Why this ‘confronting but nourishing’ coaching may be just what you need

“Confronting but nourishing” is how Paul Pincini, General Manager of Sapphire Coast Buslines characterises his Workplace Mental Health Coaching experience.

Employed in a family-owned business of more than 90 employees, Paul and HR Officer Tanja Hoogenboom registered for coaching to better understand how they could promote a mentally healthy workplace culture and reduce the risk of psychological injuries.

While there are policies and procedures in place to manage psychosocial hazards in the workplace, Paul acknowledges that drivers can (still be) be exposed to incidences of trauma, aggression, physical injury and other psychosocial risks on the job.

“We want to make sure they are alright, because they do tend to bottle things up or shrug things off.”

Coaching, Paul says, further emphasised the importance of staff check-ins as well as follow ups.

“People really appreciate it. When you text someone on a Sunday, saying something like, ‘Just checking up on how your weekend’s going. You had a tough day on Thursday’. On Monday, they come in and say, ‘Oh, thanks so much for that, it meant a lot to me’.

“Often,” Paul continues, “It’s just the little things that can make a big difference.”

“They were able to engage people and provide pathways for meaningful relationships at work,” coach Anna Kijowska notes.

“It’s one thing to listen,” Paul says. “But then it’s about actually acting on the issues.”

Paul and Tanja also wanted to understand how to better address the factors impacting workers’ mental health.

Coach Anna notes that when coaching commenced, the organisation was in the process of rolling out new systems. “Knowing that a lot of their drivers found systems to be difficult to engage with, they knew they had a challenge.”

“When you’re in the moment and you’re the one trying to roll things out, you think everyone’s on the same journey,” Paul acknowledges. “But they’re not … you can leave people behind.”

“It is important to provide reasonable opportunities for workers to be involved in the change management process,” Anna says.

According to regulations , businesses have a duty to consult workers in the change management process to – when embedded into day-to-day work – support mental wellbeing, strengthen collaboration, and drive meaningful, lasting change.

An additional benefit to this is thatworkers often have the solutions to solve stubborn challenges in new and innovative ways, ultimately maximising job control and individual contributions to the organisation.

Coaching helped the team at Sapphire Coast Buslines recognise consultation as a powerful lever in the workplace. “Slowing down meant that they had a lot more opportunity to manage that change better and grow a sense of peer support,” Anna says.

Since receiving coaching, Paul notes, he’s also prioritising ‘me time’ for himself, and to role model for the team.

“For the first time in my life, I’ll go down the beach with my dogs every morning, take them for a walk. Then I have a swim,” Paul says, while admitting that previously he would have used that time to go to the office early.

“My outputs have increased from it,” he notes with a smile. “I can see the difference myself.”

Anna says she encouraged Paul and Tanja to make small adjustments to work schedules to help minimise the effects of work-related stressors on worker mental health.

Paul and Tanja share how they plan on driving initiatives to help employees both keep each other accountable for carving out ‘me time’, and to continue to build positive workplace relationships.

As a result of Paul and Tanja increasing their understanding of ways to improve their approach to mental health, changes they’ve made have seen an improvement in workplace culture, productivity and retention.

Learn more about Workplace Mental Health Coaching here.

Advice for others considering coaching:

• Prepare for some truth bombs – “Be prepared to listen and acknowledge your personal and your organisation’s downfalls … take it on board,” Paul says.
  
• Buy-in is important – “It’s one thing for us to implement something, but you’ve got to have buy-in from the top down, and vice versa,” says Tanja.
  
• Be prepared to be proactive – “Anna didn’t give us the solutions, but she made us look for the solutions and I think that was a really positive thing to do.”

And some reassurance from your coaches: “Generally, our clients already have good practices in place,” says Anna. “Our job is to suggest ways you can make your investment make a big difference to you and the mental health of your team.”