In an April poll conducted by the American Psychiatric Association only 50% of US employees were comfortable discussing mental health issues at work. In the same study, one third of those in the workplace worry about retaliation or firing if they raise mental health issues. In addition, 29% of workers feel their manager is providing emotional support right now and 24% of employees feel they are engaged in their jobs in the last 6 months.
The emotional and financial costs of mental health issues in the workplace and employee disengagement far outweigh the costs of training your leader-coaches to be better listeners, communicators and have more empathy. Organizations need to continue to invest in EQ, coaching, conflict management, teamwork and effective communication to be successful.