Here's why leaders need to care about mental health

It's a bit ironic that leaders working on big challenges around human development - whether creating livelihoods or improving areas like education and health - can struggle with stress, low self-esteem, and other issues. It can be easy to feel like you are not doing justice to the cause and the opportunity to make an impact, that even 70 hours a week is not hard enough, that you're failing relative to the sheer magnitude of the challenge. In those moments, I think human-centered leadership is about trying to be emotionally generous to yourself, and even more so to your team. Sometimes the hardest parts of human development begin at home.

We cannot afford to think of our leadership as X at the expense of Y - for example, the quantitative bottom line at the expense of mutual compassion.

My approach is really focused on self-management, creating awareness, peer assistance and care for others. It is important is to create an environment in which mental health issues are seen to be normal and not stigmatised. This can be achieved by sharing our own vulnerabilities as leaders, too. I openly share the vulnerabilities I face and how I cope with them with my colleagues. I think today’s leaders should prioritize the destigmatization of mental health and the provision of affordable support services. This can be achieved through open and honest engagements and by providing resources for mental health.

In environments where mental health is misunderstood or stigmatized, leaders can play a particularly important role in normalizing the discussion. We have tried to contribute to this in our own small way in Bangladesh, through our use of social media, SMS, and other health-related communications channels.

Research demonstrates that we do not listen to what someone says but rather what they do and who they are. Each individual is gifted with an authenticity radar. When we meet ourselves first with all that that entails, we then can meet the world with our own unique abilities.

To be an effective human-centered leader we have to demonstrate care for our planet, our communities, our businesses and organizations, our colleagues, friends and family and, critically, ourselves. We have to demonstrate that we understand and put into practice empathetic ways of working and living. We need to demonstrate the emotional strength and maturity to acknowledge others’ expertise and knowledge and our own ability to listen and learn from it. And our social responsibility needs to be demonstrably part of who we are, not simply some presentational gimmick.

Much like we have preventative health checkups, every leader should proactively seek out a form of self-inquiry via meditation, yoga, therapy, energy modalities or better yet, in combination. [Many of today’s issues] have resulted fundamentally from an inability to sit in silence by one's self with self-inquiry and observation.

Mental health belongs to all, and investing in it is as important as physical health. Yet many leaders overlook this, and in failing to give ou own mental health its due, we tend to undermine its importance to our people as well. Tuning in and feeding our own positive mental reserves can go a long way towards creating empathetic, human-centered organizations that respect every individuals' needs and circumstances.

NK: Leaders need to be open and aware of the importance of taking care of one’s mental health, and should make it an organizational priority as well as something they publicly champion at corporate forums and in community settings. This goes a long way in the global movement towards true inclusion, equal human rights for all and the sustainable evolution of their organizations as well as their people.