Emotional Intelligence and Mental Health and Wellbeing: Critical Steps HR Needs to Take Now

Emotional Intelligence and Mental Health and Wellbeing: Critical Steps HR Needs to Take Now

0:01

Hi everyone, and welcome to today’s webinar, Emotional Intelligence and Mental Health and Well-Being: Critical Steps HR Needs to Take Now hosted by HRDQ-U and presented by Doctor Cranla Warren and Rhoda Lalog.

0:16

My name is Sarah, and I will moderate today’s webinar, the webinar will last around one hour.

0:22

If you have any questions, please type them into the question area on your GoToWebinar control panel, and we’ll answer as many as we can during today’s session.

0:33

Today’s webinar is sponsored by the Institute for Health and Human Potential. IHHP offers instructor led and digital learning that equip your people with the skills to have tough conversations make difficult decisions and meaningfully connect.

0:48

They help your people build the skills required to work and lead courageously in the last 8%.

0:55

The last 8% are the tough conversations, difficult decisions and opportunities to meaningfully connect that people avoid, because emotions get in the way.

1:05

IHHP built a methodology and the teaching of these skills with life-changing results to Olympic and professional athletes. Hundreds of blue-chip companies including Goldman Sachs, Intel, IBM, and many government agencies including the US Marines and NASA. You can learn more at www.ihhp.com.

1:28

I’m excited to welcome our presenters today, Doctor Cranla Warren and Rhoda Lalog.

1:34

Doctor Warren is vice president of leadership development at IHHP. Doctor Warren holds a PHD in organizational psychology and a postgraduate certificate and professional leadership.

1:46

She holds multiple graduate degrees across the disciplines of social work, philosophy, and psychology.

1:52

As a psychologist, business leader, mental health practitioner former psychotherapist and family therapist, coach and mentor, Doctor Warren has a wealth of knowledge and experience in the areas of mental well-being, emotional intelligence, organizational systems dynamics, value-based leadership, followership, coaching, women in leadership, D&I, and employee engagement.

2:17

Rhoda is founder of Urban Consciousness and as a seasoned HR expert, with over 20 years of practical and professional experience and the industries of telecommunications and banking.

2:28

Her diverse HR career includes internal and external leadership consulting on recruitment, performance management, employee engagement and employer relations, but specializations and health and safety, risk management, and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

2:42

Rhoda’s lifelong fascination with human behavior inspired her academic background, which includes a certificate in Early Childhood Education, and a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Sociology and Communications.

2:54

She is currently licensed as a registered psychotherapist in Ontario, practicing a holistic model of psychotherapy with an area of focus on leaders and entrepreneurs.

3:05

Thank you both for joining us today and also have a few other members of the

3:10

team on the line with us today. Sandra, Ushuaia, and Adrian, you may see pop into the questions box as well.

3:20

Thank you so much, Sarah. What a lovely and warm introduction. And thanks to a HRDQ-U and IHHP, for partnering and bringing us together here today.

3:30

It is Rhoda and my pleasure to be here together and to be able to share some learnings on a subject we are both very, very passionate about.

3:41

I’ll ask for the next slide, please.

3:44

So, this live cast is about leveraging the skills of emotional intelligence to help buffer our mental health and protect against mental illness. And what may be experienced is a little bit of a different webinar format. Wrote it, and I will be sharing some insights and tools using a few slides. Yes.

4:02

And we’ll also offer these insights through discussion with one another, will be talking about things for you to reflect on, personally, on an organizational level, and specific to your role as HR professionals.

4:16

We’ve also done our very best to design this learning experience with you in mind.

4:21

You are being this specific audience, we reviewed all of your comments and questions that you shared when you registered, and we’ll do our best to address them throughout this next hour. We will hopefully have a little bit of time at the end for questions, and we’ll see how we do. Sometimes we get a little carried away, but we will really hold our space and try to have some time for questions at the end.

4:46

So, let’s start by setting some context around mental health with a question. What do you think of when you hear the words mental health?

4:57

We don’t want to assume that everybody is holding on to the same sort of, you know, cognitive construct here, so please respond to the Q&A area with a word or a couple of words that immediately come to mind for you.

5:10

And that would be in the questions area, please.

5:15

Yes, if you just want to take a moment here and just jot that response down into the questions box, and we can share some of the responses that we get.

5:24

Thank you, Cheryl.

5:29

Peace of mind. Depression.

5:31

Emotional well-being.

5:36

Overall well-being.

5:39

Resilience, Inquiry, Ability to sleep, stability, self-view, state of mind. Now they’re coming in a really quick succession.

5:48

Overall, meaningfulness.

5:54

Love of life and self. Yes. So thank you. It’s really good to sort of context set for wrote it and I as we start to see where everyone’s at. So let’s dive in. Let’s have the next slide, please.

6:09

So Rhoda does a lot of work in Canada blending her experience in HR with her current training and psychotherapy. So wrote, I’m going to turn the slide over to you if you can please share this general mental health overview.

6:24

Yeah, thank you for that grandma.

6:26

I’ll start by sharing some of the stats here from a Canadian land.

6:30

By the time Canadians reach 40 years of age wanting to have, or had have mental illness, in any given year, one in five Canadians experience a mental illness or addiction problem.

6:42

Mental illness is a leading cause of disability in Canada, and the numbers are truly staggering.

6:48

Approximately 500,000 employed Canadians essentially are prevented from going into work every single week.

6:58

That’s not each month, not each year, but each week.

