Leadership Strategies for Enhancing Mental Well-Being in the Workplace for Young Employees.

The media is filled with stories of young people's well-being struggles, including anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, and stress. This is an important topic that will also receive increased attention in future workplaces. While we are currently focusing on young people, a recent study indicates that it is expected that 82% of all Danes will experience mental challenges during their lives. This suggests that in the future, it will be the norm rather than the exception for employees to experience poor mental well-being at some point in their career.

So, how can we help these young people thrive in the workplace, and how can we, as leaders, address the challenges that arise?

The background of young people:

To understand why young people struggle so much with their well-being, we must take a closer look at some of the factors that affect them.

Social comparison:

One of the factors burdening young individuals is social comparison. They have grown up in a world of social media, where they daily measure their lives against others' shining portrayals of life. They expect their lives to look the same, without considering that the images they compare themselves to are artificially constructed. This constant comparison creates unrealistic expectations for their own lives and makes them feel inadequate.

FOMO (Fear of missing out):

Here in 2023, almost anything is possible. You can become whatever you want, and you can do whatever you want. There are so many digital tools and platforms that everyone can become web designers, writers, influencers, or whatever they desire. You can travel the world or study online. The possibilities are endless! However, we haven't taught young people how to choose among these options. They are faced with an abundance of choices and often end up trying to do it all or feeling overwhelmed. Let me provide a simple example from my time as a CMO. When I started in marketing, the media channels we had to use were limited. A TV commercial, a radio spot, an ad, and some in-store materials typically constituted a campaign. Today, it looks different. The number of channels has multiplied. Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, influencers, digital screens, blog posts, display ads, SEO, and many more. The list is long, and young people feel that they are not doing their job well if they are not present on all of them. Opting out of one channel gives them that uneasy feeling of "fear of missing out" because they believe they haven't done enough.

Performance pressure:

Some genius has decided that our young people should be constantly evaluated. Today, Danish kids receive grades in physical education and religion. They also have to take exams in their elective subjects in the 8th grade, and they are assessed for their readiness for further education. And then our politicians wonder why they are stressed. For years, we've talked about "straight A’s girls" who are brilliantly intelligent but often falling apart inside due to stress because their expectations of themselves are sky-high. The young people we send out into the workplaces are so accustomed to being measured and evaluated that they hardly dare to take risks or make mistakes. They don't even know that success often comes from making many mistakes and learning from them.

What can you do as a leader?

The difficult conversation:

Since it's becoming more of a norm than an exception in the future to have employees who experience periods of mental distress, it's time to learn how to handle a difficult conversation about mental well-being. There are several good guides and blog posts on the topic available online. Here is a particularly useful article if you want to improve your skills in difficult conversations.

Opting in means opting out:

Your responsibility as a leader is not just to add more ideas or tasks. Your responsibility is to help them choose. This requires more than just prioritizing tasks; it's about saying, "We're not doing this; it's been opted out" clearly and distinctly, or "You should ONLY focus on...". Young employees will challenge you and point out how important it is to include X-Y-Z. And yes, they are right that if you had all the resources one could dream of, you would do it all, but you need to teach them that "opting for something is also opting out of something else." When new tasks are added, others must be reduced.

Be cautious with "Freedom with responsibility":

Be careful with the "Freedom with responsibility" mentality. Although having influence over one's work area is important for well-being, too much freedom can be stressful for young people. So, even though the "Freedom with responsibility" mindset works well for more established employees, it can create too much pressure for young employees.

Create structure in work:

With so many possibilities, it can be challenging for young people to maintain a working structure that functions. You don't need to create a task list for them, but you can provide a framework for their work. For example, you can meet every Monday to go over tasks and prioritize them or make it clear that you expect them to dedicate the first two hours of each day to focused work on project X. Young people are used to jumping from task to task and being constantly distracted by digital media. Structure is the key to maintaining focus and feeling that progress is being made.

1:1 coaching:

Create an environment where employees are encouraged to focus on their own development instead of comparing themselves to others. If your company has an HR department, consider offering 1:1 coaching to young employees—either virtually or in person. This gives them the opportunity to work with a coach on stress-reduction techniques and discuss their concerns with someone who is not their boss.

Clear expectations and psychological safety:

Finally, it's important to be clear in your expectations and lower them slightly in comparison to what you initially thought. They will likely exceed your expectations, but they need a strong foundation first. If you can communicate your expectations clearly and create a culture where the fear of failure doesn't hinder an open and appreciative work environment, you're on the right track. When they feel safe and are able to meet expectations, you often get a fantastic young and highly dedicated employee.

Mental well-being is one of the four trends that will affect the future workplace. Read more in the blog post here: 4 Interesting Trends That Will Impact Our Future Workplaces and Work Lives (milleschou.com)