The death in early September of Gustavo Arnal, the former CFO troubled merchant Bed Bath & Beyond, shocked the business community. The 52-year-old executive fell from the 18th floor of a Manhattan skyscraper on September 2 in what has been declared a suicide.
His death is a tragic reminder that money and status do not protect business leaders from heartbreak and emotional distress and could serve as a wake-up call for corporate bosses. The message? The same compassion and push for the destigmatization of mental health disorders that employers have championed among rank-and-file employees needs to be extended to the C-suite, where it may be even more needed.
The last two years have not been particularly nice to C-suite executives. have seen your increased workload, and are faced with an endless stream of unprecedented challenges for them to solve. A 2021 global survey of over 12,000 employees found that 53% of C-suite leaders had difficulty adapting, compared to 45% of average employees. Now with some employers signaling a return Due to the hustle and bustle culture prior to the pandemic, exhausted C-suite executives may be at higher risk of burnout or mood disorders. Given the proverbial loneliness at the top and the general C-suite culture, they may be the least likely group to speak up or raise their hands when they need help or a break.
As the Wall Street Journal reported last week, Bed Bath & Beyond leadership was concerned about Arnal’s stress level in the weeks leading up to his death by suicide and he was reportedly working 18-hour days. Yet the question of how to handle burnout, feeling overwhelmed, and more serious mental health issues in senior management can seem like a conundrum: exactly who should care for the caregivers, the employees at the top of the corporate ladder, the people who asked to model wellness best practices for others? And what can be done to help them?
There are many ways to answer these questions. At the most basic level, CEOs, as C-suite managers, are tasked with watching for signs of distress, mental health crises, and behaviors such as binge drinking, eating disorders, exercise addiction, or other detrimental coping mechanisms among their executives. When necessary, they are expected to seek guidance from the right people internally, including HR leaders.
As for the CEOs, they have a whole team of professionals who, in theory, are monitoring their well-being: the corporate boards. The board is responsible for measuring and optimizing the CEO’s performance. In an ideal world, experts say, that would include making sure a CEO is physically and mentally prepared for the job.
The company’s bylaws don’t specifically require a board to provide moral and emotional support to the CEO, but that could be a matter of time, thanks to a growing body of research on the correlation between well-being and job performance. In either case, directors are expected to draw on their long corporate history and act as coaches and mentors to CEOs, especially when CEOs feel overwhelmed.
The best boards step in and extend the hardening to the C-suite as well, when they spot problems. That could mean simply saying, “You seem stressed. Have you taken a break?
Boards of directors and CEOs must also be ready to act once they embark on such a discussion, since business cannot stop when a high-level executive, in charge of a large part of the business, needs a break. To that end, companies may need to hire outside consultants to devise strategies or conduct an executive search. The possibility of a crisis among leaders is another of the many reasons why companies need to have succession plans.
Addressing mental health issues is one thing, getting executives to open up about their personal issues is another. That’s why it’s also critical that companies establish a culture that makes mental health a prominent consideration, says Hooria Jazaieri, an assistant professor of management at Santa Clara University’s Leavey School of Business.
She sees this as a duty that all workers share equally, regardless of rank. “It’s not just about, ‘What do we stand for as our values around mental health, physical health and wellness, but what are we actually enacting in our organization around these kinds of things?’” she says. For example, knowing that uninterrupted sleep creates a strong foundation for better health, companies can assess how they enforce rules around late-night or early-morning emails and what is being done to protect employees’ weekends. . Ask, “What are we doing as an organization to support all of our employees, from the summer intern to the C-suite?”
Open communication is also key and employees should be encouraged to talk and be direct with each other. “If we care about the people in our lives, either personally or professionally, we have to be willing to say something,” says Jazaieri, who previously worked as a licensed therapist in Silicon Valley. When addressing psychological issues, employees need to be specific, name the behaviors they observe, and express how they feel about it. (For example, “I feel sad or worried about what I see,” Jazaieri says.) Offer to listen, help, or connect workers with professional therapists.
Ultimately, corporate America must normalize these kinds of conversations and abandon the unrealistic expectation of relentless positivityJazaieri says.
For now, the C-suite remains a place where resiliency and hustle are especially prized, sometimes to the extreme, because it’s not in the nature of these often loyal, high-achiever problem solvers to give up or give up. ask for help. That’s all the more reason for CEOs and boards to take an executive seriously when they finally talk about his personal struggles. By this time, the problem has become serious and the executive is to be thanked for having the courage to trust a peer. Urging that person to “put in the effort” should be off the table.
If you are having suicidal thoughts, contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or 1-800-273-8255.
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