7:02

So, the numbers are really staggering, and despite this fact, what we do see as well, though, is that approximately only 50% of Canadians are willing to talk about mental illness of a family member. But yet, 72% are willing to talk about a physical diagnosis, like cancer, as an example.

7:25

And I think it just really goes to show that there is still a lot of stigma around being able to talk about mental illness. And certainly, you know, all of the shifts that have happened over the last couple of years have highlighted and heightened some of the conversation around mental health. But certainly, a long way to go.

7:47

Thank you, Rhoda, and those statistics, they really are applicable across North America, because I know we have Canadians on the line, Americans on the line, and maybe even folks from around the globe.

7:59

And as we’ve all experienced in March of 2020, the whole world changed in ways that none of us had experienced in our lifetimes.

8:09

Next slide, please.

8:13

Let’s dig into this a little bit.

8:15

So March 11th, 2020 and I remember that date because it was my birthday and I was out with friends and with my husband and we were having a great time.

8:25

And the World Health Organization announced that we were in the middle of a global health crisis a pandemic.

8:36

Millions of people went home to shelter in place for what we all thought was going to be a few weeks hoping that our sacrifice would stop the spread of coronavirus.

8:46

Instead, what we experience was a litany of change working, where we lived living, where we worked.

8:55

The lines between work and home life became completely blurred.

8:59

Parents worked from home and school. Their children from home many had to make the tough choice to leave their careers and jobs, to become full-time caregivers.

9:08

Frontline workers brave their jobs every day, in the midst of a terrine terrifying health crisis.

9:15

Routines were upended, many celebrations and traditions were put on hold indefinitely.

9:22

And on top of all, this was the heart wrenching display of racial injustices and violence, massive political tension and upheaval economic insecurity and a huge veil of uncertainty, and over one year later we continue to be in the midst of the same global health crisis.

9:42

Companies have either brought people back together to work in the physical space or are planning to do that or are planning to test the hybrid work experience.

9:52

On top of all this, 55% of American workers say they plan to look for a new job in the next 12 months, and almost four point five million people. That’s 3% of the US.

10:04

Workforce called it quits in September of 2021, call it what you will, some people call it the big quit, the great attrition, the great resignation.

10:13

This is significant in the world of HR professionals and the great veil of uncertainty has continued to loom.

10:22

So I’m going to ask you, How are you feeling right now in this moment, as I share 1 by 1, some of what we’ve all been experiencing, and had to navigate over these past almost two years?

10:39

Let’s just pause for a minute. I know we have a webinar to do, but let’s just pause for a minute.

10:44

Let’s engage in a little self-awareness.

10:46

And with all that I’ve shared, how are you feeling what’s going on for you internally and emotionally?

10:54

And let’s go back to that Q&A, that questions window, I’m seeing heavy.

11:01

Yes, if you could share a little bit with us there where this is stress. Yeah.

11:06

Insecure, resilient, draining, overwhelmed, anxiety, frustration, anxiety, again, hopeful, angry back in the office in a hybrid mode.

11:24

So, thank you for sharing. I mean, this is what this, this, this webinar is all about.

11:31

Our emotions drive our behavior, and when we engage in self-awareness, emotional management, and connection, we can think more clearly, we can make better decisions when we’re under pressure and feeling stress, and we still have the capacity to empathize and engage with others.

11:50

Developing these emotional abilities are just extraordinarily powerful, and they’re necessary and promoting and feeding our psychological, physical, and mental well-being. So, thank you so much for your vulnerability, and you’re sharing, right, now, because I think it’s what, really, this, this webinar is about. And it sets a good tone and foundation for what we’re about to dig into.

12:12

Anything you’d like to add?

12:15

Just that I really appreciate the ponds, you know, even as you were speaking and sharing all of these things that have happened that cognitively, we know all of these things have surfaced over the course the year, but even hearing it and really tuning in and I felt the heaviness you know, to one person’s comment there I felt the heaviness in my chest in my shoulders in my arms.

12:41

And I think it’s important to really just pause and recognize and acknowledge that things are happening internally, and I appreciate that.

12:50

Yeah, thank you, wrote it. And even though I knew that that’s what we were planning to do, I felt this stress bolt going across my shoulders.

12:59

And I think it speaks to the fact that we’re all in this together, and we’re all experiencing it in our own way.

13:06

Next slide, please.

13:11

So, several of you asked for data that you can share internally to help make a case that your company needs to be looking at mental health, seriously, and with some urgency. So, we don’t want to belabor the webinar with, with statistics, but we saw what we do is provide some that might be of interest to you. And these data, on this slide are from the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the American Psychological Association. So you’ll get this in the follow-up, don’t worry, you don’t have to take notes.

13:42

But in 20, 21, 41% of adults reported symptoms of anxiety and or depression, compared to 11%, at the same time in 20 19.

13:54

Next slide, please.

13:58

13% of adults reported new or increased substance use due to Coronavirus related stress.

14:06

61% of adults reported experiencing undesired weight changes since the start of the pandemic.

14:13

Two out of three Americans said they are sleeping more or sleeping less than they wanted to.

14:18

Since the pandemic started, nearly half of parents said the level of stress in their life had increased exponentially compared to the pants before the pandemic. And essential workers were more than twice as likely as those who are not essential workers to have received treatment from the mental health professional.

14:36

So, 34% for essential workers and 12% for what we would consider, you know, those of us who are non-essential workers.

14:46

Next slide, please.

14:49

Some stats from mind share partners of those most at risk of having their mental health challenged and impacted. And, you know, when we look at generationally, what’s going on here?

