Courage is defined as “the mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty.”

It’s no wonder then that courage is an integral component of mental health. By calling on the strength inside each and every one of us, we can face challenges that, on the surface, seem insurmountable. Whether its persevering through difficult moments, confronting past demons, or choosing to accept the things we can’t control and focusing on those we can, we will all have to summon courage time and again throughout our lives and our careers. 

But believing in your courage, let alone using it, is not always easy. Like the Lion in the Wizard of Oz, we may spend years of our lives searching for it. But the good news is that if you believe in yourself, the journey on that yellow brick road is shorter than you think. 

My guest today knows a thing or two about courage. In 2003, Retired US Air Force Colonel Kim “KC” Campbell was flying a combat mission over Iraq when her A-10 aircraft was hit by enemy fire. In a matter of seconds, KC had to find the courage to get herself back to safety…or risk losing her life. I spoke to KC about her career as a pilot, why having a wingman at work and at home is a game-changer, and what we can learn from her bestselling book “Flying in the Face of Fear: A Fighter Pilot’s lessons on Leading with Courage. 

Bio:

Kim "KC" Campbell is a retired Air Force Colonel who served in the Air Force for over 24 years as a fighter pilot and senior military leader. She has flown 1,800 hours in the A-10 Warthog, including more than 100 combat missions protecting troops on the ground in both Iraq and Afghanistan. In 2003, Kim was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for Heroism after successfully recovering her battle-damaged airplane after an intense close air support mission in Baghdad.

As a senior military leader, Kim has led hundreds of Airmen both at home and abroad in deployed locations and enabled them to succeed in their missions. She has experience leading complex organizations and driving cultural change. Kim knows what it takes to be a successful leader, to inspire and empower high-performance teams to achieve success. Kim is passionate about leadership and feels strongly that leaders earn trust by leading with courage and connecting with their team.

Resources:

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kchawg987?s=20

Website: https://kim-kc-campbell.com

Flying in the Face of Fear: A Fighter Pilot's Lessons on Leading with Courage: https://kim-kc-campbell.com/book/

It Takes Courage to Seek Mental Health Support: https://walkingwiththewounded.org.uk/Home/News/662

How To Be Brave About Your Mental Health: https://www.talkspace.com/blog/talking-about-your-mental-health/

For every single one of us, grief is a certain and profound component of the fabric of our lives. And yet grief is one of the hardest emotions to process and the most difficult to discuss, particularly when it comes to the workplace. 

A 2021 survey of employees by the Marie Curie support charity found that 29% of employees were not confident in knowing what to say to a bereaved colleague while 14% of HR professionals were not confident they'd know what to say to a bereaved employee.

And even more difficult than talking about it at work, is showing up at work while grieving,  and worrying about the impact of taking time off. The same Marie Curie survey found that 58% of employees felt their performance was affected by grief months after bereavement and 54% of employees worried that taking time off after a bereavement would affect their job security.

For those reasons and many more, how the workplace responds to grief can greatly impact our healing process. And as with all aspects of mental health at work, it starts with a kind and compassionate leadership.  

In this week’s episode, I spoke to Kelly Davies, a communications consultant at the World Bank who, in 2017, tragically lost her husband Charles, with whom she shared a young child, to AML leukaemia. Kelly shared her grieving process and spoke about how to create a grief-informed workplace, as well as how to ask for what you need at work, how to recognise when someone is struggling and the importance of taking care of our workplace community in both easy times, and those that are not so easy. 

Bio:

Kelly Davies has worked on behalf of a variety of organizations dedicated to diverse issues ranging from eradication of poverty to the reduction of learning-poverty to fostering US-Middle East relations in a post-9/11 context.

Over the last two years, Kelly has spearheaded the overall communications program for the World Bank’s umbrella trust fund the Foundational Learning Compact, where she designed and implemented the communications and visibility strategy focused around disseminating knowledge and best practices to key stakeholders and counterparts across global education.

Earlier in her career, Kelly successfully led multiple fundraising initiatives to increase corporate, foundation, and individual support to increase organizational impact and sustainability.

