Chapter 12: Leading with Mental Fitness

While leaders in organizations develop many and varied programs and interventions to improve their business results, the management of human capital and the relationship between employee wellbeing and business outcomes is increasingly being identified and addressed in the workplace as a crucial area of research and practice. Despite this, wellbeing has not been recognized to the extent that it should in determining its relationship to business outcomes. Only slowly are boards, senior and frontline leaders becoming aware that employee wellbeing and business performance are complementary components of a financially and psychologically healthy workplace. According to Price Waterhouse Coopers (2014), for every dollar spent on effective workplace mental health actions, an organization derives $2.30 in potential benefits resulting from, by way of example, reduced presenteeism, absenteeism, and compensation claims with an increase in ROI when multiple targeted actions are implemented. These and other studies come at a time when there is raised awareness about meeting the challenge of improving mental health in the workplace, combined with the continued challenge of achieving marketplace and stakeholder expectations.