So going into the round table ahead of that poll, I think, you know, I've said it before on the call. But it really is such a privilege to have the three of you here just talking openly and honestly with us and bringing this conversation to the floor. So I'm gonna kick off the round table by just asking each of you starting with you d, what do you do to invest in your mental health, and then Johnny and Ronan, if you can pick up off to D, that'll be great. Thanks, Mandy.
00:30
Um, well, I'm a bit of a social animal. So I like to kind of I find code very difficult and kind of locked away for years and years, it felt like, so I think connecting with others, for me is a really key protector for my mental health. So I like to kind of get out and, you know, I find laughter and conversation and sharing stories and problems with friends and families, really gives me that kind of boost to my mental health. And then on the flip side of kind of knowing when to sort of disconnect, either from work or from friends when the the social battery might be a bit depleted. So taking time out in nature, or just getting stuck into a good book. Those are the kinds of things that I like that I like to do. Thanks.
01:10
About you, Johnny.
01:12
Thanks. And I often just talk about trying to get the fundamentals right in terms of Eat Well sleep well, and drink well. So not too much alcohol, try and drink water or try and eat well, etc. And then exercise and whatever we you're suitable for your body. For me, I try and go on the bike once a week. And my biggest boost to my mental health is actually playing tennis. I'm not very good, by the way. But when I'm on that core, I just have this like moment of mindfulness. And that's what I found. And if I just play tennis that sets me up for the week. And in theory, or things I also focus on as kindness just, I honestly find it. If you focus on trying to be caned it really does help your well being and also helps the other person as well, which is great and detoxed on nature, as well. And the last one is trying to show as much empathy for others, again, really helps me in my mental health.
02:11
Thanks for sharing, Johnny, how about you, Ronan.
02:15
So maybe blend some of those. I made the decision at the beginning of the pandemic, I've been blessed with a pretty robust mental health on my life and a natural extrovert character, which might surprise some people. But I took the decision at the beginning of the pandemic to proactively reach out and started in the first week of the pandemic with five a week and then progressively moved on from there just in the idea that for a lot of people, the thing that was missing in the pandemic was Hello, was high was. So I just reached out to a lot of people that I hadn't been in touch with on a regular basis, plus some people in the work environment who because of the change in circumstances, I wouldn't. And what I would say, and he is and this is striking the balance between will have something to import, because the beauty of life, society, everything is is we're all different. And actually, very often what we have is what other people need. That's the beauty of it. And so that opportunity to reach out. And in my experience, about 99% of the Reach outs, and some of them were by text, some of them are cold, some of them were an email of different different things, but 99% of them were responded to, and about 95% were responded to within a really short space of time, people needed. And, again, not to make a point for the sake of it is but as somebody who is believed in brand and marketing, the greatest failure of the pandemic was the misbranding of social distancing. We didn't need social distancing, we needed physical distancing, while maintaining social intimacy. And we actually forced ourselves into a situation where we created greater separation in a societal mental way than actually was was necessary. And we're paying the price for that. Now, the second thing for me that I enjoy doing is I'm learning a little bit around yoga and pilates and things like that. And actually, the former CEO of Verizon media, Yahoo, Google gave up and started to have those mental wellbeing days, every Friday, and brought in various yogi and others to help us to start to think about and just to familiarise ourselves with different mindset approaches, that perhaps some of us were less less used to and a bit like Johnny, I find sport or activity or other things to be an escape not because I'm good at it, but because I get healthily distracted
04:56
by it. Thank you all for Sharing. I'm gonna go back to the poll now because the results are in. And I'll tell you that 36% of people say that they companies do take mental wellbeing seriously. But the rest all said either No, or only at a superficial level. And that's still a giant gap to be filled. So my question to you guys is really how do we also start moving the needle on company culture, how they see mental health and looping and Johnny's point earlier, you know, the more data we have, the more we can actually pull on the purse strings. That's great. But for now, we actually need to change the mindset from a checkbox approach to actually having solutions that work for our employees. Join me, I'm going to start with you for any tips you might have.
