Mental Health. With Martin Coul

What Are We Asking People to Cope With?
We are talking about mental health at work more than ever. Organisations have invested millions in well-being initiatives, resilience, employee assistance programmes and awareness. Yet people are still struggling, and often doing so silently.

So what are we missing?

In this interactive 90-minute session, Martin will combine lived experience, evidence, stories and conversation to explore mental health and well-being through a leadership lens. We will look at why mental health is better understood as a continuum rather than a simple divide between “well” and “unwell”, what helps us stay well, why it can be so difficult to recognise when somebody else is struggling, and what makes a genuinely useful conversation possible.
We will also go beyond individual well-being to consider a harder question: are we spending too much time helping people cope without asking enough about what they are being asked to cope with?
Leaders are not expected to become therapists. But they do influence culture, pressure, trust and whether people feel able to speak. Through discussion and practical reflection, the session will explore what leaders can realistically notice, influence and do differently, both for themselves and for the people around them.

Martin believes the conversations we tend to avoid are often the ones most worth having. Through OTII, he works with leaders and organisations to identify psychosocial risks earlier and understand what is driving poor well-being across all stages of life. His work is shaped by both evidence and lived experience. He also hosts The Hushed, a podcast by men, for men and those who love them, now reaching listeners in more than 60 countries. Away from work, he can usually be found walking his rescue dog, Louie, or allegedly making the best burger you’ll ever taste.

LinkedIn Profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/coulmc/