Psychosocial risk management is essential. But creating healthier workplaces is only part of the picture. This article explores where mental fitness fits – and how it can help organisations support both wellbeing and performance.
Organisations are investing considerable time and resources into psychosocial risk management. And they should.
Identifying psychosocial hazards, improving work design, managing workloads, supporting employees and creating psychologically healthier workplaces are important and necessary organisational responsibilities.
But even in workplaces that are well designed and managed, people still experience pressure.
People face competing priorities, difficult conversations, demanding clients, uncertainty, distraction and change on a regular basis.
We should keep asking:
How do we create healthier and safer workplaces?
But perhaps we also need to ask:
How do we better equip people to manage the everyday demands of work?
That’s where mental fitness comes in.
What is mental fitness?
We understand the importance of physical fitness. We know that our bodies function better when we exercise and look after our physical health.
Mental fitness applies a similar principle to the way we think, feel and respond.
It’s about developing practical skills that help us manage our attention and energy, respond well under pressure and adapt to what is happening around us.
At Mojo Edge, we focus on five elements of mental fitness:
Awareness — noticing our thoughts, emotions, behaviours and patterns.
Focus — directing and sustaining our attention on the right things at the right time, in an otherwise distracting world.
Regulation — managing our emotional and physical responses so we can respond effectively under pressure.
Energy — understanding mental effort, fatigue and recovery.
Adaptability — developing the flexibility to navigate uncertainty, setbacks and change.
We don't just need these skills when something goes wrong.
We use them every day.
Before a difficult conversation. When the inbox is overflowing. When we need to concentrate on complex work. When something doesn't go to plan. When priorities suddenly change. Or when we simply need to pause before reacting.
Where does mental fitness fit with psychosocial risk?
There is an important distinction.
Psychosocial risk management helps create healthier conditions for work.
Mental fitness helps people develop the skills to manage how they work.
One doesn't replace the other.
If workloads are unreasonable, the answer isn't to teach employees to cope better. If work is poorly designed, people lack appropriate support or harmful workplace behaviours are occurring, those issues need to be addressed by the organisation.
Mental fitness can sit alongside those measures.
For example, if an organisation identifies high job demands, it might review workloads, staffing, deadlines and systems of work.
At the same time, employees can benefit from learning how to focus their attention, manage their response to pressure and recover after periods of sustained effort.
If an organisation is going through significant change, it should communicate, consult and support its people effectively.
At the same time, people can develop greater awareness of how they respond to uncertainty, learn to manage those responses and build the mental flexibility needed to adapt.
It's not either/or.
From managing risk to building capability
This is where I see an opportunity for organisations to think more broadly about psychosocial health, wellbeing and performance.
The same skills that support our wellbeing often help us perform better.
Focus affects the quality of our work.
Regulation affects how we communicate and make decisions under pressure.
Self-awareness affects our relationships and leadership.
Energy affects our ability to perform consistently.
Adaptability affects how we respond when circumstances change.
Mental fitness provides a bridge between wellbeing and performance.
Where Mojo Edge fits
Mojo Edge doesn't provide psychosocial risk compliance services.
We work alongside them.
Once an organisation has identified and is managing its psychosocial risks, we help develop the skills that support people to respond to the everyday demands of work.
And that doesn't necessarily mean introducing another wellbeing initiative.
Mental fitness can complement what an organisation is already doing through leadership development, learning and development, wellbeing initiatives, change programs, team development or professional development.
We offer practical workshops, programs and coaching designed around the needs of the organisation and its people.
The starting point is simple:
What are your people dealing with?
What are you already doing?
And where could developing their mental fitness add value?
Because creating a healthy workplace isn't only about reducing what can harm people.
It's also about helping people develop the skills to work well.
Create healthier environments for people to work in — and better equip people to thrive within them.