Stress

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Mental Health on the Frontlines: How Situational Awareness Builds Resilient Leaders with Alex Willis

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Mental Health on the Frontlines: How Situational Awareness Builds Resilient Leaders with Alex Willis

How Can Situational Awareness Boost Mental Health at Work? 

“Leaders who read the room fearlessly transform tension into trust.” – Alex Willis

In safety-focused industries, leaders are trained to identify physical hazards before they cause harm. But what if those same situational awareness skills could be used to support mental well-being? In this energizing episode of Headspace for the Workplace, I sit down with Alex Willis, a former NFL player and founder of Leadership Surge, to explore how organizations can apply the core principles of safety awareness—such as real-time assessment, micro-adjustments, and field communication—to improve team well-being, reduce burnout, and build trust.

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Turning Pain into Purpose -- From Leadership Burnout to Mental Health Advocate: Interview with Justin Azbill | Ep. 24

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Turning Pain into Purpose -- From Leadership Burnout to Mental Health Advocate: Interview with Justin Azbill | Ep. 24

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports record increases in quit rates, emphasizing the urgency of addressing manager burnout.

…on one hand, stress and burnout among managers not only negatively impact organizational culture but also hinder their ability to foster employee engagement in a highly competitive labor market. On the other hand, the manager’s voice in the workplace mental health movement is essential to it’s success.

In this podcast, I interview Justin Azbill, the Director of National Environmental Health and Safety for Milwaukee Tool and we talk about his experiences with life-threatening burnout and how he turned that pain into the purpose of helping others. His two takeaways for addressing burnout:

  • Be proactive, not reactive.

  • Start and end on a positive note.

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Assess Your Stress -- Tactics to Increase Performance by Taming Tension: Interview with Dena Ali | Ep 15

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Assess Your Stress -- Tactics to Increase Performance by Taming Tension: Interview with Dena Ali | Ep 15

Is “stress” all bad?

No.

In fact if you didn’t have any stress in your life you would be bored — and may even feel a little purposeless. Humans need to be challenged mentally and physically. The good side of stress — or Eustress — is what helps us grow and even reach peak performance. It’s where we are thriving.

But sometimes our stress levels tip from Eustress to Distress. Unchecked distress can lead to other mental health challenges like exhaustion, burnout, and crises.

In this episode, I speak with Battalion Chief of the Raleigh Fire Department and founding member of North Carolina’s Peer Support Program, Dena Ali . We talk about the stress continuum and its impact on work performance, and how a powerful antidote for stress is something we often forget to do: PLAY!