MENTAL HEALTH CONCEPTS FOR THE MANAGER DIAGNOSTICIAN


This section of the text is not intended to be an expansive book on mental health. It is designed to give the manager an overview of human behaviors in a way that will allow him or her to make good business decisions based on a range of information from hard data to soft, gut-level reactions or hunches backed up by rational information.

This is also not intended to help you hold the hand of an employee whose pet gerbil died. Human behavior and mental health is very complicated and based on countless measurable and immeasurable variables which include genetics , experience, perception, cognition, nutrition, health, values, morals, environment, ethnicity , personalities, perceptual and learning styles, and brain function, just to mention a few. The following charts are intended to open up the previously mysterious world of human emotions in order to begin a dialogue between people who work with people. At the same time psychological information is not rocket science and SHOULD NOT BE the sole domain of one group of people.

Experts and specialists in the field of psychology and mental health spend years studying and trying to comprehend the details of their topics. They will be good resources for you. But managers who must manage in the midst of human emotional drama on a daily basis need to have competency about human emotions in order to manage people. It is astonishing to find so many managers who have no people skills and no information about emotional norms. Often this is not their fault, due to the historically exclusive nature of psychology. Some would say there is a subtle agenda to keep it mysterious and exclusive. Less than fifty years ago, an aunt or grandparent would have been considered an expert in human emotions. Today it seems a requirement to find a specialist. It is true that there are some conditions and issues that are too difficult and complicated to deal with and that makes a specialist quite useful. There are also many levels of human emotions and mental health that are easily managed and not at all mysterious.

Certainly, clinical medical or mental health diagnosis is not appropriate for managers unless they have advanced training and specialized credentials. However, when an educated and conscientious manager smells the fragrance of a freshly peeled orange, catches a brief glimpse of the color orange in the wastebasket, and finds orange peelings in the waste basket, it is absurd to think that the manager should not take the leap of faith to consider the possibility that there was an orange present in a business. And if that office has an "orange-free policy," the manager will be required to manage this. And for a manager to say something like, "Well, I'm not an orange grower so I guess I shouldn't say anything," is patently absurd. A well-seasoned manager must be able and willing to take the risk to say, "Hey, someone had an orange. I trust my perception and if I cannot, then I'll call in an orange specialist. I have list of orange experts in my policy files, so I'm safe and ready to take the risk of telling the higher-ups that there was an orange in the basket . They get to decide if it matters, but I have to manage the consequences of an orange user in my department because I also know that everyone else smelled the orange too." Contrary to some opinions , managers are human beings and with the exception of a few, are mentally healthy and would easily recognize the "smell" of someone who was exhibiting behaviors or emotions that were not reasonable for the workplace.

The combination of perceptions and direct experiences that a manager has, when documented in measurable and visible details, added to hunches and ideas, creates a more complete picture of reality when dealing with the potential range of employee emotions. Managers need permission to think outside the traditional parameters of management to include emotions as measurable risks to productive and safe employees . Managers need permission to recognize psychological features from psychological experts, from company administrators, the profession of managers, and from themselves . As you go through the following presentations of differing ways to think about emotions think about what you already know




Emotional Terrors in the Workplace. Protecting Your Business' Bottom Line. Emotional Continuity Management in the Workplace
Emotional Terrors in the Workplace: Protecting Your Business Bottom Line - Emotional Continuity Management in the Workplace
ISBN: B0019KYUXS
EAN: N/A
Year: 2003
Pages: 228

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