Why is it that when we think about physical health we naturally picture a very positive image of somebody like Usain Bolt but when we visualise mental health we picture somebody looking pained with their head in their hands? You can put it to the test by typing physical health and mental health into google images to see the huge contrast in the images displayed. Everybody has physical health and at some stage every year could be physically healthier. In…
I was just finishing one of my talks this week when I noticed a man in a wheelchair becoming quite tearful. Through his tears he managed to send me across a smile and then gestured that he would like to talk to me when I had finished. He waited patiently whilst I spoke with several others and eventually we were close enough for us to shake hands. Our conversation over the next five minutes or so was one of the…
I am now coming to the end of my first full year working with HR teams to create stigma free environments of trust and openness. I am privileged to be working with so many talented people and I have learnt so much on my travels. What has struck me recently is how much less we are talking about mental health and how much more we are seeing the development of our people managers as the key to delivering a culture…
Since I founded Breaking the Silence in October of last year, I have been on a mission to build a brand that is associated with mental health, employee wellbeing and corporate culture. This has involved me having literally hundreds of meetings spread all over the UK and driving over 40,000 miles. I use a phrase that every day is a school day because I have learnt so much during that time about mental fatigue in the workplace, corporate culture and…
I was speaking at a Charity Finance Conference in Cambridge last week and was encouraged to hear in somebody’s presentation that over 80% of the top 350 FTSE companies are taking corporate culture very seriously in their workplace. However, equally not surprised that only 21% of those respective CEO’s referred to culture in their annual report. What this is telling me is that the majority are still not linking employee wellbeing and culture to their bottom line performance. Amazingly they…