15:04

It was a little bit of a surprise to me because Gen Z they’re also known as …. If people aren’t familiar with sort of the demographic cohorts they’ve come after millennials. They were born in the mid to late nineties up until the early two thousand and TEN’s.

15:19

So Generation Z, 46% were the most likely generation to say that their mental health has worsened, also disproportionately impacted our millennials, women, parents, and caregivers.

15:37

And historically, underrepresented groups, such as LGBTQ, plus, transgender, black, and Latina X These are the harsh realities of the impact of our current times, on our mental health.

15:52

Rhoda, what’s coming to mind for you, based on these statistics, know that the part that really strikes me is this 46%, which is quite a high number.

16:03

And it actually makes me think of a conversation that I had recently with an executive of a transportation company here in Canada, and he basically said to me how shocked he was that one of his staff members was so open and willing to share what was happening with them. They just started this job.

16:27

They’re, they’re in their early twenties and they basically sent him a note saying, you know what, a lot is going on. Things are happening with my family. I’m completely burnt out. I need a break and I’m sorry. I know that I just started, but I really need to take it.

16:44

And, you know, this person that I was speaking with, of course, demonstrated a lot of empathy, a highly, emotionally intelligent human being. And he has also had experience in his own family with mental illness.

16:59

And so, he demonstrated that empathy, but what he shared with me was how sharp T words, that this person was willing to share so openly. And we think about our own generation, mean being part of generation access. As he, and how we never talked about it. Recap the tourist sobs, we just dealt with that, we would never share that openly in the workplace. And so, yes, there’s definitely that generation that is most at risk and high-risk groups. But, you know, on the positive note, I think more and more people are starting to be OK with starting to share and talk about it.

17:38

I think it’s a beautiful point because the younger generations seem to be building self-awareness at a young age.

17:47

My daughter with my grandson, who’s almost three already is we’re helping him to recognize that he has big feelings.

17:54

I’m a mama latent boomer. I’m at the end of the baby. boom. Nobody was talking to me about my big feelings.

18:00

So I think that’s the other thing we’re seeing is generational recognition for mental health existing, de stigmatizing it and actually bringing it forward as a conversation Mmm hmm.

18:16

So what is going on? What’s underneath all of this prompting this concern for attention for our mental health?

18:25

We believe it’s fundamentally about the swift change that happened, living in a collective global trauma, grief and loss and mourning, disconnection, and a sense of loneliness.

18:39

And I’d say uncertainty and fear, change and disruption. And all of what we’ve already shared has led people to living in this state of just stress. Stress.

18:51

So let’s take a look at this. Next slide, please.

18:56

Many of you may be familiar with the Elisabeth Kubler ross seminal work on the cycle of grief.

19:04

She did on grief and dying from the 19 sixties. And, in fact, at the start of the pandemic, there was an excellent article I read in Harvard Business Review. And we can maybe make this available as part of the follow-up. But the article said, it was called The Discomfort. You’re feeling is grief.

19:23

And there’s many ways to look at it and we’re going to offer a few.

19:27

So, the worldwide pandemic is announced on my birthday in 20 20 as I’ve shared by the World Health Organization of a highly critical credible body that echoes around the globe.

19:40

So, what’s our first response? Let’s look at the Kubler Ross model, right? What’s our first response? Our first response, Denial.

19:48

We deny the news, we go, now, this may be happening in Europe and Asia, it’s not happening here in North America, where I live, I feel fine.

19:57

I’m healthy this isn’t happening, or this isn’t going to happen to me or anyone, I love, our brains protect us, because if we let it in.

20:07

That means all at once, you know we would become overwhelmed, hugely overwhelmed and our brain systems might implode.

20:16

Next comes anger. Once we allow reality to seep in a little bit, we become upset. They express our frustration or irritation. What’s below that serve, the surface on that, though, is that it’s our vulnerability. Starting to rear up a little bit, our sense of helplessness, fear sets in, and we’re scared.

20:36

Then we start to ask, you know, I wonder if I or any of my loved ones will become infected by this new virus that we’ve never heard of.

20:44

And the fear and uncertainty become, there’s overwhelming presence, and it’s like, this health crisis isn’t fair. Who’s to blame for this?

20:56

And in these stages of denial and anger, we need, we should we need to seek out credible information and communicate how we care, how we’re feeling, and help ourselves to get grounded.

21:09

Then we move into bargaining. That’s a way for us to try to establish some sense of control.

21:15

And for many people, it’s like, you know, dear, higher power.

21:19

Please hear me, if you keep myself and my family safe from this virus, I’ll never complain about anything again.

21:25

And this is a stage where we’ve needed to do our best and give to give and receive emotional support because we have all been in this together.

21:37

Then, in the depression stage, helplessness really sets in and in Canada, and in the province where I live, I can speak to that, there were many, many dark winter months. Where we were on lockdown, we couldn’t leave our homes except to go for a walk, to get groceries or medicine or gas.

21:57

And the reality of the dangers of this unknown virus and the restrictions they deeply set in.

22:05

And some people went deeper into this stage than others.

22:09

And some people chose to try to protect themselves by fighting the restrictions, trying to have a sense of hopefulness and power instead of helplessness.

22:21

Regardless of the actions that were chosen, we were all still in the same stage of grief.

22:27

Then we saw evidence of acceptance. People did drive by birthday celebrations and taught their elderly relatives how to do video conference calling. And all that happened in my family so that everybody could keep in touch.

