A 2023 Statistics Canada survey[1] indicates 1 on 5 Canadians rate their mental health as “fair” or “poor”. As Schulte et al[2] point out “the workplace can negatively affect workers’ mental health by intensifying an existing situation or contributing to the development of mental health conditions via exposure to excessive work stressors” (p.500) and “line managers have a key role in the operationalization and impact of such preventative approaches in the workplace. They play a vital role in designing jobs, managing work tasks and workload, treating employees with respect and clarity, creating a work environment that is supportive and psychologically safe, and encouraging open and honest conversations about mental well-being at work[3].”
I think most people agree: managers matter in followers’ mental health.
But what are the barriers to managers making the transition to being leaders who check in with their employees, offer supports, and behave in psychologically-safe ways? Can we just have everyone attend a seminar? I facilitate seminars but more importantly, I hope my seminars empower leaders’ success after the seminar! Each of us have at least one behaviour-change discouragement story. The story that comes to mind for me is as a younger leader I learned about the importance of one on ones and teams at a Stephen Covey course. I practiced this, developed a new team structure based on shared-decision making, and we saw impressive growth. But like many professionals, I was practicing in my profession seeing clients and leading. When caseloads were high I relieved therapists’ pressure by taking on more work instead of advocating for better systems. My own reserves were depleting and my leaders did not buy into our shared decision making model. Gradually one on ones went by the wayside and I passed down decisions from my leaders without my usual consultation with our leadership team. We had more difficulty coping with high caseloads and lacked the flexibility and nimbleness we once had. Great principles weren’t sustainable. Were my leaders wrong? Did I fail? It took me a while to recover from this difficult time. I later realized we were all a part of a complex system and trying to achieve change alone is tough. And my leaders were also caught in a system.
The barriers to leading in new ways are very specific to each leader’s context. To see how to change behaviour, we can learn from empirically-validated behaviour change theories. For example:
- The Theory of Planned Behaviour indicates our actual performance is influenced by: (a) knowing the action is important, (b) seeing it is socially acceptable/reinforced, and (c) confidence we can accomplish the behaviour, including in our context. That latter factor, perceived behavioural control, in research of often shown to have the most influence on whether or not we do what we intend[4].
- The Stages of Change Model[5] indicates knowledge, social acceptance, perceived need, and social support all help people progress in their own journey to integrate new behaviour from pre-contemplative, contemplative, planning, action, and maintenance phases.
- The COM-B model[6] demonstrates how capability, opportunity, and motivation influence if we do or don’t do what we aspire to do. Capability is knowledge and skills, opportunity is permissive environments and prompts, and motivation is all those brain processes that energize and direct behaviour, not just goals or conscious decision-making.
What does behaviour change research tell us about changing how we do our work? It is not as simple as learning about the material. Education is important to orient us and raise consciousness (i.e. contemplation phase of stages of change) and pique our interest and create enthusiasm but motivation cannot be sustained without supportive people and environments. The transfer of training to practice requires strategic effort. Change is more likely to be successful “if the behaviour targeted for change is defined carefully in terms of who needs to perform the behaviour, what they need to do, when they need to do it, where they need to do it, how often they need to do it and with whom will they need to do it” [7] (p.6).
So is all lost and should we abandon training? Absolutely not. Knowledge is a key component of behaviour change and I earn part of my living from teaching. But we cannot rely on training alone to change our behaviour. What do I recommend?
- If you are an individual who wants to learn and improve your skills, register for learning and develop a plan to apply your learning. Seek support from those around you and remember behaviour change occurs in complex systems. I teach courses which are open to the public and welcome you to attend.
- If you are responsible to lead others, consider how you and your organization will create the change you desire. I can share with you many examples from research literature[8] on how to develop and tailor an approach which will integrate with your organizations’ strengths and learn from previously challenges. Please contact me to learn more.
Resources are precious in our organizations. More importantly, our relationship capital with our teams is vulnerable to a lack of follow through on virtue signalling. If you choose education for your group – be it The Working Mind, customized education, or other course – choose wisely and think strategically on how the education effect can be maximized.
If you choose me to facilitate education for your group, included in my flat-rate is consultation which considers the best-practices above to maximize the impact for your team. We all need to do more with less and maximize our impact – let’s make work better for everyone!
[1] Statistics Canada, “Perceived Mental Health, by Gender and Other Selected Sociodemographic Characteristics” (Government of Canada, 2023), https://doi.org/10.25318/4510008001-ENG.
[2] Paul A. Schulte et al., “An Urgent Call to Address Work‐related Psychosocial Hazards and Improve Worker Well‐being,” American Journal of Industrial Medicine 67, no. 6 (June 2024): 499–514, https://doi.org/10.1002/ajim.23583.
[3] Louise Thomson et al., “Digital Training Program for Line Managers (Managing Minds at Work): Protocol for a Feasibility Pilot Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial,” JMIR Research Protocols 12 (October 24, 2023): 1, https://doi.org/10.2196/48758.
[4] Icek Ajzen, “The Theory of Planned Behavior: Frequently Asked Questions,” Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies 2, no. 4 (October 2020): 314–24, https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.195.
[5] James O. Prochaska and Wayne F. Velicer, “The Transtheoretical Model of Health Behavior Change,” American Journal of Health Promotion 12, no. 1 (1997): 38–48.
[6] Susan Michie, Maartje M. van Stralen, and Robert West, “The Behaviour Change Wheel: A New Method for Characterising and Designing Behaviour Change Interventions,” Implementation Science 6, no. 1 (April 23, 2011): 42, https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-6-42.
[7] Lou Atkins et al., “A Guide to Using the Theoretical Domains Framework of Behaviour Change to Investigate Implementation Problems,” Implementation Science 12, no. 1 (June 21, 2017): 6, https://doi.org/10.1186/s13012-017-0605-9.
[8] Fehmidah Munir et al., “Stand More AT Work (SMArT Work): Using the Behaviour Change Wheel to Develop an Intervention to Reduce Sitting Time in the Workplace,” BMC Public Health 18, no. 1 (March 6, 2018): 319, https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5187-1; Holly Blake et al., “Managing Minds at Work: Development of a Digital Line Manager Training Program,” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 19, no. 13 (June 29, 2022): 8006, https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19138006; Karina Nielsen and Rose Shepherd, “Understanding the Outcomes of Training to Improve Employee Mental Health: A Novel Framework for Trai,” Work & Stress 36, no. 4 (2022): 377–91, https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2022.2028318.
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