Mental Health Leadership For Today's Professionals

Background and Premise:

As seen on TEDx, Brian is a veteran police Leader, retired lawyer, international speaker, and author involved in the justice system since 1994. In 2004 he was the lead investigator in a motor vehicle crash involving the death of a close friend, causing his life to spiral until he was finally diagnosed with, and began therapy for, PTSD in 2012.

Brian has published two books about his experiences with trauma and leadership: ‘On the Other Side of Broken – 'One Cop’s Battle with the Demons of PTSD’, 2016, and ‘Career Suicide is Overrated’, 2021. 

He speaks about and provides consulting services for organizations on issues surrounding trauma, leadership, and public safety across North America. He is the creator the CAPITAL 'L' Leadership training program and facilitates ongoing Mastermind groups and training sessions exploring the CAPITAL 'L' Leadership concepts for modern professionals. 

Brian’s CAPITAL 'L' Leadership program received the 2019 Corporate Livewire Award for Excellence in Mental Health Support.

This Experience provides those in leadership positions, or those aspiring to be leaders, with tools to successfully navigate for their teams and themselves the ever-growing impact that mental health issues - from routine to complex, have in today's professional world. 

The instruction is coming from a place of lived experience as Brian has almost two decades of public safety leadership and is a survivor of job-related post-traumatic stress that strongly impacted his life during that time.

Who is this experience for?

This experience would be ideal as part of a training program!

Attendance at this program would be most suitable for professionals in leadership positions, or aspiring to move into a leadership role, who wish to further their understanding of the impact of mental health on their peers, their clients, and themselves. The material is applicable to virtually any field of endeavour. It would be ideal as part of a corporate 

Leadership mentoring/education program:

• Improve the 'toolbox' of those in Leadership roles with tips and techniques for confronting mental health issues.

• Reduction of mental health stigma in the workplace.

• Increased self-awareness and self-care for those in Leadership roles, who traditionally neglect this aspect of Leadership and give it all to their teams without making sure they themselves are well.

• Builds confidence in workforce that those who are Leading are doing so from a base of ensuring that the health, wellness, and balance of their teams is their priority and the basis of their Leadership style.

Experience Details:

Modern leadership must include an innate and empathetic understanding of mental health issues both large and small. Mental health concerns in society are growing in both scope and severity, and this trend will not be reversing itself anytime soon. 

The concept of CAPITAL 'L' Leadership is built on enhancing, or, if necessary, developing, skills and traits that today’s leaders need to ensure that the mental well-being of those they lead is paramount. Ahead of profit margins, ahead of stock prices, ahead of the bottom line, the health and wellness of the team is the best barometer of how successful it is, regardless of whether your organization has two or two thousand employees. 

During this experience, participants will be led through core elements that leaders need to ensure both themselves and their teams successfully navigate the many impacts that mental health issues, from routine stress to suicide, can have in today’s world. 

List of learning objectives/outcomes:

• When to act versus when to talk, and, sometimes, when to stay silent

• Making your ‘open door policy’ mean something

• Having difficult, but powerful, conversations in a timely fashion

• Building up your own personal suit of armour to increase your resilience

• How to truly look in the mirror and self-reflect

• Setting a strong example to get buy-in on mental health and wellness

• The importance of mentors for your own well-being

• The overwhelming need to know, support, and advocate for your team

• Your role in a mental health crisis, both immediate and long-term

• How admitting mistakes allows you to get in front of them and still build credibility

• Why the concept of ‘career suicide’ is overrated

• Creating a legacy as a CAPITAL-L Leader and leaving a trail for others to follow

These topics are split into four areas, each represented by a letter of the acronym CAP-L. 

C - Communication 

A - Awareness of self and team 

P - Perspective 

L - Leadership Legacy 

Each 'letter' would receive ten minutes of discussion, including multiple points for audience reflection and involvement via a workbook that accompanies the experience. The session also includes a short introduction, and a ten minute Q&A session at the end.