Employees are suffering. They are suffering across a spectrum of mental health challenges – increased stress, heightened anxiety, burnout. Yet, when these employees go to their managers for support, their managers aren’t equipped to administer any type of psychological first aid. I mean, unless they’re a licensed and practicing therapist, they just don’t have the skills. Which is why organizations have been putting into place mental health programs and hiring Chief Well-Being Officers. And in many cases, these initiatives are successful at administering that psychological first aid. But that’s actually the problem. Organizations are throwing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars toward putting a band-aid on the symptoms rather than addressing the disease. The disease of poorly-skilled managers. And you know who sees it? Your employees. 40% of employees said, “I wish my manager had more self-awareness, was better able to manage their emotions, and actually helped reduce the stress in the work environment.” The employees see the need for their managers to be more highly skilled. And in many cases, these aren’t bad managers; they’re just managers that lack the skills. And we see this time and time again, in fact we know that most cases managers don’t receive any type of training until approximately nine years until after they’ve been promoted. So no wonder they don’t have the skills. Organizations, you must start investing some, if not all, of that initiative, of that investment from just to addressing the symptoms into actually addressing the disease. We see the success time and time again when we go in and we work with organizations and we train leaders on emotional intelligence. When we train leaders on how to have effective communication in order to put out the message, reduce the stress, be able to coach and pay attention to their employee’s needs, we see it impact the bottom line. Not only does it help retain the top talent, so you’re not throwing money away to hire new employees, but you’re also increasing the effectiveness, the productivity, to increase your overall profits. If you’re interested in learning more, message me below, I would love to talk to you about this. This is your call to action: stop wasting money on just looking at the symptoms, and instead address the disease. Start training your managers early and more consistently.