Have you wondered how you could better support your team with stress, mental health, and emotional resiliency? We all know the toll the last two years has taken on everyone and now with recent new changes and restrictions, it is causing another need for employees, teams and leaders to be agile when they are already at the end of their patience rope. You may have seen or heard the stress rise with complaints and frustrations when the new adjustments were announced and with that comes the negative impacts it is having on the mental and emotional health of our workforce. So what can and are companies doing to support their employees and team’s wellbeing during the pandemic? One of the resources they are providing is health and mental health coaching.
How Health and Mental Health Coaching is Supporting Resilience Through the Pandemic
When stress levels are high it shuts down the executive cognitive functions in the brain and one’s ability to access and resource their regular coping skills. It is in these moments that people need guidance and support to regulate their nervous system stress response and be provided with stress management techniques to get them back to homeostasis. Talk therapy which can include coaching and counseling has been proven to alleviate mental and emotional stress as well as increasing productivity and performance. However, many employees and leaders do not have that safe, trusted, and neutral space at work or home in which they can share their current problems. This is why many leaders, managers, and companies are turning to coaches as a resource to support their mental and emotional wellbeing at work and during the pandemic.
What Results Can a Coach Produce for our Company and Wellbeing?
One of the huge benefits to companies in hiring coaches for their team, is the reduction in turnover, sick days, and interpersonal conflicts; all of these contribute to the bottom line and to efficiencies of daily business. In addition to some of those data driven results, companies also notice an increase in innovation, communication, performance, and engagement when they provide coaching to their team. These are the business benefits as they are categorized, but there are also personnel or people focused benefits which are extensive including:
- Stress, time and energy management skill building and resourcing for employees, managers, and leaders
- Mental health coaching that improves wellbeing, engagement, happiness, and productivity
- Emotional health coaching and resilience skills to cope with interpersonal conflicts, crisis, and change
- Professional and leadership growth and development coaching to advance and lead in the company
- Communication skills to navigate conflict, improve confidence, and connect and build trust with others
- The Psychological health and safety benefits with a corporate culture of trust, belonging, and support
How to Bring Coaching to Your Company with an Internal or External Coach
How does a small, medium or large size company bring coaching to their team as a service to support their health, wellbeing, and resilience? There are many options a company can explore around coaching to support the health and leadership development of their people. Some organizations are providing a professional growth training fund of a specific amount that employees can use in alignment with their needs and goals. Many progressive companies have now integrated coaching programs for all their new managers and leaders where they will receive 6 or 10 coaching sessions to be used over the course of 6 months to 1 year. However, when it comes to health and mental and emotional health coaching, this need is not tied to a new position or a specified goal. Rather it is often an urgent need and therefore is often best initiated by the employee.
What this means, is that companies can set up contracts with coaches and/or coaching companies with pre determined coaching packages their employees can access on their own when the need arises for them. This provides ease of use for the employee along with confidentiality which increases engagement with the service. It also allows it to be voluntary and requires a low investment of time for the company itself. The only requirement of the company is to educate and or market the health and mental health coaching to their employees which can be done by having the coaching company provide webinars or workshops on how to use the service.
An internal coach is a coach who works as an employee or team member of the company inhouse. Hiring or training an internal coach can be a great choice for companies that have highly industry specific coaching needs or a large employee base to serve. For any business that wants to create, build and foster a coaching culture throughout their organization, an internal coach is also a great option. If you are a small to medium sized business who may not have the funds for a full time internal coach, many external coaches can be hired either on contract or part time for these roles.
Corporate Coaching Programs for Mental Health, Stress, and Resilience
Many people know and understand coaching to be a 1:1 experience; however coaches and coaching can be facilitated for groups and in coaching programs that provide more in depth skill development and resourcing for long term behavior change and leadership growth. Bringing your team together for a group coaching program on stress management or mental and emotional health can create belonging, team comraderie, and greater connection. Often, a group environment can give others the insight that they are not alone in their struggles and it also provides brainstorming and idea sharing among peers. Here are a few ways companies could offer coaching programs or workshops to support their team’s mental and emotional wellbeing:
- A Stress, Time, and Energy Management Group Coaching Program or Workshop with Resources and Tools
- Resources and Daily Practices for Mental Health Coaching Program or Workshop
- Emotional Awareness, Resilience, and Management in Times of High Stress, Overwhelm, and Crisis
- Peak Energy Performance – Optimize Your Physical, Mental, Emotional and Environmental Enegy to be at Your Peak
The Extraordinary Mental and Emotional Health Benefits Coaching Produces
Over the past two years of coaching a variety of managers, leaders, Vice Presidents, CEO’s, and entrepreneurs, there is one thing that no one has been immune to and that is stress in all of its forms. I have had the priviledge to support people through relational stress with someone at work, career transition, overwhelm with high work volume, mental health challenges and burnout, emotional health from being triggered by someone or something, and obviously pandemic fatigue. As a health, leadership, and life coach together with my clients, we have been able to overcome and navigate many complex obstacles in the workplace. I have witnessed the incredible relief, empowerment, peace, and wellbeing that coaching has brought to my clients. It is the function of being able to process, share, resource, brainstorm, take different perspectives, calm the nervous system, and improve health factors that has made the difference. Yet, there are also other coaching methods that have supported wellbeing such as Cognitive Behavior Coaching, Heart Math coherence technique for resilience, and reflection exercises with action steps for progress.
If you yourself, your team, or company is seeing a spike right now in stress, mental and emotional health problems, absenteeism, turnover, or are working in a burnout culture, then health and mental health coaching will absolutely support you and your people.
As a certified PCC with the International Coach Federation, I am also a certified Health Coach, and have the Canadian Mental Health First Aid training which equips me to provide effective health and mental health coaching services. I have a diverse 20 year health career and I am also a leadership and life coach so these all combine to bring the breadth of understanding, expertise, and education to be an effective coach.
If you have further questions or have an inquiry about health, mental health, stress, or emotional resilience coaching or coaching programs for your company or organization, reach out for a complimentary consult [email protected].
Here’s to resourcing ourselves, our people, team and company to be in optimal health in body, mind, and mood!
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