05:43
Yeah, thanks, Mandy. I could go in different directions. But maybe I'll just go with something practical. When I work with organisations on creating mental wellbeing and wider wellbeing programmes, we always think about how can you try and shift the culture and how can you grow in momentum and create a movement. And I think we try and do that with three key components and trying to shift the culture. And this is also for example, the we're taking it at Starbucks, we have an amazing culture and amazing group of people. And the first is making sure that any programme is grassroots, it's making sure that there wasn't the vegetables that want to drive the cultural change, you give the space and the ability to do that. And when you do that, honestly, the amount of people that put themselves forward and the harness that energy is brilliant. The second thing is making sure that you include all functions and a cultural change. And because it's the if you want to drive, let's say change in a well being programme, and well being more broadly, they need to have people in different parts of the business and functions are working towards it. Otherwise, you might not get things done. And the third thing is making sure that you have the right advocacy and buy in across all levels, right from the top from the top. And it's only like, for example, Ron and Neil's good, great Tom from the top where he is, for example, but having that tone from the top have given you permission and making you feel safe, to be able to change the culture is important. But it's not just the top it's right the way through the organisation.
07:15
I just build on one of Johnny's comments, because I think it's so important. If you were to take the survey that we just did. And then that was not a statistical survey. But one of the insights in surveys is that when people are asked about the company, their opinion is formed, in most part by the person that they report to, because that person represents the company. And I think what's really important and it was to Johnny's point of tone from the top gives permission, but the delivery of the space that people need is determined by their supervisor, by their manager. And that's where the criticality is because it's a bit like, forgive me. But when we all started to look at things like unconscious bias, we started in boardrooms and other things, and don't get me wrong, great. But we started at the top and said, Oh, now we understand that we change our language, etc, etc. The reality of whether the change happens is the one to one relationship you have when you walk into the retail store. That's the key. And that's where what we need to do is we need to ensure that we have a common narrative that is clear from the top down and use that narrative to create context. And this isn't just about mental health. This, if I may be so bold is a replicable formula for successful and effective communications in organisations is, if you have a common context, where people understand what the big ambition of the organisation is, but also understand how it affects them at their level in the organisation, what you actually do is give them confidence to exercise their judgement. And we know that the best outcome for any challenge in a business is one that's taken and given effect to closest to the situation at hand, whether that be an employee situation, or whether that be a customer situation. So what I would say is the challenge that we have is if there's one store in the 1000s, if there is one warehouse in 100, if there is one, you know, employee canteen in 50 quid this doesn't exist, well, then it doesn't exist for those employees. And that's why we just have to be relentless on making sure that every part of the organisation understands the challenge and is given the support necessary to give those leaders those supervisors managers, the confidence to have the courageous conversation to put an arm around somebody and say Is everything okay?
09:56
Thank you, Ronan. So true. So we've spoken I guess But the support from within organisations now, Andy, and I'm going to cross over to you and maybe put you on the spot here. But to ask you really, if you had a call to action for for member Institute's and how they can better support their members from a mental health perspective, what would it be?
10:14
Great, great question. I think I mean, as we've heard here today, lots of fantastic sort of insights and all the rest of it. And we know from the research, but basically, the mental health, it's affecting everybody. So this is not something that's kind of clouded over in the corner. So I think it's the majority of the Institute staff, and it's the majority of their members and their students that are actually suffering and maybe actually having these challenges. And I think with this in mind, our Institute's really need to kind of join the charge and challenge the stigma that we've been talking about here today, and become those as advocates and raising awareness around mental health issues. I think the key thing here is about education and training your staff for those soft skills. Learning was alluding to there to understand the issues surrounding mental health. So it's really, really important education is a key component of this, and then provide a wellbeing section really practical, providing a wellbeing section on their websites, the signposting to the supports that are available in their respective regions, you know, this could be actually the first port of call, but somebody that's actually struggling, they might go to their Institute looking for this information. And then just lastly, as the chair of the mental fitness Task Force, come and support us, you know, maybe make sure that there's one of your representatives around the table. And this is where we're sharing best practice what's going on with the region's we've learned a tonne from each other, and we support each other in this kind of initiatives. So it's really, really a great place to be for people to come forward. So yeah, thanks.
11:42
Thanks, D. I agree that taskforce really is incredible. And thank you so much for forming it and discharging the lead within the institutes. We are going to head over to questions from our audience in a moment, just before we do for the last 12 minutes, we'll have 12 minutes to go through audience questions. But we want to bring up word cloud where you actually are going to share with us activities that you're doing currently to invest in your mental health. So please click on couple of the words that resonate with you. And I'm going to start looking at some of these audience questions in the interim. We have lots of questions coming through, I can tell you there have been over 100 submitted between the pre show and through the chat function. So I'm going to try get a broad spirit, I guess globally and pick some out. I just want to check speakers. Are you ready? Are you ready to go? These are the hot seat questions. Okay, so we have a question coming through from Rainsy in Indonesia, asking how to maintain mental health in a stressful work environment. And I'm going to pull through another one coming through from Nigeria, asking how can Chartered Accountants maintain a work life balance, considering the digital age we live in and operate in coupled with the ever increasing demand for work. So I think these kind of go together, you know, in high pressure environments, and at the same time we in environments that just don't switch off. So, Johnny, I'm gonna flip to you to kick us off with your thoughts on this one.
