Mental Health awareness can be a source of hope, and with hope comes life and new possibility.
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In 2008, I was 20 years into a career with Unilever. Then all of a sudden, at midnight on 25 January 2008, I had a panic attack. It was the start of a 3-month battle with depression and anxiety. The following day, when I was diagnosed with depression, I made a decision that saved my life: not to be burdened by the stigma. Sure I was scared, but the response from others when I shared my illness was amazing. I had feared that people would see me as weak, but instead, they told me I was courageous.
In October 2012 I lost a very good friend, Nico, who took his own life, leaving a wife and three kids aged 15, 11 and 9. Even though I knew better than most the signs to look for, I had never spotted his suffering. Why? Because he hid it so well as a result of not wanting to be stigmatised. Stigma killed my friend.
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In October 2012 I lost a very good friend, Nico, who took his own life, leaving a wife and three kids aged 15, 11 and 9. Even though I knew better than most the signs to look for, I had never spotted his suffering. Why? Because he hid it so well as a result of not wanting to be stigmatised. Stigma killed my friend.
The evening of the day he died I made a commitment to myself: to go out into the world and help break the stigma around mental health – to give people the choice to talk about their illness. So many feel they have no choice. They fear it will impact their career, friendships, social status, etc, etc. I know some will never choose to share their feelings but there are many who will if they feel they can do so without being stigmatised.
In mid-2013, thanks in large part to my friend Alastair Campbell (the journalist and former adviser to Tony Blair, who has written candidly about his own battles with depression), I decided to address the issue of stigma within Unilever. The impact was amazing. Very quickly I saw a 12-fold increase in people reaching out for help. I knew I was helping give people at Unilever who were suffering a choice, and thus saving lives. So I decided to go out into the world and help other organisations address stigmatisation in their culture.
I have learned that CEO support is absolutely critical, but am often frustrated by a “tick-box” approach to mental health that prevails in many organisations, with limited visible support from senior leaders.
The day he died I made a commitment to myself: to go out into the world and help break the stigma around mental health – to give people the choice to talk about their illness.
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Having said that, I am very hopeful. With hope comes life; with life comes possibility. I know more and more CEOs who are supporting this drive to break stigma. Many have been touched by mental illness – either themselves or a loved one, friend, family member etc – and have provided the most wonderful care and support to those suffering. But many aren’t used to showing the same levels of empathy at work that they do at home.
There is a strong business case for grappling with the issue of mental wellbeing at work. In the US alone, a million people miss work every day due to stress. That adds up to over 300 million lost workdays per year. And that’s before you factor in the cost to companies of “presenteeism” – the familiar problem of employees being physically present at work, but performing sub-optimally because they’re struggling with stress, anxiety and a range of related issues.
So paying attention to the mental health of employees has a big potential upside for companies – reducing costs and enhancing productivity. CEOs who treat their employees with the same level of compassion they would show to their nearest and dearest will ultimately run much more successful companies than those who hold on to an out-dated belief that business is about being “hard-nosed” and “tough”.
I have learned that CEO support is absolutely critical but am often frustrated by a “tick-box” approach to mental health that prevails in many organisations, with limited visible support from senior leaders.
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The working world is the last real (but very large) bastion of stigma we have left. Those courageous CEOs who are prepared to share their own experiences and be vulnerable will inspire others to follow suit. In so doing, they’ll also have a big positive impact for their business. Most importantly they’ll help us prevent another “Nico”.
The time is right. Celebrities, sportsmen and politicians are all showing the way. Once more CEOs begin to do the same, we will be well on the way to breaking stigma in the working world.
Live, love and matter is a guiding “proverb” of mine. Now is the time for CEOs to truly matter, not just live and love!
Previously published by virgin.com
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About Geoff McDonald
“You are indeed the biggest champion and understand what we are doing more than many others in the company. You live it and breath it. To now make the knowledge available to many others, and hopefully create the momentum for biggest change is a very noble cause. Thanks for doing that. Purpose is indeed closely linked to wellness and not many people see this yet. Again you are a pioneer here. You will enjoy the challenges and opportunities and you are well prepared for it. We will see each other still but already thanks for all you have done for this great institution. We will benefit from it for years to come” (Paul Polman June 2014 – on leaving Unilever).
Geoff’s background in teaching, HR, marketing, communications and sustainability is considerable. During his 25 years with Unilever (a global corporation with a turnover of £50 billion, 170,000 employees in 90 countries around the world), his experience has been truly global working across Africa Middle-East and Turkey, Australasia and Asia, Europe and the Americas.
His HR experience has spanned leadership and talent development, organization change, capability development, with particular reference to marketing, and business transformation with purpose at its core. Early in his career he was responsible for graduate recruitment and development, talent, acquisitions and development across Unilever’s emerging markets. Under his leadership he developed Unilever’s global talent and leadership centre of expertise. More recently he has devoted his time, energy and effort to leading ground breaking work where the HR function has played a central role in transforming Unilever’s business model with purpose at its core.
Today Geoff is a very much sought after speaker, inspiring and provoking Organizations to put purpose and wellbeing at the centre of everything they do. His experience in Unilever, under the pupilage of Paul Polman, allows him to provide very practical insights and speak on how to go about truly embedding PURPOSE and address the taboo associated with wellbeing (particularly mental health) within a large global multi-national Organization. With this experience come some real learning’s on what may or may not work.
He has spoken at Cambridge, Oxford, Bologna, Warwick Universities as well as Corporate events across Australia, Europe, Japan, North America, Turkey and Eastern Europe.
Geoff is devoting a significant amount of time consulting to Organizations, helping them define and embed Purpose as a driver of growth and profitability. He too consults on how to address the stigma linked to depression and anxiety in the workplace, with a particular emphasis on raising awareness of these issues and providing some practical strategies as to how one might go about addressing this growing modern illness.
Geoff is a very active campaigner for breaking the stigma associated with Mental Health in the Corporate world and has participated in a number of BBC programmes and campaigns regards this subject, as well as writing of articles for Huffington Post, FT and HR related journals. He recently convened a meeting with David Cameron and CEOs from Footsie 100 Companies to address their role and agree actions to break stigma in the corporate world. He too is supporting the Royal Foundation (Prince William, Harry and Kate) in their mental health campaign and activation within the the Corporate sector He was recently appointed as a Trustee of Family Links, a Charity promoting and educating parents and teachers to develop emotionally healthy children and young adults.
Geoff is married with two girls and loves the outdoors, he is a passionate cyclist and swimmer and has completed a number of ultra cycling and swimming events.
Topics that Geoff speaks to and Advises on include:
*Bipolar world of business – profit and purpose
*Leadership for the new normal
*Wellbeing and mental health in Corporates – how to break the stigma and put wellbeing at the centre of how you grow your business, attract and retain talent
*HR’s role in embedding purpose within an organisation the size, scale and complexity of Unilever
*The Unilever story of purpose driving growth and profitability
*The challenge facing educators and young people in preparing pupils/students/themselves to achieve their employment ambitions in a very competitive world – how to meet this challenge
You can contact Geoff at twitter @geoffmcdonald1 and through his website www.mindsatworkmovement.com.