22:40

And this time of acceptance was when we saw adaptation and adjustment.

22:46

So this is what we’ve all been living through in our own way for the past 12 months.

22:53

And it’s what everybody around us in our communities and in our organizations, have been living in for the past 21 months. Sorry, 21 months.

23:04

So what are your thoughts Before we move on?

23:08

Yeah. You know what? I think? You know to your point, it’s this collective inquiry that we’ve all gone through.

23:15

And yet when we think about any kind of change that we go through, the same grief cycle happens.

23:21

So on top of the Global pandemic and everything else that’s happening around us collectively on an individual basis if we think about all the changes that we go through day in and day out. These same cycles are happening on an individual level, with a whole bunch of things that are changing every day.

23:42

So, there was a lot, a lot that we had to process is so much going on beneath the surface.

23:48

Millimeter, hm.

23:50

Thank you for that. And it’s true. It is a daily basis. It’s a, an hourly basis. It’s a minute-by-minute basis. I think that’s why this topic is so critically important for us to understand and examine right now as we are today. Next slide, please.

24:10

So let’s briefly touch on the organizational change curve.

24:14

So, on top of what we’ve been talking about, in terms of understanding individual experience, companies, employers, and their employees, went to an overlayed experience of grief and change, their shock of what’s happening.

24:27

And then there’s protective denial. This pandemic won’t be a big issue.

24:31

Let’s just pack up and go home and work from home for a few weeks, and I’ll see you back in the office in April, then there’s resistance.

24:41

I don’t need to learn about all these collaboration apps, and platforms, and technology systems. Right now. This will be over soon.

24:47

We’ll be back to normal, we’ll be back to the status quo, then there’s exploration if it’s that might sound something like, you know, four weeks have gone by, we need to start figuring this out, how do we need to pivot?

25:03

How do we innovate in order to survive this impact?

25:07

Then change might be, you know, looking at us, we’re working from home, or having meetings on video conference systems. We’re using cloud based collaborative tools.

25:19

We’ve adjusted, we’ve adapted, and I believe that where we are now is in this state of culture change.

25:26

This is the stage where the majority of the people don’t wanna go back to the physical office space and are voting with their feet, and it’s the, you know, they and they also, if they choose to, stay, they expect diversity and representation in your company.

25:45

They want to be seen, and heard, and understood, and accepted, and included, they want to feel as though they belong.

25:52

They also want to be able to say they want to be able to talk about their mental health and their emotional health the same way they would talk about their physical health just as it were on his beautiful example.

26:05

They want to be able to say you know, I feel emotionally or mentally unwell are out of sorts or at a balance I feel anxious, or I feel depressed.

26:15

Anything you want to weigh in on here before we move to the next slide?

26:19

Yeah.

26:19

You know, what comes to mind is, that, know, on one side, that’s what employees are wanting for wanting that safe space, or wanting that safe space to be able to feel mentally, OK, and emotionally safe, Yet, the business continues, right? And, here you have leaders saying, come on, let’s go, let’s go that, these are the things that need to happen, we need to push forward in order for this company to survive.

26:44

And, I think what we want to remember is, that, as people go through the change curve, a lot of the things that we see on the left-hand side of this curve, the denial, the resistance, a lot of that happens covertly.

26:56

A lot of that happens, where no one’s talking about it, or keeping it inside, and on the outside, they might be saying, OK. Yeah. I’m doing it. I’m pivoting. I’m being flexible.

27:09

I’m adapting because people are in fear, and they’re doing it to survive.

27:14

They don’t want to lose their jobs, are worried about that, and so, on the outside, they might be saying, Yeah, I’m with you, but remembering that everybody goes through their own timeframe in terms of change and moving into the change curve, and some of that denial and resistance might be happening beneath the surface.

27:33

Buchi mm, what a great point.

27:36

And so, this is why it’s such a surprise to so many, the great resignation, because there were silence Nashville people voted with their feet.

27:47

Absolutely.

27:50

Next slide, please.

27:53

So what we’re going to do quickly is just now overlay the to the individual grief cycle and the organizational change. So we’ve talked about shock and denial.

28:03

Let’s add on a collective sense of frustration.

28:07

We didn’t cause this change and now we’re all needing to do things differently.

28:14

Let’s look at the collective depression stage. It might be something like, this working from home is going to be a nightmare.

28:21

Now, how can I lead virtually with my team all over the place, no way to bring them together?

28:27

And this is the point where collective confidence in individuals and in the future of the company, may set in.

28:38

Then, there’s some additional stages to consider in the overlay here.

28:41

So experimentation, People start to ask questions and strive to figure out how this can work for them.

28:48

They start to try new things and consider new scenarios. And basically, they’ve accepted that the changes are happening, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

28:58

Then, you know, when the decision stages, finally? Well, we’re all coming to terms with what’s happening, and we’re starting to feel more positive about the future, and, you know, we’re making decisions about what works and what we’re understanding. And learning doesn’t work.

29:12

And then integration, what was once new, is now starting to be just the way we do things here.

29:20

And, again, this is where we are now with exploring back to office and hybrid work plans, all this to say, emotions are at the center and the heart of everything you and your employees have been experiencing for this past almost two years.

29:36

Rhoda, do you have the ads here?

29:41

You know, I think what comes to my mind is, looking at all of those emotions and reminding products that every single person goes through B stages.

29:56

And when we look at this, remembering how might show up in the workplace mm air, people are getting angry, that’s actually a normal part of change. It’s a normal part of three. If people are starting to call into sick, to work or they’re lacking energy or they’re feeling depressed, that is part of the change.

