Mental Health Skills For The Workplace: Wellbeing Intelligence (WBQ)

Mental health has become a central concern for many organizations across the world and the rise of hybrid working and genAI is only accelerating this trend. Combining our strength, respectively as a counselling psychologist and as a sociologist, Dr Kiran Bhatti and myself coined the concept of “Wellbeing Intelligence” (WBQ) in an article for the MIT Sloan Management Review in April 2023 on the back of our joint research. Since then, we have taken the concepts to multiple organizations and refined the skillset it entails – and we are publishing a book on the topic this year.

But let’s take a step back and look at what we mean by “Wellbeing Intelligence” (WBQ). Wellbeing intelligence is really the equivalent to “emotional intelligence” for wellbeing and mental health. A core pillar of emotional intelligence is about self-awareness and wellbeing intelligence shares the same feature: it starts with understanding our own mental health, what causes stress and anxiety, and acting on it. This is about acknowledging the root causes and designing approaches to address them. This knowledge is then mobilized in our relationships with other and in how we design wellbeing strategies in organisations. We call this approach the “concentric circles” of wellbeing in our 2023 article.

Defining What is Wellbeing Intelligence: A Mental Health Skillset

Wellbeing intelligence relies on a continuous self-assessment that does not limit itself to mental health. We see wellbeing as holistic and often the manifestations of our mental health are physical: Are you feeling short of breadths or sweaty before giving a big presentation? Many will discard this experience without realising such challenge might lead to more and more serious issues, like deciding to totally withdraw from any opportunities to present!

Once a source of mental health challenge is identified – from specific interactions to specific periods of time – one can make concrete changes to their approach to work. It can be something as mundane as taking a proper lunch break (what psychologists call “behavioral activation” – increasing engagement with clearly enjoyable activities). But it can also be about building supportive connections at work, and talking about our respective experiences of mental health. It can also be about better time management or better work-life boundaries (taking clear break from work to be able to refuel your engine!). Those individual approaches can then inform the support you provide to other employees and teams and how organizational strategies for wellbeing and wellbeing practices are set up.

Wellbeing Intelligence and Mental Health in the Era of Hybrid Work and GenAI

Why is wellbeing intelligence so crucial at this moment in time? We started working on wellbeing intelligence in 2020 during the pandemic, when people experienced generalized hybrid work. Many powered through but experienced burn out in the back end of the pandemic, due to the difficulties to disconnect. A more recent threat comes from the overuse of generative AI in the workplace, as research found it fostered social isolation.

Wellbeing intelligence can help build better awareness for mental health issues as workplaces evolve at the speed of light. It is not only about the developing the right skill set, but also starting from mindset focused on mutual care.