5 mental health first aid tips for Founders for lasting success >>>
Resilience is such a buzz word that when you’ve been struggling and feeling the effects of burnout for a while even the mention of the word can feel like a slap in the face. Yes, we can each dig deep to find our inner resilience yet when we have been digging for a while and feel like we have nothing left to give… what does actually work?
What works when the pressures of scaling, leading a team and holding onto the vision for everyone seems to be taking too much of a toll?
Our Founder Anna B. Sexton is trained in creative leadership coaching, enterprise mentoring, mental health first aid trained and clinical solution focused psychological tools for better mental health. Her mission is to make everyday better, incremental overall health better for Founders by making conversations about mental health more normalised. The ‘hustle’ and ‘grind’ culture is damaging - i.e. what happens to something you grind? After a while it turns to dust…
Below are 5 core ways we work with our Founders, their teams or our corporate partners when crafting programmes for 1-2-1 or group work;
Solution focused, strengths based coaching - we look together at what’s been good in the business so that over time the brain’s natural neuroplasticity can start to wired and refire towards looking out for those good moments in the rise and fall of each days events.
Looking at underpinning good mental health and wellbeing practices before the burnout hits - each Founder we work with has a life of lived experience with a huge reservoir of practical tools that have already worked for them. By identifying what has worked before for our Founders this increases self reliance. We use neuroscience and metaphors to underpin better understanding of how our brains work when under pressure and prolonged stress. Being proactive about mental health with Founders high performance can be encouraged without needing to sacrifice stamina and wellbeing.
Work together with the Founder and their teams to understand what feeling safe is - psychological safety is a real buzz phrase which can feel throw away if the working culture in a start up or established organisation doesn’t feel safe. Even if one person feels unsafe in a workplace there is a need to recognise this. By working to foster better psychological safety we can help Founders and team members to begin to
re-express themselves more securely
restart encouraging innovation and problem solving conversation
reduce workplace stress, conflict and seek to improve team retention
Using creative, hands of making such as paper prototyping, model making and creative play to encourage a slower, more mindful approach to innovation - even through going slower at times of high stress can seem counter intuitive, the power of slow has profound effects on deeper, creative thinking. We seek to work with Founders to develop more adaptive mindsets for themselves and their teams for charting uncertainty more in flow, even with a bit more fun and flare.
Taking time for a more reflective practice into the everyday work place - we encourage our Founders and teams to move from the “what is…” fixed on the problems mindset, into a more expansive, “what if…” growth mindset through self and group reflective practices. We help move from stuck mode into more collective forward motion towards more open ended, abundant thinking. Neuroscience shows a practice of being thankful for what has happened rewires the brain for greater positive thinking and stress reduction over time.
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We are committed to powering up Founders who need holistic support to help them stay focused, resilient, well and fueled up to create more impact.
What would you say are the tools that work for you over time to stay well and on track?