Executive Mental Health | 120 Seconds to Better Leadership

*Video Transcription*

I was asked recently by a colleague just for a general sort of state of the state in terms of executive mental health.

I certainly documented quite a lot through COVID that execs were struggling with isolation and depression and homeschooling, which I can't imagine having to go through that. My kids are grown, which is probably a good thing. But I will say I do see a correlation. I've been slow to make a recommendation on back to work, not back to work, remote work because I don't know.

This is new, right?

My team has always been virtual. We've been virtual for 22 years, and it works fine for us because that's what we're used to. But for folks who are used to collaboration and water-cooler talks and visibility opportunities when they're walking down the hall and get pulled into a meeting and then to go fully remote was pretty bad, right?

You know, people that I thought were made of steel struggling, and I never thought I'd see that from those folks.

So, myself included, actually, so what I am seeing is a strong correlation, though, between companies who are saying "full-on back to work, let's go." Those people are actually doing really, really, much, much better than companies where they're staying remote. Those people are having a harder time kind of getting back to normal mentally and emotionally, and intellectually. And the companies that are splitting the difference are kind of splitting the difference in the same way.

So for sure, I think I see in the companies that are full back to work. Productivity is higher. People are happier. I'm in offices now that were completely empty a year ago, and people are pulling each other into cubicles, and you can just feel the buzz of collaboration and excitement and camaraderie, which I think is a really important part of our social fabric.

So again, every company is different; every culture is different. And the downside, though, is that companies that want full-on back to work, you know, what they're struggling with is getting people to want to work for them because everyone wants to work in their jammies now. And I get that.

So it's a double-edged sword.

There's no right way to do it. But I do think the more people are with other people, even if they're introverted, they do tend to have a healthier sense of well-being right now than the folks that are continuing to stay isolated. So food for thought on coming back to work.

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