Stephen Hays

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Corporate Executive Mental Health Leaderboard

Stephen Hays

In this episode I spoke with Rob Stephenson who is moving mountains to defeat stigma around mental health. He’s one of the most active, and most impactful people I’ve met when it comes to fighting stigma around mental health. His motivation is driven by his own mental health struggle with bipolar disorder and the overwhelming response he received a few years ago when he decided to come out about his struggles.

His main focuses today are:

  1. InsideOut Leader Board – An annual list of senior leaders from corporations that have been open about their mental health struggles. The list is designed to celebrate each leader who has decided to be open, thus playing their part in reducing stigma and helping others within their organization to speak out and seek help. Click here to see the current list of corporate mental health role models on the board.

  2. G24 Global Mental Health Summit – A global mental health summit, spanning a 24-hour period on May 18, 2020. The summit is designed to bring people together globally during this time of need around mental health. G24 will start at 9am Sydney time on May 18 and finish at 5pm in San Francisco and will involve 3 consecutive remote events hosted over 3 main time zones allowing the world to connect.

You can learn more about Rob and his work here: Rob’s LinkedIn,InsideOut Leaderboard, G24 Global Mental Health Summit, Article on G24, Form Score overview


HERE ARE SOME OF THE THINGS WE TALKED ABOUT:

  1. Rob tells us that his involvement in the mental health space is a personal mission driven by his own experience living with bipolar disorder.

  2. He talks about how mental health discussions in the UK, where he lives, have really changed since 2017 when Prince William and Prince Harry spoke out about seeing a therapist and their own challenges with their mental health.

  3. Rob decided to come out and share his story at that time. The reaction was overwhelmingly positive and really opened his eyes to how many people experience mental health and stigma.

  4. Rob created a non-profit called “Inside Out” – which publishes a leaderboard with a list of business leaders who have come out and been open about their own mental health struggles. Rob talks about how these leaders are doing a great deal to reduce stigma by making it ok to talk about mental health in the workplace and with family/friends.

  5. InsideOut Leaderboard has published a list of UK executives two years in a row and is working on their first US leaderboard now which should come out in 2020.

  6. Rob has developed something called a “Form Score” which is a daily mental health self-assessment that tracks mood, and other components of mental health and shares them with a select group of your friends/family/peers. It’s meant to be a social engagement feature around sharing our mental health trends.


    Here is how it works:
    1. Go to: https://lnkd.in/ex53iz8
    2. Scan the QR code or click the link at the top of the page
    3. Post your daily Form Score, Out of 10
    4. Watch the website update in real time for insights on broader wellbeing trends.

  7. Rob is also creating the world’s first global, 24-hour live mental health summit called “G24” in May. The event will take place on May 18th, 2020 with three 8-hour events hosted globally and continuously with the first event being an 8-hour even from Sydney, then an 8-hour event from London and ending with an 8-hour event from San Francisco. The event will include:

Connect with the Stigma Podcast in the following ways: Website, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Email

Connect with host Stephen Hays here: Stephen Hays Personal Website, Twitter, LinkedIn, What If Ventures (Mental Health Venture Fund)