Tackling Mental Health in IT: How Leaders Can Break the Stigma

I recently spoke with IT veteran, Daniel Breston (or ‘BatDan’, as he’s affectionately called by the IT community) about mental health in IT.

IT is a high-pressure, always-on industry. IT professionals and leaders are averse to discussing mental health issues, especially the ones that stem from the job.

We started with the ‘Big 4’ gang, Anxiety, Stress, Depression, and Burnout, and their ringleader, Stigma.

Dan covered these in great detail and shared what leaders can do to reduce, if not completely eliminate, it in their organizations.

The 'Big 4' leading the silent crisis

1. Anxiety: In IT, anxiety often manifests as an overwhelming fear of failure or constant worry about performance. It can lead to obsessive behavior or avoidance of tasks.

2. Stress: The fast-paced nature of IT work can lead to feeling overwhelmed. IT folks can become irritable, find it hard to finish tasks, and be perpetually tired, which can impact both their personal well-being and professional performance.

3. Depression: In tech roles, depression may present itself as a noticeable decrease in creativity, problem-solving abilities, and overall engagement with work.

4. Burnout: It is a profound sense of exhaustion that leads to cynicism toward one's work and a significant drop in professional efficacy.

Stigma is essentially behind why so many talented IT professionals suffer from these in silence. They face rhetoric like, "If you can't handle the pressure, you don't belong here." Stigma is the ‘unspoken rule’ that admitting to mental health struggles is a sign of weakness in our tough, cold technical world.

You can read more about each of these aspects in this ITSM.tools article where Dan addressed the silent crisis in IT. Incidentally, this article compelled me to reach out to him and led to us doing this session together.

IT leaders need to understand that they might unintentionally be complicit in allowing stigma to flourish. It’s about time they took a more active role in changing the narrative.

What can IT leaders do?

Drawing inspiration from existing research, Dan and Stephen Mann (a mutual friend and the founder of ITSM.tools) have proposed a few key principles for guiding IT leaders to foster a culture of psychological safety.

1. Respect

Cultivate an environment where every team member's unique perspective and autonomy are valued. Dan highlighted this with the example of the word ‘empowerment’. When a leader says that they’ve empowered you, what does it really mean?

“You empowered me to do what? Can I miss a deadline? Can I spend more money? Can I get a teammate from another team? Leaders use language that terrifies [their team] and that does not give them respect. It doesn’t show that you can cover their backsides. People get anxious, stressed, depressed, and burned out,” said Dan.

It is important for leaders to watch their language. Dan suggests that a leader could, maybe, pick 5-6 words and ask folks to define what they think they mean.

“It’ll change how you deal with people,” said Dan, as leaders will realize the potential impact of their words.

2. Representation and inclusion

The service desk knows the company and its needs deep down. Leaders must ensure that their voice gets heard.

The question is – how much time does the leader spend with the service desk? Throw away the reports. You must spend time with the service desk, learning from them. Go to the floor, see where you are needed, and take the service desk person to the meeting. They’d listen to things with different perspectives that you would. Daniel Breston

Leaders must ensure that diverse voices are heard in the decision-making process. They must set clear guidelines for inclusive communication and utilize inclusive methodologies like Kanban and Value Stream Mapping.

3. Barrier removal and clarity of purpose

Dan believes that a leader must help teams overcome obstacles or remove them even before they happen. For this, leaders must continuously learn and experiment.

“In lean IT, there is this concept called ‘Catch ball’. Let’s say that I’m the CEO and you are the head of marketing. I’ve given you my goals, and you, in turn, have converted those into goals for your team. They throw the ball back to you if they can’t figure out something. If you can’t solve it, you throw it to me. It clarifies purpose,” said Dan.

Everyone on the team must know what they are doing that contributes to the organization and to the customer.

4. Continuous learning and experimentation

A leader must always seek to learn and also provide the necessary room for employees to experiment boldly. Dan highlights this with an example.

“Let’s say there is a change advisory board (CAB) meeting. The moment the CEO walks in, he is right, because he is the highest-paid person. What if he didn’t speak until the very end? This is the type of leader who understands and respects people in the room to raise their hands and experiment. You need to get everyone on board and get them to try things,” said Dan.

Dan further advises leaders that 70-80% of their time must be spent talking to the team, service desk, and customers instead of being tied up in meetings. They must take calls, take notes from all the interactions, and come in and turn them into challenges that people can solve.

“Give them space to try and solve them,” he said.

5. Thoughtful communication and proactive support

Leaders must anticipate and address potential mental health challenges before they escalate. They must take the time and effort to conduct regular well-being check-ins with team members.

Leaders must ask, “You’ve been quiet in meetings. You aren’t helping a teammate. [Your interactions] are surface-level. Can we talk? My time is your time, let us grab a coffee and talk,” said Dan.

6. Psychological safety

Create an environment where team members feel secure taking risks, voicing concerns, and seeking help without fear of negative consequences. Train managers to support psychological safety and implement blameless post-mortems. Measure team psychological safety through surveys and assess the quality of insights from post-mortems.

Conclusion

Addressing mental health in ITSM is not just a moral imperative but a strategic necessity. By implementing these principles, leaders can create a work environment that nurtures psychological safety, fosters innovation, and ultimately drives better business outcomes.

The future of ITSM depends not just on technical skills but also on the ability to support and empower the humans who run the technology.

To listen to our full discussion, watch the webinar recording here.