Resources:

Grief and bereavement at work: https://www.mariecurie.org.uk/help/support/bereaved-family-friends/work 

The Danger of Neglecting Grief in the Workplace. Ted Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klMgE7_V5Po

Huberman Lab -The Science and Process of Healing from Grief: https://open.spotify.com/episode/75CPy69yUW4SBSMa8eeuVJ?si=eEpxg0j5QyyEd_Ny_SVDxg

Terrible, Thanks for Asking: https://ttfa.org/

Fear, by Tich Nhat Hanh: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/13623836

Option B: Facing Adversity, Building Resilience, and Finding Joy: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/13623836

When it comes to mental health in the workplace, the buck stops at the top. A survey of 34,000 people across ten countries revealed that 60% of people worldwide say their job is the biggest factor influencing their mental health. And whether we realize it or not, the way we show up to work, as managers, leaders or colleagues, affects the environment around us, and the people in it. 

Managers in particular have an outsized influence on our mental health in the workplace. The same study showed that managers have just as much of an impact on people’s mental health as their spouse, and even more of an impact than their doctor or therapist. A whopping 81% of employees say they would prioritize good mental health over a high-paying job, demonstrating just how much the workplace environment can make or break an organization’s ability to attract top talent, and keep it. 

In today’s episode I spoke to Florence Gaub, the Director of research at the NATO Defense College in Rome about how to show up as our best selves at work and how to notice and prioritize the mental health of our colleagues and employees, including in times of crisis. We also spoke about fostering our self-confidence in order to show up authentically at work, how a good manager will notice and nurture the mental health of their team, how to learn from our failures and those of others, and what sports can teach us about resilience in the workplace.

Bio: Florence Gaub is Director of the Research Division at the NATO Defense College (Rome). She was previously foresight advisor at the General Secretariat of the Council of the EU, special advisor to the EU’s Commissioner on Strategic Foresight Maros Sefcovic, as well as deputy director at the EU Institute for Security Studies. Before that, she was the institute’s resident Middle East analyst, and started her career at the NATO Defense College as Faculty Advisor in the Middle East Faculty. Florence also serves on the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Complex Risks and is Vice-President of the European Forum Alpbach, an Austrian non-profit.

Her career has taken her from conflict and war in the Middle East and North Africa to institutional change and geopolitical shifts. In her work, she focuses on long-term trends, challenges and opportunities, and how to future proof societies for them. Florence has authored numerous publications, her more recent ones include “Arab Climate Futures”, the EU’s "Global Trends to 2030" report, as well as “The Cauldron: NATO’s Libya Operation”. Her book “The Future: a manual” will appear in September 2023. She holds a PhD from Humboldt University of Berlin, as well as degrees from Sciences Po Paris, the Sorbonne and the University of Munich. She’s a French-German national and served in the French Army as a reserve officer.

In her free time, Florence likes to surf, box and ski.

Resources:

Florence Gaub: https://www.ndc.nato.int/about/organization.php?icode=189# 

Twitter: @florencegaub

Losers [Netflix Series]: In a "winning is everything" society, how do we handle failure? This series profiles athletes who have turned the agony of defeat into human triumph.

 https://www.netflix.com/gb/title/80198306 

Mental Health at Work: Managers and Money (Report) https://www.ukg.com/resources/article/mental-health-work-managers-and-money?ms=4000

Should Managers Matter that Much to Mental Health? (Forbes) https://www.forbes.com/sites/tracybrower/2023/02/21/should-managers-matter-that-much-to-mental-health-3-critical-considerations/?sh=65586b066211

Some people see work as a job, a means to a paycheck they need to live their lives outside the office. Others see work as a career, climbing the ladder one job at a time. But what happens when your job is not only work, but a mission, a passion or, in the case of my guest today, your life?

In 2011, the Arab Spring reached Syria. Syrians of all ages took to streets and town squares to peacefully protest against the government’s corruption and economic policies, and to demand democratic reforms. Rather than listen, President Bashar Al Assad and his regime responded with brutal force. The ensuing war ravaged the country and displaced millions. Hundreds of thousands more were brutally murdered or imprisoned in Assad’s dungeons, their fate unknown to this day.