30:21

That is part of greed and, you know, I’m highlighting that to say, we’re all gonna go through it, and instead of, maybe, from an HR perspective, looking at people and saying, What’s wrong with you? Asking that question, what happens to you? What’s going on with you? Because we’re all gonna go through it.

30:41

And so, that’s what comes to my mind.

30:44

Yes, I think that’s such a personal, individual perspective that’s so important to bring here. So, we’re not villainy … people from what they’re experiencing in terms of these very basic and common human experiences.

31:03

Thank you, Rota, next slide, please.

31:09

So, we’ve included this slide because so many people were talking or have been talking about, you know, moving from survive to Thrive, and we had a saying at IHHP and that is all change is personal.

31:23

So hopefully your company is no longer in crisis mode, however, we’d like you to consider that before you focus on systems and technology and process updates, take a look at your people.

31:37

How are they doing?

31:40

How are they feeling?

31:43

And if they’re still struggling and feeling exhausted and they’re burnt out, and as though they can’t keep up the fight every day, day after day, please take care of them where they’re at.

31:57

And the point of sharing this slide, even briefly, is that, if your people are still struggling, you’ve got some work to do before you can move to striving.

32:07

And before, you can set that goal of moving to thriving, wrote anything you want to weigh in on here.

32:15

Now, I think that’s really highlighting, not only what we’re going through as people are going through his organizations, but also on an individual level, and recognizing that, people will be at different stages, and really, just understanding where your people are at.

32:34

Lovely. Thank you.

32:36

Next slide, please.

32:39

So, we’ve done some additional sort of adding on some resource slides. That, you know, we’re not going to dive into this one, but some folks had said, you know, I need some material that will help me after this webinar, to be able to go back to our leadership and talk about this. So we’ve added some resources right in the slides that you will be provided after the webinar is completed. So this is one for you to review on your own. It’s pretty self-explanatory.

33:06

Next slide, please.

33:10

So this one is really important because if you think of mental illness and conditions like anxiety and depression, bipolar disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, if that’s how you think of mental illness. You’re not alone.

33:25

Like all too often we frame mental health as a negative and forget that health is more than just the absence of illness.

33:34

I worked in psychiatry for many, many years, and I have family members, personally, who have struggled with their mental health. Some of them are, have been ill and didn’t realize it. Son knew they were and suffered silently for a time. And this continuum of mental health shows us that when we are in full-blown state of mental health, we are flourishing, And I’m gonna say, honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever met anybody who’s who fits that category. So, we’ll kind of move on.

34:04

And I believe that we all have some kind of mental or emotional concern that we need to get self-aware around and pay attention to. And it might not be all the way to the other end of this continuum in this spectrum, in the form of diagnosable mental disorders. But please be aware that there’s a lot in between.

34:25

a lot of what I’m seeing today is what is referred to as languishing.

34:30

People feeling like I’m just not quite sure what to do with myself. I’m feeling land. I’m feeling blah.

34:38

I’m feeling, as the young people often say, I’m just feeling may, not flourishing, But you’re not symptomatic necessarily, of anxiety, or depression, or other mental health concerns. Just feeling blah, feeling directionless, maybe fatigued a little bit, and just a general malaise that you can’t quite put your finger on. And I believe that this is one of the contributing factors to why people are leaving their jobs in droves. They want to feel something.

35:07

They want to feel a sense of purpose, that they’re contributing to something bigger than themselves in this world.

35:14

Something that will energize them and essentially pulls them out of feeling these blobs, wrote in your thoughts.

35:23

And I think that’s why these conversations are so important, because a lot of times when people are in their modes of stress, they’re not really recognizing it, barely as burnout, and they’re recognizing it as, oh, this is normal. It’s normal that I’m working seven days a week, that I’m not getting sleep. It’s normal, that I just don’t have time for self-care.

35:48

And so I think it’s so important to show this continuum and really talk about and have those spaces for people to talk about what is going on with them.

35:59

Millimeter, Thank you. I have to try to watch the time, because I know you and I are going to, you know, we can chat about this all day, but I want to make sure we get to the application, which is the part that we’ve prepared for human resources professionals. So I’m going to press on a little bit. If we can have the next slide, please.

36:19

So, what is the importance of all this information to you and your organization? Let’s go back to the data briefly. So, 76% of full-time US.

36:28

Workers reported experiencing at least one symptom of a mental health condition in the past year, 76%.

36:37

And this morning, I read an updated statistic That said 84%.

36:43

So, you know, the most common symptoms, Yoda just spoke to burnout. She’s so, right? The most common symptoms reported, were burnout at 56%, depression at 46%, which represents a 44% increase over the same data collected in 20 19. Anxiety at 40%, showing an 8% increase over 2019.

37:07

And nearly one third 32% of adults are so stressed about the coronavirus pandemic that they struggled to make basic decisions.

37:20

We’re not going to go to the question or the chat, but I just want you to think about this.

37:24

Let me ask you, how do you think that this is impacting your workplace, wrote anything you want to add here?

37:34

It’s really amazing, the numbers, and like you said, they keep going up, and I think, and, once again, you know, these conversations about having that open space for people to talk about how they’re feeling becomes even more important.

37:48

Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, thank you.

37:51

Next slide, please.

37:55

So, this is a fun little slide, a little bit different from what we’d been sharing.

