How Relatability Promotes Mental Health for Your Team

In my previous column, I discussed how leaders can significantly reduce their worry, fear, anxiety, pressure, and stress by setting two goals: to do the right thing and to do the best they can. Now, through self-reflection and greater self-awareness, leaders can model how to adopt a healthier mindset, as well as offer meaningful support to their teams.

Mental-health issues in the workplace have gained more attention, and rightly so, especially since the pandemic. Social isolation, the sudden shift to remote work, and the fear and uncertainty of a public-health threat escalated both mental and behavioral health issues, including anxiety and depression. Even as life for many people returned to normal post-pandemic, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a warning about the “profound consequences of loneliness and isolation” and the need “to make the same investments in addressing social connection that we have made in addressing tobacco use, obesity, and the addiction crisis.”

For leaders, supporting the mental health and overall well-being of their teams is paramount. Consider that, according to research, 20 percent of workers in the U.S. rate their mental health as “fair or poor,” which causes them to experience four times as many unplanned absences compared with their counterparts who rate their mental health as good to excellent. According to that research, this cost of missed work amounts to as much as $47.6 billion in annual productivity losses.

Beyond the economic impact, leaders should address mental health in the workplace for a far more important reason and one that goes to the heart of values-based leadership. If we say that every person matters, then addressing the behavioral, emotional, and mental-health needs of others is the responsibility of every leader.

This is what empathetic leadership is all about

One of my favorite quotes is from Theodore Roosevelt: “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” Developing genuine empathy is so important for showing compassion for another person. This attitude also speaks to my three-component model: leadership, influence, relatability. Relatability means being vulnerable enough to show your human side to others, while also striving to understand their struggles and challenges so you can respond appropriately. Together, relatability and empathy build meaningful connections and develop trust with team members, while also helping everyone navigate forward with compassion.

The relatability payoff

Relating to others doesn’t happen by accident; it takes effort. Here’s an example: a leader recently talked to me about the challenge of connecting with their team because everyone either works remotely full time or in a hybrid arrangement with only occasional time in the office. This leader’s solution was to have once-a-week virtual meetings on Fridays to talk about everything—from sales trends and new clients to margins and market share. “That’s a good start, but it only addresses the business side of things,” I explained. “In addition to that weekly business call, I would recommend one-on-one conversations with each person.” The leader took my advice and now calls each team member sometime between Monday and Thursday, just to discuss what’s going on with them. Through these regular weekly calls, the leader has learned about a team member who has an 85-year-old parent living with them and another who is a single parent of two children, ages five and seven. A few weeks into this new communication schedule, this leader told me, “I understand so much more about what my team members are facing—and how the company can support them, such as flexibility in work hours.” Bottom line: the leader is more relatable and genuinely concerned—and the team members know they are seen and cared for by their boss.

Reduce the unnecessary pressure

Just as we have done in our own lives, as leaders, we want to reduce the worry, fear, anxiety, pressure, and stress that our team members feel as well. As I explained in my last article, much can be achieved through the twin goals of “doing the right thing” and “doing the best you can.” For leaders, one of the ways to do the right thing for the team is to give realistic deadlines, which will have the immediate benefit of reducing team members’ stress. For example, rather than assigning twenty different things to do, prioritize them in order of importance. In addition, plan ahead for the tasks and projects that have the most-urgent deadlines. Let the team know on a Wednesday what needs to be done by the following Monday morning, rather than springing it on them Friday afternoon. This gives the team the flexibility to work when it’s most convenient and productive for them; for example, they might choose to work late on Thursday rather than giving up time on the weekend. Not only is that appreciated by the team, but when something comes up at the last minute— you don’t hear about a project from your boss until three o’clock on Friday afternoon—when you tell your team that it must be done by Monday morning, they’ll take on the challenge. They know this is the exception for you and not the norm.

Banish fear of failure

From time to time, everyone fails. That’s part of the process, particularly when people are experimenting with a new product or innovating with a process improvement. To reduce the team’s worry, fear, pressure, anxiety, and stress, you let them know that failure is to be expected, especially if that failure happens early on and they learn from the experience. In addition, let them know why a change is being made, with information that helps reduce the uncertainty. Rather than dreading what could happen, people will be more likely to lean into the change, knowing that it helps create a competitive advantage. Otherwise, the opposite will likely occur, which can be expressed in a simple formula: Change + Uncertainty = Chaos. Values-based leadership has always been about the team, and relatability is key to success in expressing compassion and creating cohesion. The more we come together—as team members, colleagues, and fellow human beings on the journey we call life—the more we can help ourselves and each other to manage worry, fear, anxiety, pressure, and stress.

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This article originally appeared in Forbes.