Karen Gately

When we accept the reality of being human and recognize the ignorance associated with mental illness stigma, we free ourselves to be OK with not being OK.

Spend even a little time reading comments posted online and you are likely to come across the work of a Troll.

How well do you leverage your networks? Do you tap into the people you know for the insights, contacts or ideas you need to achieve your goals? Do you ask to be introduced to people you want to meet, do you ask people to share their lessons learned or to act as a referee?  It’s common for people to feel hesitant to ask for favour.

There is no doubt that the world of business has come a long way since the days of the industrial revolution when many people where considered just another cog in the production wheel.

Are you leveraging your true potential in life?  Are you making the standard of contribution you are truly capable of making? Your potential is encapsulated in both your talents and the strength of your spirit.

How well do people in your team or business work together to achieve your collective goals? Do managers work with one another to identify priorities and coordinate their team’s efforts? Do team members think about the consequences of their actions on staff in other areas of your business, before they act? Where does your organisations culture sit on a spectrum between being collaborative and silo driven? An organisation’s ability to thrive depends greatly on people being willing and able to work well together.

For decades women have been fighting a battle for fair and equal treatment in all areas of life.

Reflect for a moment: How do you measure the standard of contribution the people on your team make?  Do you place importance on the number of hours people spend at work? How well do you measure the contribution they make while there? If time spent, or ‘face-time’, matters to you, ask yourself why.

When talented people bring out their full potential, great results are possible.

If you are a leader of people, chances are at some point in your career you will manage someone battling mental illness, whether you know it or not.

One Saturday morning many years I go, I dropped by the office to pick up a few things I needed.