As we prepare to host leaders for Dr. Abiola Salami International Leadership Bootcamp in Mombasa, Kenya next month, we consider it important to discuss Emotional and Mental Health (EMH) in leadership this month of May. One thing most leaders give little, or no attention is their Emotional and Mental Health. Generally, your state of mind as a leader is directly correlated to the quality of decisions you make. The need to drive peak performance considering the size of your organization and the complexities of managing internal and external stakeholders exposes you to a degree of stress that impacts greatly not just on your physical health but also on your emotional and mental health.Leadership requires a delicate balance between delivering results and promoting a supportive work environment. There are certain tell-tale signs that a leader’s emotional and mental health has been compromised.One of the ways that a leader who has mental health challenges tries to mask such condition is to do the most in one or other areas to take attention from the real issue. The pursuit of result is always welcome from everyone in an organization especially a leader but where it becomes excessive, it might be fuelled by clandestine reasons. For example, working late or overtime happens when deliverables need to be met outside regular working hours – it’s an exception, not the norm.Everyone has signature temperaments – sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic, and melancholic. In most cases, there is a dominant temperament and recessive temperament. This means that a leader’s persona is somewhat predictable based on his or actions overtime. However, mental health challenges bring stress into the equation and literally makes a person act out of character. For example, if a leader is known to be the friendly type or one that gets along rather well with colleagues, one sign of emotional and mental health challenges is that he or she might suddenly become feisty. This can be followed by an apology and a seeming return to normal behaviour – only for the erratic cycle to perpetuate itself. These mood swings are signposts to an underlying mental health challenge.Leadership is more strategic than operational. A leader therefore requires a healthy mind to successfully joggle many things almost at the same time. Even when the leader is not multi-tasking, when there is a mental health challenge – tasks that are ordinarily routine will become laboured and herculean. Since a leader’s work is done more with the mind than with the hands, a mentally-challenged person will find it difficult to process information and thoughts with the same scrutiny and intensity as when the leader is healthy – hence there is a breakdown between inputs to the brain and the result it churns out. What could be done with ease before then becomes a chore.The idea of a leader being isolated is counterintuitive because leadership means working with people and directing their actions towards achieving a specific goal. This means that not only are leaders supposed to be visible and hands-on, but they are also supposed to be in constant communication. When a leader over-delegates, becomes more distant and unusually silent at critical times – that could be a pointer to emotional and mental health challenges. Isolation doesn’t just happen on a physical level; it can also be on be on an emotional level. In the cartoon depiction Prince of Egypt, Moses was a great leader and witnessing the people he guided out of slavery constantly complain made him distraught. In his complain to God, he would say, “I am alone”. This was interesting because Moses was hardly ever alone, except for when he climbed a mountain. He was really saying that he was lonely despite the crowd around him. According to the National Institute on Aging the health risks of prolonged isolation are equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. When you experience this feeling as a leader, it might be a sign you need emotional and mental intervention.To further position your leaders for peak performance, you can download a free copy of the latest edition of The Peak Performer Magazine at www.thepeakperformer.africa You can also enroll your Mid-level Leadership Team for the Made4More Accelerator Program https://abiolachamp.com/m4m-accelerator and your Senior Leadership Team for the Dr. Abiola Salami International Leadership Bootcamp MOMBASA 2024 https://abiolachamp.com/international-bootcamp/ We also have an upcoming training for leaders in public service www.abiolachamp.com/depips/Dr. Abiola Salami is the Convener of Dr Abiola Salami International Leadership Bootcamp and The Peak PerformerTM. He is the Principal Performance Strategist at CHAMP – a full scale professional services firm trusted by high performing business leaders for providing Executive Coaching, Workforce Development & Advisory Services to improve performance. You can reach his team on [email protected] and connect with him @abiolachamp on all social media.
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