37:59

And at …, we’ve been teaching emotional intelligence for 25 years, and so, yes, for those of you, who had actually asked at registration, can emotional intelligence be learned?

38:10

Yes, it can be learned, I’m happy to say, and we teach it from a brain science perspective, so here’s, like a real short lesson for you because the brain is such a complex organ, and I’m gonna focus on two main parts for our purposes here. So there’s the thinking brain, and that the specific part we’re going to focus on is the neocortex and the neocortex is where our cognition lives, right. It’s where we process things like 4 plus 2 is 6, and it can hold 6 to 7 thoughts or 6 to 7. Options are possibilities all at one time.

38:46

Well, we sort of round robin them, in our mind for consideration.

38:50

And it’s especially important at work that we have the neocortex in the driver’s seat as much as possible. It helps us to make informed decisions.

38:59

Then there’s our emotional brain.

39:02

At the center of our emotional brain is our amygdala. And it’s a tiny all man-sized little powerhouse and it’s designed to keep us out of danger.

39:11

And in more primitive times, the amygdala kept us from being eaten by predators, right? We had an alert.

39:16

There’s a rustle in the bushes, means something’s going to probably jump out and eat us.

39:20

We need to run in modern times, our amygdala just scans for, and then sound an alarm for all kinds of threat.

39:29

And it doesn’t decipher whether the threat is real, or if it’s perceived.

39:33

And this alarm, that it sounds, is designed to protect us, and it reacts with options designed only for survival. So the amygdala doesn’t want you thinking, doesn’t want you considering options, it wants you to fight.

39:49

It wants you to flee.

39:51

I want you to freeze and play dead.

39:54

And it releases, neurochemicals are designed to help us fulfill that one survival, determined behavior, whatever that might be for you.

40:04

That’s all that the amygdala is allowing for at that time.

40:08

The amygdala releases stress hormones into our bloodstream like adrenaline and cortisol and it helps us to keep ourselves safe. It will, you know, flow, blood pump blood into our limb, so that we can run away, for example.

40:23

Here is the challenge.

40:26

In this pandemic we’ve lived under constant threat.

40:30

The amygdala has been perpetually on just surveying for threat and triggering us to react for safety.

40:38

And we’re not designed to have the amygdala always on with these neurochemicals pumping all the time without any abating.

40:45

These chemicals are meant to give us, like, a boost for 20 to 30 minutes, until we can establish safety, and then they clear, so the consequence of these stress hormones being perpetually released into our system.

40:59

We talked it off the top. Talked about it, earlier on, weight gain, trouble sleeping, substance use, in efforts for us to calm our minds.

41:08

So, developing emotional intelligence skills help us to manage these emotions and self-regulate.

41:15

So, we’re not overdosing on stress hormones and that we can get the neocortex back into the driver’s seat.

41:23

And, you know, these neurochemical experiences can teeter over into some of the diagnosable disorders we discussed earlier.

41:31

So that’s why emotional intelligence can be a buffer. It can be an antidote to help before that happens.

41:38

Rhoda, did you want to weigh in here?

41:40

Yeah, I just was thinking about one of the questions, actually, that I recall reading from one of the registrants and I wanted to highlight, and Karen, I think this part, is so important in terms of recognizing how this might show up in the workplace.

41:54

And one of the questions was around, you know, how do you deal with somebody who isn’t open and receptive to taking feedback?

42:02

There, they get defensive before the sentence is even finished. And I think this is such a great way to really showcase what’s happening, right?

42:12

When you know, this person who’s receiving this feedback, potentially, might have, let’s say, been criticized a lot while they were growing up, right? And so, here’s the link to live scanning for threats.

42:27

And that one tone you might have, or that one way that you phrase something might automatically put them into that, oh, survival mode, fight or flight, sickness comes in.

42:40

And that’s, that’s the fight mode, and to your point, you know, the amygdala doesn’t care, whether it’s real or perceived.

42:47

So although that might be an old memory of a person that was being criticized an attack, in present day, that’s what the amygdala is doing, is just highlighting me on alert.

43:00

And so these ways of understanding how the brain operates, really helps us understand how it might show up in the workplace.

43:09

Yes, what a great example, That’s exactly it. So we all have stored these emotional memories, and we all get triggered by different things. And so we’re going to talk than just, we’ll go to the next couple of slides briefly, because I want to make sure we get to the part that’s the, the application. But this is where this emotional management and self-regulation comes in. Next slide, please.

43:34

So we’ve broken down emotional intelligence competencies into personal competence. So self-awareness. I don’t want to dig in too much to this, because these will be in your slide deck and follow up, self-management. So emotional regulation, being able to be adaptable and flexible versus rigid. Next slide, please.

43:53

Then social competencies, you know, just having empathy for other people and their perspectives and what they might be going through. And then relationship management: Are you able to, you know, put your own needs, just to the side for a minute, to be able to emotionally connect with someone else in a really authentic way?

44:13

Next slide, please.

44:16

And this week, we’ve added, because there were also some questions about decision making.

44:21

And so I go back to, you know, all that we’ve learned so far, we are emotional and social beings, emotions drive our behavior. And when we’re living in an amygdala triggered state, we cannot think a complex thought.

44:36

In fact, it’s neurochemical impossible.

44:39

So remember that mental health stat earlier that 32% of Americans are so stressed about the coronavirus pandemic. They are struggling to make basic decisions.

44:49

So, from an organizational perspective, what do we need to do to help them calm their amygdala’s and be able to show up at work, engage, and think, and make sound decisions.

