What is state of your mental Health? A self-check toolkit.

 While we go for regular physical health check-ups, even if otherwise ok, we seldom do mental health checkup! Authors cum practitioners  like Alain De Botton, Dan Arley, Adam Grant, Jordan B Petterson and Browen Berne, do share some insights which can often be collated as barometer for self-checking the state of ones’ mental health. I wander what would a self-check mental health barometer looks like!  

Shy of asking Chatgpt or google, here is my list:

1 Are you able to consciously edit various thoughts emerging in your mind, to select the empowering ones and discard the debilitating ones?  It does not entertain thoughts that reminds us of our unworthiness or fuel the feelings of regret, remorse, resent or conceit.               

2 Are you able to retain the general trust in goodness of humanity and reconcile with selfish acts at the individual level?

3 Can you resist the temptation of comparisons to others, either to feel good or bad?

4  Recognize the unreasonableness of cheerfulness as the only desirable end-state state, and any other as sub-optimal?  “Worldy” people are likely to be less happy than they seem. 

Albrecht Durer (1493)

5 Realise that every explanation that looks plausible may not be real, and that randomness could as well be the real reason?  Not every unsuccessful man is so, because of laziness or stupidity.

6 Able to compartmentalize thoughts and emotions and maintain sense of proportionality of response to the situation.

7 Able to recognize fear as state of being and mange it through recognition and additional dose of curiosity. 

8 In quest of seeking more, not to undermine what is already there.  Recognize that Every situation has the possibility of being worst! Can you express gratitude to crashed pillow that ensures good night sleep.   

9  Once in a while you remind oneself of transience nature of being, and its insignificant presence at cosmic level.

10  Are you comfortable with laying boundaries in relationships and can utter warm sounding but definitiveno, without affecting prevailing level of affection 

11 Appreciate the role of genes, parenting, and early childhood experiences in shaping us, but not hold to these convenient factors to defend your learnt helplessness or laziness.

How much you score and what is the ranking criteria- I cant say- but may be there is some realization where to focus to strengthen our mind!

When did you review Management Processes last?

Mostly, I hear Organization Leaders involved in evaluation of business strategies, competitive positioning, financial plans, operational processes, technological assets and organization structure, but seldom undertaking conscious review of Management Processes. My contention is that well aligned and oiled Management Processes have far greater impact in achieving effectiveness of business strategies and efficiency gains of operational initiatives, then traditionally given attention to.

Three key Management Processes; Information Management process, Decision Making process, and Communication process are essential part of organization machinery and once established tend to have life of their own. Unless their robustness and alignment with overall business strategy and execution plan are ascertained, they have the potential to undermine other efforts of enhancing organization performance.


Technological Innovation and Gen-Y employees orientation demands and make possible complete reconfiguring of these Management Processes from the traditional way these were handled. Let us consider some questions that may help review each of these processes:

Information Management process:

Are we tapping all kind of internal and external sources of information that can help make sense of the complex world? How many of innovative ideas are coming from outside the company (say customers)?

Are we able to derive actionable insights/ foresights out of all the information that we have access to? How much of unstructured data on the web is mined to understand what our customers/ stakeholders liked about Company (products and pronouncements) last week?

Are we ensuring that all those who have to act, use the same set of information and the most recent one? How many customer interlocks across the organization are informed by unified understanding of customer preferences, and interaction history?

Decision Making process:

Are the decisions that are centralized, emerging out of conscious assessment of gains in the form of consistent and effective roll-out or out of power concentration or tradition? When was the debate (experiment) to decentralize some decisions undertaken last?

Are managers consciously selecting the right decision making process (collective or individual) based on context or one style in predominant as part of organization culture? How well understood are the accountability norms related to joint decision making?

Are leaders balancing the intuitive and insight (data backed) based decision making? How often intuitive decisions are betted for experimentation, then waiting for additional data backed evidence?

Communication process:

Are leaders across the organization only telling orders or explaining rationales as well, to facilitate execution? To what extent, leaders are open to questioning existing practices and ready to listen and debate from say new hires or interns?

To what extent, communication networks, formal and informal, are supportive of positive collaboration and partnering across silos? What percent of email traffic for middle managers are with colleagues other than immediate bosses or subordinates?

Are we using new channels of communication that are symbolic of interconnected social age? How strategically are we using twitters, blogs, web 2.0 technologies to connect, convey and correspond effectively and coherently across the stakeholder community?

Review of the Management processes facilitated by above questions will surely throw-up some areas that need to change. Change in Management processes require intervention design, comprising leadership sensitization & coaching, and creating new technological infrastructure besides sustained monitoring, till new processes become institutionalized. Not an easy task, but worth it.

Lets Reflect!!!

You can also visit the adjacent poll to express your opinion and see what others are thinking.