When I was in the mountains doing a teambuilding-project, I had time to reflect. And guess what – my learning was that coffee is actually good for the company !

Lately, I was in the mountains, working for a company to have better interactions within their teams and with their leaders. While I was in my cabin taking a rest, I was looking out of the window, breathing in the breathtaking view of the mountains. It is amazing: Every time I am in the nature, I am lifted as a whole. This very often leads to inspirations, ideas, thoughts how to solve a specific problem that I work on. And guess what, this time it happened again.

I was thinking about mental health in companies, a topic I am working on a lot in my trainings. And I realized that all these methods of lifting employees, lifting their minds, their souls (e.g. mental health days, 4-days-workweeks and even special apps), are wonderful – and definitely need to be brought into a broader context. If not, it´s just isolated applications. What do I mean ?

I mean that we need a sustainable mentally healthy workplace. Let us work on corporate culture change. Employers MUST connect what they say to what they really do. Leaders must treat mental health as an absolute priority – and yes, they should train to have difficult conversations and create a supportive workplace. I think that the key to a healthy company is a culture of connection.

What can happen when when leaders do not care enough about connection?

• Employees tend to underperform
• or even miss work
• They might not feel comfortable talking about their mental health at work
• or even have no intention to stay at their company

Training a corporate culture of connection can lead to more positive views of the company and its leaders. That is why leaders have to treat mental health as a priority.

What can leaders do to implement mental health in the company ?

• installing no-email-afterhours
• instead, focused worktime
• no-meeting days
• communicate personally regularly or
• just grab a coffee together from time to time

Why not begin with a simple „How are you“ ? Training meaningful interactions are the base for sustainable ways of working. That´s whats on my mind while sipping my coffee, lets move forward to a future workplace with sustainable ways of working.

Soo – How are you ?

Let´s work on corporate culture

Let´s keep moving in connection, yours truly

Your Leo Coach

Waltraud Leobacher

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