt anyone
• I need to keep a roof over my head
• It's not the same when I do it

I'm sure the toxic leaders started by thinking the same!

Perhaps the answer lies in an earlier blog about stopping playing games at work? Or even in 'is your head in the sand' if you really are one of these toxic leaders, and don't know it!

Do you agree with this definition of toxic leadership, and what do you think the solution to toxic leadership is?

Alison Smith

The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring change inside and out - and here's why I think inspiring change is important

And just to provide a different perspective I used the metaphor of toxic plants in this blog, over on Landscaping Your Life where I use nature to inspire change, to see if a different insight could be gained from a less defensive analysis. I certainly felt less irritated having explored the situation metaphorically - see what you think.

A blog I wrote some time ago was entitled "don't turn a blind eye" and invited us to speak up against toxic behaviours in business. And my blog 'is there room for kindness in procurement' was an invitation to bring your humanity to work every day.

How's your supplier's mental health?

I recently attended Let's talk about it - changing attitudes towards mental health at work. A conference that reminded us all of the benefit of talking more about mental health.

You'll see from the blog the different ways we were being encouraged to speak about mental health.

It got me thinking about talking about mental health with suppliers.

For example when did you last ask a supplier's representative:

• Are you okay?
• What can we do to help? 
• Which of our behaviours are negatively impacting the mental health of you, or others within your organisation 
• What could we do more of? 
• What should we do less of?
• What shall we keep doing?

Or shared with them how their behaviours are impacting the mental health of those within the buying organisation.

It's so easy to talk in terms of orders, invoices, contract terms, service level agreements, key performance indicators, and forget we're often just human beings dealing with other human beings.

Human beings with mental health that can either support their ability to do their job or not!

In the blog "But I don't do soft fluffy stuff" I tackled, even if perhaps a little too vociferously, my belief that we're all human beings and not androids. This belief is the reason why I believe procurement has a responsibility for ensuring it doesn't abuse it's power, nor push supplier's to break point. Especially when we hear stories of many people broken due to Tesco's, and other organisations', behaviour with respect to payment.

It's too easy I suspect to say "I wouldn't do that!", and then move onto the next blog, and forget all about the question.

I am sure my actions over the years, however unintentional, have negatively impacted others. Should I just think "Tough! I was just doing my job" or "I wonder how I can do this differently now and in the future?"

Not an easy quandary to answer - especially when many organisations aren't even talking about, nor considering, the mental health of its own employees - never mind those of other organisations.

Other blog's written along the same vein include:

• Are you're supplier's afraid to say no" 
• Low cost vs ethical pricing
• Is there room for kindness in procurement?
• Toxic leadership - another blog arising from attendance of the conference
• and perhaps taking the human/human interaction one stage further, and looking at human/earth interactions with "If the Earth was a supplier" 

Do you think it's procurement's responsibility to consider our impact on a supplier's mental health? and they yours?

I'd love to know your thoughts - do leave comments below.

Alison Smith
The Purchasing Coach
Inspiring change inside and out - and here's why I think inspiring change is important and necessary if you're wanting sustainable change for the future

Let's talk about it

I Let's talk about it - changing attitudes towards our mental health at work

The title of the conference says it all, and was certainly the conclusion that could be drawn from all the speakers - some speaking from personal experience, others academically involved, and others in corporate life. Everyone concluded:

• Let's talk about mental health at work  
• Let's change attitudes about mental health at work

I attended the above conference at the University of Glasgow on Wednesday - it had been co-arranged by the University and Amy McDonald founder of Headtorch, an organisation that enables people to feel good, AND be productive at work.

The fundamental belief we're being asked to accept in the conference title is:

100% ie every one of us - not just some of us - all of us.

100% of the time too - ie there's no taking a holiday from our mental health. We have it at work, rest and play. That is - it's with us where ever we go.

Our mental health is variable too - a continuum that changes day to day, week to week, year to year.

There's things we can all do to support our own mental health, and there's thing we can do that hinder it.

There's also things we can do to support other people's mental health, and certainly things we can do that distress other's mental health.

The challenge is that we don't talk about mental health, and therefore don't find out what supportive behaviours we could be demonstrating. Which means if your actions are negatively impacting my mental health you don't get to find out, and if I could do something to support yours, I don't ask, and therefore never find out what I could do differently!

We're all blindly making assumptions about supportive and acceptable business behaviours, and yet don't fully understand what they are! Allowing fear of recrimination and stigma to stop us having those very important conversations.

That's where talking about it comes in - and it doesn't have to be big:

Here's a few of the ways that were highlighted on the day of how we could be talking about mental health at work

• If you're worried about someone, and even if you don't know what you might be able to do, asking "Are you okay" can have such a profound impact (see See Me Scotland's video "Are you okay" - explicit or clean version). Profound because ignoring the person can significantly and negatively impact the person's mental health further. 

That was the biggest, simplest and yet most often ignored action we can all take to "overcome the fear of doing the wrong thing." Other suggestions included:

• Saying "I'm here to listen" or asking "What would help most?"
• Say "No" more often - ie look after your own mental health, and don't be pressurised into saying "Yes" when you mean "No". Or at least say "Let me think about it" to give yourself more time to determine the appropriate response that supports your mental health.
• Talk as a team, and/or just with your manager, about the behaviours that support yours and other's mental health
• Talk as a team, and /or with your manager, about the less than helpful behaviours, and what behaviours could be substituted instead  
• Find ways of talking about your own mental health with others - regardless of how healthy or unhealthy it is 
• Talk about mental health in supervisor, management and leadership training 

The key being to talk about these NOW - ie it's not about waiting until the lack of a conversation is causing problems! It's also about having it as part of ongoing dialogue - it's not something you do once, tick and box, and move onto the next item on your to-do list!

When will you next talk about mental health - and who will you be having that conversation with?

For more information on how HeadTorch could help your organisation to talk about mental health do get in touch with Amy McDonald +44 (0)141 255 2909 amy@headtorch.org

Alison Smith
Inspiring change inside and out

I was official tweeter, otherwise know as the OT(!), at Let's talk about it - so do please also have a look at #mentalhealthatwork to see what was said, and also follow other # who were talking on the subject on the same day #BellLetsTalk (trending from Canada with over 6m tweets on the day) #itaffectsme,
and on 4th February in the UK #TimeToTalk.

As a result of attending the conference I wrote a number of accompanying blogs (expressing my personal views and exploration of the topics raised) this cover Buyers' responsibility towards suppliers' mental health, Toxic leadership, Watch your language (about the self fulfilling prophecies we manifest by the language we use.) and Is your head in the sand about our own contribution to the behaviours we judge in others.

In 2013 I also attended Amy's conference Work's Mental, and wrote a blog entitled "it's not about the toast" based on the topic of a learning and development session. It used, and continues to do so, interactive theatre to get people talking about this subject.

Picture at the top of the page shows Mindapple's tree that we were encouraged to tie our own mindapples on (day to day activities that are good for our minds) - here's my mind apples - written some time ago.