Every Manager, No Matter How Small Their Team, Can Change The World

Mental health is contagious.

Every person’s life is significantly shaped by their work, not only because it occupies a significant portion of their time but also because it often dictates how the rest of their time is organized. Those are the two direct effects of work on our daily lives. A third, albeit indirect, effect is the most important: It relates to the emotional burden that work has on employees, during their actual working time and, even more so, during their free time. In fact, people who experience high work pressure usually take it home with them, which impacts not only them but also their families.

Indeed, “what people find de-energizing is a lack of meaning in their work, the cognitive load required to prepare for and get through interactions with toxic bosses and colleagues, and the seemingly impossible trade-offs they feel forced to make between their or their family’s well-being and the demands of their jobs.” Making sense of the work of one’s team, pacifying relationships with and within their team, and fostering the right work-life balance are three of the main functions of any manager.

More generally, managers who sustain a culture of trust, empathy and psychological safety within their teams encourage their employees to flourish in their work. Those managerial ingredients are not contradictory with the search for performance, on the contrary: They ensure that employees want to give their best and work in an atmosphere that allows them to always progress, individually and collectively.

The beauty of this approach is that it not only generates peace of mind for the concerned team but also for their loved ones. It can have small consequences if one considers every family individually but major consequences for Society, for example in terms of health, education, and delinquency.

This is why every manager, no matter how small their team, has the power to change the world.