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    Deepika Padukone chats with bosses on mental health: Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw urges biz leaders to become empathetic; Ananth Narayanan calls it invisible 'balance sheet'

    In a candid conversation with Deepika Padukone, Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw & Mensa Brands Founder Ananth Narayanan urged India Inc to prioritise mental health in the workplace.Agencies
    In a candid conversation with Deepika Padukone, Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw & Mensa Brands Founder Ananth Narayanan urged India Inc to prioritise mental health in the workplace.

    Story outline

    • Deepika Padukone recently chatted about mental health with Biocon and Mensa Brand's bosses
    • Kiran Mazumdar Shaw opined that the pandemic has forced bosses to care about staff's mental health
    • She advocated for open discussions about mental health, urging leaders to create judgment-free spaces
    • Ananth Narayanan felt that startup leaders need to be more careful about employee mental wellbeing
    • He emphasised that leaders need to be more vulnerable & open up to set an empathetic example
    A calm and focused workforce is essential to the success of any company. As deadlines, targets and pressure mount, employees often find themselves on the edge, anxious and stressed. Corporations must lend a helping hand to employees in their hour of need and help them navigate their mental health challenges.

    Biocon chief Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and Mensa Brands Founder Ananth Narayanan both feel that India Inc needs to become more aware and inclusive about their employees' mental well-being. Gone are the days of shying away from the M(mental health) word, and now organisations must foster a culture where people can openly talk about mental health issues without feeling stigmatised, they said, in a freewheeling chat conducted by actress Deepika Padukone, the founder of The Live Love Laugh Foundation.

    On Tuesday, which marked World Mental Health Day, the 'Pathaan' actress steered a conversation with the two bosses on mental health in the corporate world and how leaders can step up to ensure that the workforce remains healthy - physically and mentally.

    Pandemic Changed Perspectives On Importance Of Mental Health At Workplace

    Narayanan, the former CEO of Myntra, described mental health in the corporate sector as "the balance sheet that you don’t see." "Everyone looks at the P&L, but you hardly look at the balance sheet. So mental health at the company and community level is about taking care of the balance sheet - that remains hidden - and making sure you get a return later," he said.

    Mazumdar-Shaw, while agreeing with her fellow Bangalorean, said that the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic pushed corporations to take note of mental health issues. “Organisations have not quite understood the stress level that both aspiration and competition brings. After the pandemic, I think the corporate world has understood the magnitude of mental health issues. Mental health initiatives in the workplace are no longer a luxury but a necessity," she said.

    It All Starts With The Culture

    The Biocon founder recalled that during her entrepreneurial journey she noticed her team feeling stressed and anxious. And it was then that she realised that workplaces must foster a culture where people can openly talk about mental health issues without feeling stigmatised.

    "As an entrepreneur, there are times when you face challenges and failures, and that can be stressful. I think I saw that same stress in some of my team members, and I realised that people could break down and suddenly get bouts of anxiety," Mazumdar-Shaw, who is part of the Board of Trustees of TLLLF, said.

    Apart from age-related mental issues like dementia and Alzheimer’s disease, conditions like schizophrenia, anxiety, and depression are equally concerning and complex issues that need attention, she added.

    “I think it’s for us as leaders to really start empathising with mental health issues in a different way. We often want to turn a blind eye, or we feel that it’s inevitable or that this is something which others need to deal with,” she said.

    Empathy Should Start At The Top

    Narayanan concurred, and said that leaders need to be more vulnerable in order to set an example for their peers. He also pointed out that among start-ups in general, there remains a lot of uncertainty, stress and unknown variables which creates a high propensity for stress. "Mental health awareness has to be led from the front. Leaders need to be more vulnerable, leaders need to open up, we need to make managers a lot more empathetic," he went on to say.

    Kiran explained this by talking about the need to train managers and team leads on empathy and how they can create a safe space to discuss their mental health issues without censure. “I think you really need to sensitise managers to be more empathetic. I think managers can be very transactional and very ruthless. And I think often that also causes a lot of problems,” she shared. x

    You can watch the full interaction here

    ( Originally published on Oct 12, 2023 )

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