| We tell our friends, “Mental health matters,” and “don’t be afraid to ask for help.”We mean it. We watch elite athletes work with coaches, sports psychologists, nutritionists – whole teams dedicated to marginal gains – and we think: of course, that makes sense at that level. Then we go back to running our teams and organisations, fielding the hard conversations, making consequential decisions – without any of it. Leadership demands sustained high-level thinking, emotional fitness, and the kind of strategic clarity that doesn’t happen by accident. And yet, for many leaders, the idea of investing in coaching – for themselves or their people – still feels optional. Adjacent to serious. Something other people need. Why? Some of the reasons are fair: I don’t know what I’m buying – reasonable. Am I buying conversations? Reports? An objective sounding board? What happens? I don’t know if it makes a difference – also fair. Except it does: research consistently shows executive coaching delivers outsized returns on investment, and organisations with emotionally intelligent leaders significantly outperform those without. I can’t picture what “different” would look like for me – the most honest of the three. If you can’t imagine it, it’s hard to want it. Some of the reasons are less fair: I don’t have time – nobody does. This is a prioritisation statement dressed up as a scheduling problem. We’re not broken – correct! I guess there is nothing wrong with average. Best you wait until something is actually on fire. I want change without changing – this one’s quieter, harder to admit. A suspicion that even with the right support, you won’t follow through. And then there’s the worst reason. The one that doesn’t announce itself.Identity: “I’m not the kind of person who…..” I avoided CrossFit-style training for years. Not because I’d investigated it and decided it wasn’t for me. Because I didn’t want to be one of those people – the ones banging on about WODs and protein shakes and their posterior chain. I had a whole character assembled in my head, and I wanted no part of it. I’m not ‘one of them’.I finally got over myself and went. It was, irritatingly, excellent. What kept me out wasn’t evidence. It was a story I was telling about who I was – and more specifically, who I wasn’t. We unconsciously filter out information that threatens how we see ourselves. It’s not stubbornness. It’s a self-preservation – ‘keeping me the same’ – mechanism. I’m guessing you identify the best rising talent in your team as those who don’t pretend to know everything and who seek advice and guidance to learn and grow. Why wouldn’t this apply to you as well, do you suddenly stop needing to improve your knowledge and mindset once you’re in a leadership role? The most capable people I’ve worked with weren’t the ones who had it all sorted. They were the ones who’d stopped protecting a self-image long enough to improve their game. Mental health is not something that only applies to other people – taking it seriously is the strategic and smart choice. Read more about our 90 Day Power Up kicking off this June! Have a great weekend! |
| Nigel https://nigeldonovan.com |
Mental Fitness Matters… for other people
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