Leadership and Mental Health
The Holmes-Rahe Life Stress Inventory catalogs 43 life stressor events and assesses value to each in order to determine the likelihood of a stress induced health breakdown over time. Auditing the list recently for the first time in a while, roughly half of the list includes events induced routinely in the life of a service-member, particularly when that service-member deploys. The maintenance of mental health is just as important as maintaining adequate levels of physical fitness and maintaining mission essential equipment. Leaders demonstrating personal example and empathy build trust leading to the destigmatization of help seeking behaviors and maximum potential.
GEN Creighton Abrams once said “People aren’t in the Army, people ARE the Army.” GEN James McConville, upon taking his position as Chief of Staff of the Army in 2019, reflected similarly saying ““People are the Army. Without our people, we’re just a bunch of combat equipment sitting in motor pools, hangars and arms rooms.”
So how do we best manage stress and take care of the Army’s most precious and least replaceable commodity? You take care of them and show them it how to take care of themselves. You actively destigmitize help seeking behaviors by demonstrating that seeking help is ok. You show that working on yourself isn’t bad.