44:59

So, here are just some thoughts we’ve put together, provide as much clarity as possible, even in the midst of uncertainty.

45:06

It may be like a graduated approach, think about climbing stairs and just layering on connected pieces of information in a flow over time.

45:16

Focus on what you can control in each situation and support others to do the same.

45:22

Then when faced with a critical decision, this is where that pause and reflect.

45:28

And emotional management and responding versus reacting comes be tough on the issues. So work still needs to get done. Rhoda mentioned earlier about, you know, business marches on.

45:41

And things still have to get resolved.

45:44

Um, but be tough on the issues and the problems, and not the person, rather than show Great Grace to others right now. Demonstrate empathy, you have no idea what they may be struggling with or what they might be going through.

46:00

Assume that everybody’s going through something.

46:03

It may not be what you’re going through in your life, but just assume whenever you see another person these days, they are experiencing something.

46:10

Consider impact and consequences before you add. Consider your impact.

46:15

Is it we’re saying that to that person right now?

46:18

Is it realistic to lay on that expectation right now?

46:22

And then when experiencing failure, have compassion for yourself and others. And keep asking, what have I learned? What have we learned to inform our actions moving forward?

46:35

Now, Rhoda, if you’re OK, I really would love to hop to your part, because we’re at 15 minutes left. If we could have the next slide, please.

46:43

So wrote, it has done a really great job of sort of bucking some of the comments and the questions about how to apply emotional intelligence and concerns about mental health of your employees to human resources. So she’s going to talk about, you know, building psychological safety and trust, how can leaders have difficult conversations, and then how do you blend mental health strategies into what you’re already offering in terms of wellness.

47:08

Next slide, please.

47:11

Take it away, Rota, thank you, Grandma.

47:15

So, you know, how I’d like to frame up this conversation in the next few slides is really about sharing an offering. It’s about an invitation.

47:28

It’s about different perspectives that you might want to consider as you move into 20 22 as an HR organization. And we’ve talked a lot about today, you know, what is happening with people, and how do you make dollar gets activated, and so a big part of what we want to support is that psychological safe space and building that trust.

47:53

And I think before we can even talk about trust, we really need to talk about mistrust. And whereas mister … look like, you know, very often, we can hear employees say, no, I don’t trust HR. I really don’t want to go to them, because I know that if I go to them and complain about my leader, they’re just going to take their side versus my side. And it’s a common thing that we hear. And I think we need to accept that there is mistrust current day.

48:21

And so, what are the key things that we want to look towards in the future in 20 22?

48:28

And my invitation, CIT leaders out there in the HR area, is when you’re making decisions, whether those decisions are, you know, huge directional changes, big programs, or it’s really about resolving one conflict with one employee.

48:45

I’m really gonna invite you to take a look around the table or the Zoom screen, and really see who’s present. Whose voices are present around the table?

48:57

And not just looking at it from the diversity of race, maybe religion, abilities, but also looking at the diversity of the people that are at the table, making those decisions. What levels of leadership are included in making those decisions? How are you, including the voices, of individual contributors, perhaps how are you including the voices of different HR functions? A lot of the times, we know that decisions are made in a vacuum.

49:28

A lot of the times, HR is very siloed and if we’re going to get to a place where we are going to start rebuilding trust with employees, I’m really gonna invite that space, where, before making any decisions, is really including as many voices at the table as you can to really give that perspective.

49:49

And, you know, some might think, well, we don’t always have time to have everybody at the table to make those decisions, and when I urge you to consider is think about all of the times when processes failed, and things went wrong. And you had to put all that effort and energy anyway, at the end of it to try and fix things. So, why not take the time and be proactive and get the right people at the table where you have diverse voices.

50:18

And, you know, HR has always had, you know, that ability to really focus on the balancing, business means an employee needs and it’s never an easy space. Because you’re constantly needing to assess, breadth scanner for talking about, you know, the great resignation. People are our biggest risk right now when we think about what’s happening in the business.

50:45

And so the other thing that I would really encourage HR to really consider is upskilling.

50:53

one of the key HR trends in 20 22 is about upskilling, our employees, because we saw how fast everything moved in the course of the last year and a half to two years. And so a lot of this upskilling trend is because we really want to make sure that people have the skills that they need to be able to navigate all of the changes that are happening day in and day out. And one of the things that, you know, often happen is that EI, emotional intelligence training ends up being reserved for senior leaders for leaders that are higher up in the organization. And the invitation here is to consider what that looks like across your entire HR organization.

51:40

Because all of these technical roles, those operational roles, every single one of those functions, touches your employees every single day.

51:51

And those roles typically are very much about black and white, operational.

51:58

Here are the rules, here is, here’s what we can and can’t do, but how do you support people, and helping them create interactions that are not just transactional, but also really supportive of what’s happening for them as a human being?

52:13

So really, looking at upskilling HR roles, so that it includes the navigation, emotions in the workplace.

52:25

So I’m going to ask for the next slide, please.

52:29

one of the key things that we’ve certainly been hearing about lately is difficult conversation.

52:37

Difficult conversations have always been difficult.

52:40

Bye.

52:40

Now, there’s two things to consider.

52:43

We talked about it earlier, on, team members are more vocal about their personal mental health, and as more individuals are proactive about where they’re going to get the support, they’re going to be able to get that support. They’re being a lot more vocal with their leaders, with organizations to say, I need time off.

53:05

I can’t do this work.