13:20
Thank you, Mandy. And thank you, Lindsay. And I didn't catch the other person at the end. But thank you very much for the for the questions. High pressure, environment, you know, actually just touching on what Rhonda said earlier about Lean managers. And I think that's fundamentally important, I just want to bring that in. Because there has been some research done for accountants and finance professionals specifically. And the vast majority, over 70 80% of participants see that work is a key determinant of our mental health, also by 80%, would say that they have been stressed at work. So we know that work is a key determinant of our mental health. We all basically say the work has stressed over the last 12 months. But the thing that really upsets me, the vast majority, over 70% of people who say they will not talk to their line manager, because they think it will be career limiting. So we know we're stressed at work, but we don't talk to league manager, because we think it's career limiting. And that's why we really have to get into that line manager population, which is fundamentally important. And the reason why I mentioned it, is I think it's conversations with your line manager, which really, which is really important to get to a good place. So you have a good working environment that you can thrive. And one of the things for example, that that we're doing and some of the teams that I work with is having well being objectives. So alongside your, your performance objectives, if you like you have wellbeing objectives, and some things we talk about care caring for yourself. So where are the areas where you can take time to show compassion, where's the areas that you can be really active? Where's the areas where you want to build or your relationships, and where's the areas that you want to You know, to exercise, I like having those conversations about care or whatever works for you with your league manager, and your well being objectives and talking about your non negotiables. You know, for me, for example, I've got a new baby, and I want to be the best story, you know, BEDTIME STORY reader, I can be, I told you better than a manager, that's what I want to do. That's what's gonna help my well being that's my non negotiable, I want to do that. And I think that's important. So having that really open dialogue with your lead manager to the extent you can, I totally get all cultures are different. And that's not possible thing, having the conversations thinking about well being, and taking ownership and accountability, I think is as important.
15:41
Thank you, Johnny. I love that. And I have no doubt that you are the best storyteller. So I'm sure your little ones very lucky to have you. The next question actually links to parenting as well. And Ronan, since I know that you have a daughter in her 20s, I'm going to send this one your way. And I don't think it's an easy one. But Paul from the UK has asked, Are there any thoughts on being present for family, your partner and your children, while pushing forward in a high pressure environment and maintaining your mental health? Does one have to come at the sacrifice of another?
16:16
So many, thanks for the question. I have very strong views on this. And these aren't views that were formed over the over the pandemic. I think the nature of work and the nature of careers, in my view has to be founded on mutual respect, and mutual understanding. And if you genuinely believe that a workplace should be an inviting place in which somebody can bring their best self every single day, that person, by definition is a son or daughter, a mother, a brother or a sister, and, and they don't park that in reception when they arrive into the building. And I've always believed, and I've had the privilege of being a senior executive in my later years, but everybody starts at the beginning and starts their career somewhere my case flipping hamburgers in McDonald's in Dublin. But the point is that the authenticity of bringing yourself at every level, I actually believe affords you the opportunity to not make false compromises. There will always be a question that says, but we still need two people to stay late tonight. And therefore we have to have a conversation about who that might be. I'm not naive, but an awful lot of people in exactly the same way as we have the conversation about mental health earlier, default to I won't say, I won't ask, and therefore I'll blame the situation. And my daughter, happened to be an exceptionally talented field hockey player. And I only missed one competitive game in eight years, she can tell you exactly which game it was on one day. And I still feel guilty about that, because that was on a Sunday. But guess what I showed up for the other 300. So I would say don't make a crisis, when there isn't one, be open, be willing to have a conversation. And if I may be so bold, take it back to the very beginning when we introduced ourselves that Johnny showed vulnerability and authenticity as a leader. And I bet you that he went off in people's estimation, as a result. In my experience, vulnerability and authenticity are strengths, not weaknesses. And there is no authenticity without vulnerability. Now it's easy for some of us who are a little older and more seasoned, perhaps to say it, but it's true. And I've never found authenticity or vulnerability rejected in any environment that I've been in. So ask the question, celebrate the fact that you're a new parent, that you have a sports day that you have something else and be planful and purposeful. And if you are, a lot of these realities may actually work out just the way you want them.