My guest today, Asser Khattab, grew up in Syria, where he studied journalism. Little did he know he would end up reporting on his own country in the throes of the most brutal war in recent history or that he would be forced to flee Syria to neighbouring Lebanon, where he worked for some of the top international newspapers in the world, only to have to flee once again to Paris, where he received asylum and lives today. 

I spoke with Asser about his incredible journey, how his identity impacted his work, whether he thinks news organisations do enough to protect the mental health of their employees and why, ultimately, he decided to leave the journalism field altogether and choose a job that allows him to prioritize his mental and physical health.

Bio: Asser Khattab is a former journalist from Syria who reported for various international media outlets, including the Washington Post and the Financial Times, on Syria, Lebanon and Iraq. A year after he moved from Beirut to Paris, Khattab chose to stop his journalism career, citing structural issues that the industry fails to tackle. He nonetheless continues to write essays for publications like New Lines while working as a media and communications associate at the Clooney Foundation for Justice.

Asser's article on why he stopped writing about Syria:

https://newlinesmag.com/first-person/why-i-stopped-writing-about-syria/

Mental health takes on a whole new meaning when you live in a country in constant crisis. At the age of 40, my guest Karma Ekmekji, a mediation advisor and peace and security professional, along with millions of Lebanese, has lived through multiple upheavals in her lifetime. A devastating civil war, internal conflict, political crime and economic strife have traumatized generations of Lebanese. The COVID pandemic battered an already exhausted population. And as if that weren't enough for one country to handle, in August 202o, nearly 3 thousand tons of stored ammonium nitrate exploded at the Beirut Port, sending shock waves of destruction across the Lebanese capital and causing untold physical, emotional, financial and psychological damage to its residents.

Despite all this, perhaps because of it, the Lebanese people have always been described as unusually resilient. And while it's true that they had to become so, one has to question whether that label has been taken for granted. 

In this episode, I talk to Karma about the meaning of resilience and mental health in Lebanon today. We discuss how mental health in the workplace is coloured by collective trauma and suffering; how to model healthy coping mechanisms to children; how the mental health conversation has evolved across generations and whether Gen Z is overcorrecting the mistakes of our parents. 

On January 6, 2021, the United States Capitol was stormed by a violent mob, a traumatic and terrifying experience for the entire nation, but particularly those in the building. My guest today, Congressman Andy Kim, was present that day. A photograph of the Congressman cleaning the floors of the Capitol building afterwards went viral, capturing the gravity of the task that lay ahead not just in cleaning up the Capitol but also politics in America. 

Congressman Andy Kim is a Democrat representing the 3rd District of New Jersey and a former career public servant under both Democrats and Republicans, having served at USAID, the Pentagon, the State Department, the White House National Security Council, and in Afghanistan. In our very candid discussion, Congressman Kim talked about why he thinks mental health is one of the most important issues on his agenda. We discuss the unique challenges faced by those in the national security field and ways in which they can protect their mental well-being, how he works on preserving his own mental health despite working on the toughest national security issues of our generation and why he believes the events of January 6th should be a wakeup call for how politics is practised in America.

Throughout our conversation, and despite his career-long commitment to public service, it was clear that Congressman Kim is first and foremost a family man. We discussed how he went into politics to make a better world for his children and the toll it takes having to be away from home in order to fulfil that mission.

Bio:

Congressman Andy Kim represents the Third Congressional District of New Jersey. Congressman Kim has dedicated his life to serving the country. He worked as a career public servant under both Democrats and Republicans, having served at USAID, the Pentagon, the State Department, the White House National Security Council, and in Afghanistan as an advisor to Generals Petraeus and Allen.

In the House of Representatives, Congressman Kim is working on an agenda to bring this country together and strengthen its national and economic security. He supports strong measures that boost our economy by investing in small businesses and innovation, creating fairness and opportunities for working families, and honoring America's promises to military families and veterans.

Congressman Kim and his wife are currently raising two little boys down the street from where he grew up.

