Founder mental health

Hi All, how has your week been? It's been an interesting week following all of the Mental Health Awareness channels, really inspiring content out there, some of which I have shared below. For us we have been thinking about an area that is less talked about in the area of mental health and that is Founder Mental Health - we are thinking about business owners specifically as we navigate through these uncertain times.

As a small business owner, you are often expected to have all the answers, after all you are a leader, leaders know it all right?! Here's a secret, often we are learning on the job, there are certain circumstances that no business school can teach you, and that is about how to be human in business. With that, comes emotions, we are not cold-hearted robots leading teams we don't care about, if we are any good at our job, we have built teams we call our family, who we collaborate with and care for. Therefore when a crisis hits, you are the one responsible for and who has to take care of those employees as well as your family, pronto. The pressure then becomes huge - so who is looking after your mental health in that situation?

On Monday I (Helen) was interviewed by the lovely Bryony from Engineers for Pioneers, we discussed all things to do with founder mental health and I hope I gave some useful advice for business owners out there navigating this current storm. You can hear a little about our story and get to know us a bit more with the reasons also as to why we set up Mantel too. You can view the full interview here, so grab a cuppa and come on over.

Interview summary

It is now imperative that your own mental health needs to be prioritised, your oxygen mask needs to be put on first, so hopefully with a few pointers we can begin to look at the building blocks for creating a stable mental space for you based on daily habits and mindset focussing around the 5 areas I believe we as business owners all need to be working to right now.

Observe - take the gift of the pause button, observe over panic
Connect and Collaborate - with your team and industry
Create - this is your superpower when ready
Mindset - problems are possibilities
Accept - look forward, ride the wave

For more information on Engineers for Pioneers 'Pioneering Spirit' campaign including great interviews to support you through this time, check out their dedicated website here