53:07

And so people are being more vocal, how are leaders than being able to have those conversations with their team members who are raising their voices about their mental health, as well moving into hybrid birthplaces. Like we’re saying people are stumping with both feet not wanting to go back in. How do leaders have those difficult conversations?

53:29

And I think a lot of what is happening, which I think there’s so much value, is, you know, HR as an organization. We offer those communication tools. We offer the scripting, we offer ways in which, you know, leaders can work around certain parameters when having these conversations.

53:48

But what I would encourage, you know, individuals to recognizing the HR organization, is understanding that it’s less about, here’s what you should say, and more about, how do you feel about what you’re going to say? And I’ll just give a really quick example when I was working in an organization, and we were launching diversity, equity, and inclusion.

54:12

And there was an executive sponsor, essentially, who was going to go up there, and, you know, speak to the entire organization about how focused we were on diversity, equity, and inclusion.

54:26

And she got his scripting from the communications team. Here are all the elements that you want to include and all the things that you want to say.

54:35

And he basically said, OK, I’m a privileged white heterosexual male.

54:46

I don’t know how I feel about all of these things that you’re asking me to say.

54:52

And so after conversation was being had, and it was really around inclusion, it was really about belonging, Those were the key messages. And what landed at the end, was he led with a personal story about feeling others around his spiritual affiliations.

55:10

And so it’s about really finding that place, helping leaders find that place, where they can really connect to some of the tough conversations that are going to be had, and really providing that space of regular feedback on EI, performance, as well as business performance. So often, we know, have these business review meetings and talking about linking to Oliver, our accomplishments, and the projects we completed. And all of the things that we’ve done, like checking off the list.

55:43

But the more we can provide that feedback, too, employees to leaders on a one-on-one basis, about how we operated, how we were able to stay in our neocortex, and make sure that that is in the driver’s seat, even when things are stressful, even when so much is going on.

56:04

And ultimately, allows for some authentic connections to really being made.

56:10

Next slide, please.

56:12

Now, we only have a few minutes here. So, this last piece is a question that really came up in terms of blending mental health strategy into current wellness offerings and I think over the last year and a half to two years, what we’ve really seen is organizations really step up and offering wellness programs and enhancing benefits.

56:34

But, what’s happening as we see with the great resignation, as employees are expecting more, employees, are wanting more around mental health initiatives, and they’re not just looking for organizations to check the box, their past them lip service. And they can see that now because it’s one thing to say: you’re really focused on mental health.

56:54

But if your interactions with your leaders, and your group, and team members are not reflecting that, that’s something that weighs heavy on them, as well.

57:04

So what I would say is focus less on offerings and programs, because there’s so much of that already. And I think HR as an organization can probably agree that we often say, there’s so many offerings.

57:18

We have so many programs, there’s so many learnings available to employees, but instead of focusing on creating new thing, focus on what already exists. Focusing on the interactions between your current programs, your current processes, and your policies, and really see how it impacts people.

57:40

So that you’re looking at it from a whole system perspective and creating spaces for leaders and team members to share day-to-day, I think, what you were talking about earlier, grandma, is people are craving for that sense of purpose. They want to be able to come in and share how they’re feeling and talking about how they’re feeling. And if we can create those safe spaces for leaders and team members, whether that’s a daily basis or weekly basis, but giving them that space where they can really be true about what they’re feeling.

58:12

That isn’t really trusting and creating more opportunities for individual contributors to really be part of the solution. Whether that’s organizational communications, new policies, making sure that, you know, individuals get the opportunity to really have their say, and to really contribute.

58:36

And, you know, when it comes to that, it’s less about than mental health being a new program and new strategy, it becomes woven into the fabric of the culture.

58:48

Beautifully said. Rhoda, what a way to bring it all together. And I really appreciate how you pulled that together from some of the questions we had received previously. I’m seeing is at the end of our webinar time today, and we are really helpful everyone who’s joined us that there’s something that you’re taking away that can be useful to you.

59:08

There will be pieces of follow up and resources that you can refer to.

59:13

Can we have the next couple of slides, please.

59:17

We’ve actually put some in our deck that you can take a look at that encourages you to de stigmatize mental health to open up the conversation and that really is a job that HR can take on.

59:33

So, thanks to everyone for joining us today.

59:36

And over to you, Sarah.

59:38

Yes, thank you, …, we are now, up to the top of the hour here, we actually have one minute, and I think it would be great. Just to ask this one question that did come in before we close off today, just if you could share a brief answer with us. And that’s how you hire for emotional intelligence.

59:57

Rotary, OK, if I take that and do a little quickie because I see at the top of the hour. So we’ve done a little bit of hiring recently, and I love the hire for attitude, or will, and train for skill approach, and that, that really means, you know, look for people who are not resistant to talking about their failures and what they’ve learned. That whole idea of feed forward, people have received feedback. What are they doing with it? Have they move forward with it? And these are the people who are going to be willing to unlearn.

1:00:26

And relearn, they’re self-aware. They’re coachable, they want to grow, they want to contribute to the best of their abilities. So those are the people that you’re going to want to consider hiring. And what we would be prepared to do, Sarah, as if there are any other questions that have come in wrote, and I can take them offline and provide written answers that can be part of the follow-up resource material.

1:00:48

Great! Thank you so much Rhoda and Cranla for your time today!

1:00:53

Thank you! and thank you for the Institute for Health and Human Potential for sponsoring today’s webinar, and you can learn more at www.ihhp.com. That will conclude the webinar for today. Thank you all for participating in today’s webinar, happy training!

© 2021 HRDQ-U. All rights reserved.