Episode Resources:

Congressional Page: https://kim.house.gov/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/AndyKimNJ 

Articles: 

A national mental health crisis. American Psychological Association. https://www.apa.org/monitor/2021/04/numbers-national-crisis 

Congressman Kim Helps Cinnaminson Police Department Secure Funds for Additional Officers and Mental Health Support. Press Release. https://kim.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-kim-helps-cinnaminson-police-department-secure-funds-for-additional-officers-and-mental-health-support 

Congressman Kim Introduces Bipartisan Legislation to Protect VA Caregiver Benefits. Press Release. https://kim.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-kim-introduces-bipartisan-legislation-to-protect-va-caregiver-benefits 

Congressman Kim Votes to Pass Government Funding Legislation. Press Release. https://kim.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-kim-votes-to-pass-government-funding-legislation 

A year after viral photo, Rep. Andy Kim reflects on being a ‘caretaker of our democracy’. NBC News. https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/year-viral-photo-rep-andy-kim-reflects-caretaker-democracy-rcna11068 

Opinion:  John Fetterman shines a light on dark days and nights. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/04/03/fetterman-cbs-interview-depression-confession/

Events: 

The mental toll of the Capitol siege on the American psyche. ABC News. 

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/psychological-impact-attempted-capitol-takeover/story?id=75124017 

Mental health issues among physicians are a silent and global epidemic. In 2021, the British Medical Association reported that nearly two-thirds of doctors in the UK have anxiety or depression. Each year in the US, roughly 300-400 doctors die by suicide. Studies have shown that suicide rates among doctors were 2-3 times higher than the general population in both the US and the UK. Nearly half of junior doctors and 1 in 3 GPs are considering leaving the profession, with the top reason being burnout.  

And its not only in the West that there is a crisis in the medical field: in Lebanon, for example, thousands of doctors have left the country amidst its political and economic collapse, with those remaining suffering from trauma, PTSD, and other severe mental health challenges. 

To learn how physicians can cope with such extreme pressure, I spoke with distinguished anaesthetist (or anaesthesiologist, for listeners in the US) Dr. Helgi Johannsson, the vice president of the Royal College of Anaesthetists in the UK, who’s worked to save the lives of victims in some of London's most traumatic events over the past three decades, including the Grenfell Towers fire, the London Bridge terrorist attack, and the anti-LGBTQ attack in the 1990s. We talked about the impact of such events on the mental health of healthcare workers, including his own, and the importance of resilience, finding healthy coping mechanisms, and how to create a supportive culture in healthcare, while breaking down the stigma surrounding mental health issues.

Bio:

Dr. Helgi Johannsson has been a consultant anaesthetist at Imperial College Healthcare since 2007, having trained at St Bartholomew’s, then anaesthetic training in North and East London. His clinical work is based at St Mary’s and Hammersmith hospitals and includes a wide variety of disciplines, including trauma care, oesophagogastric surgery, obstetrics, and bariatrics. He is also the Vice President of The Royal College of Anaesthetists in the United Kingdom and the Medical Director for medical education at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust.

Episode Resources:

Personal blog: https://www.drhelgi.com/ 

The Royal College of Anaesthetists: https://www.rcoa.ac.uk/ 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/doctorhelgi 

Articles: 

“This is just not safe for anyone”: the NHS doctors at breaking point. The New Statesman. https://www.newstatesman.com/spotlight/healthcare/2022/08/underpaid-overworked-nhs-doctors-healthcare-mental-health

My life as a specialty Anaesthetist: Dr Helgi Johannsson. Messly.com https://www.messly.com/blog/messly-specialty-interviews-anaesthetics 

Helgi Johannsson: Let’s talk about death. The British Medical Journal (BMJ Opinion). 

https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2020/04/30/helgi-johannsson-lets-talk-about-death/ 

Doctor who treated Grenfell Tower victims: seeing so many burned children deeply affected me. The Evening Standard https://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/doctor-who-treated-grenfell-victims-i-m-still-haunted-by-what-i-saw-a3640996.html 

From Westminster Bridge to Grenfell Tower: London doctors reveal emotional impact of dealing with major incidents. Rosslydall ~ Reporting London https://rosslydall.wordpress.com/2017/06/20/from-westminster-bridge-to-grenfell-tower-london-doctors-reveal-emotional-impact-of-dealing-with-major-incidents/ 