18:58
Thank you, Ronan as parents of two young kids myself, that is very inspiring to hear. So thank you so much for sharing. D, I'm going to direct the next question to you because I know that a lot of your work has really revolved around understanding anxiety in the in the workplace in specific. So we have a question coming from somebody in Zambia, who has asked, How do I know as a finance professional, whether I'm mentally stressed? How much time should I take for myself? And how do I create the space for it?
19:30
Well, that's a really vulnerable question. So we're talking about vulnerability here. So thank you for that. I don't have the name but and it's actually a very common question. This is something that comes up time and time again, you know, how do I know that I'm stressed, you know? So look, you know, mental stress and anxiety are very hard to identify in the moment that you're experiencing it. So the main reason for this, as we all know, when you're anxious, your body responds automatically. So you're producing the stress hormones cortisol and adrenaline. And you have a It makes it a takeover. So this is your primitive brain, not your thinking brain. So you're not really thinking very rationally. So ultimately, you're kind of running on autopilot, through a stressful situation or a stressful time. And like, that's actually okay, if it just happens every once in a while. So I think the issue is really, when the stress becomes like a daily occurrence, like a sort of a drip drip situation. And then you have this kind of flood of stress hormones that can obviously take a toll. So then, you know, the kind of the net result there is that you're going to lose concentration and motivation, you're going to feel fatigued, and ultimately, you know, it's going to start affecting your physical health as well. So this could be going on for this person. And so obviously, you know, how do we kind of, you know, tackle this, but goes without saying that the best way really is to kind of remove the stressors. So we have had all of us lots of macro stressors, you know, with a pandemic, and wars and all sorts of, you know, climate crises going around on around the world. But you know, I think if you can take it down to an individual level, looking sort of, you know, we're all kind of in a kind of a finance frame of mind to doing an audit on your own daily workload, and your routines and those relationships that you have in your life. It's really important, it's a really great first step. So you're going to identify maybe the big stressors that are going on for you and take action. So we're talking here today about speaking off, maybe speaking to a colleague, or your line manager, of course, if you're brave enough, and hopefully you are, or it could be like just a family member. So you're kind of taking back control of a situation that you may feel very overwhelmed in. So this is when you're going to start seeing some changes. So I hope that's answered a little bit of that person's question. So thank you.
21:36
Thanks so much, Dee, we only have three minutes left. So I'm going to pull out one question, which I think is pretty important. It's coming from Serani in Sri Lanka, who has asked what best practices to have to keep track of your mental health. And I think that's a big thing. Because physical health, we know we can get on the scale, we can measure inches, but but mental health can be much more complicated. So I'm going to ask each of you to just share your your quick tip on measuring mental health in your own life. See, you can kick us off list.
22:08
And I think the quickest one, the one that everyone can take away with is just disconnect from your device, you know, way more than then you want to, and I think we're all sort of tethered to our devices so often. So just, you know, putting the device away disconnects, get out in nature, as we're all pain, you know, go and read that book talks about friends, you know, do a bit of socialising or just, you know, a bit of self care. So yeah, definitely number one tip for me
22:33
about your journey.
22:34
Yeah, I would go down as similar to do I think it's working out what works for you. And then you track it. So for me personally, getting out walking is my thing. I take a lot of walking meetings, and I'm very deliberate. I say to people, can I do this in a walking meeting? And I try and empower other people as well to then if they want to go and get the walking shoes on, we could do a walking meeting. So actually, for me, tracking my mental health has, how many steps have I done? And if I get over 15,000 steps, chances are, my mental health is going to be in a decent place that they
23:04
love that Johnny? Thank you. Ronan. What's your tip for the day?
23:09
Well, I'm definitely with Johnny having done walking meetings earlier today, very much bathers, both physical well being but also the external stimulus is big. The other thing that I personally love to do, and I'm lucky enough, I have a bit more time in my life these days is and I get energised and regenerated by by reaching out. So I'm doing a lot more coaching and mentoring. And I actually believe I get as much as as the mentee does as well, because it helps me to refresh for myself. What are the things that are good and should be doing? And actually is as good a lesson for me and a refresher for me as it hopefully is, for the other person. And I usually enjoy I'm measure success by by reference to whether or not I made a difference. That helps me to reset my energy stores. Even if it's a small difference, every every difference counts.
24:10
I couldn't agree more. Thank you so much, Ronan. And thank you to all of you for sharing your time and your thoughts today. To our audience. We hope that this discussion has really made you more comfortable to start the conversation about your mental health and the mental health of your of your peers and your friends around you and that you walk away with some useful tips and practical tips to start your journey. We hope that we'll see you again in July for the next episode in the difference makers discussed series. We'll be we'll be talking about trust and evolution. So please take a look out for more details and we'll see you then.