 Helgi Johannsson: I am a better doctor for allowing myself to stop, reflect, and grieve. The British Medical Journal (BMJ Opinion) https://blogs.bmj.com/bmj/2017/06/16/helgi-johannsson-i-am-a-better-doctor-for-allowing-myself-to-stop-reflect-and-grieve/ 

Doctors’ Association UK sounds the alarm over rising rates of doctor suicide https://www.dauk.org/news/2022/12/07/doctors-association-uk-sounds-the-alarm-over-rising-rates-of-doctor-suicide/ 

Ten facts about physician suicide and mental health. https://www.acgme.org/globalassets/PDFs/ten-facts-about-physician-suicide.pdf 

Crisis and Support Resources for Healthcare Professionals. American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. https://afsp.org/crisis-and-support-resources-for-healthcare-professionals 

Lebanon was faced for its medical care. Now, doctors and nurses and fleeing in droves. Washington Post. 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/lebanon-crisis-healthcare-doctors-nurses/2021/11/12/6bf79674-3e33-11ec-bd6f-da376f47304e_story.html 

Events: 

Two dead, 81 injured as nail bomb blasts gay club in Soho. Independent. 

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/two-dead-81-injured-as-nail-bomb-blasts-gay-pub-in-soho-1096580.html 

London Bridge Attack: What happened. BBC News. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-40147164 

Grenfell Tower: What happened. BBC News. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-40301289 

Is there really such a thing as Superman or Superwoman?

Being a working parent can sometimes feel overwhelming: trying to balance the responsibilities of parenthood while showing up fully at work can lead to burnout, anxiety and that nagging feeling that you aren’t doing the best that you can, at the office or at home. Add to that a high-pressure environment, in this case working in the U.S government on national security issues, and a bad boss, and the pressure increases exponentially. So how do people do it? Turns out, Superhumans only exists on tv. In real life, working parents are just human: they show up, they struggle, they learn, and they are always trying their best. And that, in my book, makes them extraordinary.

To learn more about how to navigate being a working mom under pressure, I spoke to Hagar Hajjar Chemali, a political satirist who is on a mission to make young people care about foreign policy. 

Hagar’s journey has taken her from the high-stakes world of national security to starting her own show, Oh My World, where she breaks down world news in the most fun way (it includes a lot of wig changes), exposes tyrants and human rights abusers, and shares stories of those doing good around the world.

In 2012, Hagar was regularly briefing President Obama on Syria and Lebanon during the height of the Arab Spring and later served as the spokesperson for the United States Mission to the UN in New York City before making the difficult decision to leave government service and start her own business.

We talked about the importance of leadership and how having a good boss or a bad boss can make or break your career.

We also talked about how to balance parenthood while building your own startup (hint: you have to remember to sleep every once in a while), why its important to build and nurture a network of champions and how, as Hagar’s mother tells her, we have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Bio:

Hagar Hajjar Chemali. Hagar is a foreign policy expert, political satirist, and national security commentator and writer. She is the host and creator of Oh My World! – an award-winning weekly world news show on YouTube that covers the top world news stories in a fun and easy way. She is also an adjunct professor at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs and a nonresident senior fellow with the Atlantic Council’s GeoEconomics Center. Hagar spent 12 years in the U.S. government working in a number of senior public affairs and policy-making positions, including as Spokesperson and Director of Communications for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, Spokesperson for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence at the U.S. Department of the Treasury, Director for Syria and Lebanon at the National Security Council, and Treasury Senior Policy Advisor for Terrorist Financing and Financial Crimes. She writes and commentates on foreign policy and national security, and she and her work have been featured in The Washington Post, MSNBC, CNN, BBC, Bloomberg, and Cheddar. Hagar received her BA in Political Science from Barnard College and her MA in International Affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs. She resides in Connecticut with her husband, Julien, and their three children (9, 7, 3).

Oh My World Show

Website: https://www.ohmyworld.tv/

Instagram: https://instagram.com/ohmyworldshow 

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/OhMyWorldwithHagarChemali/featured 

Twitter: https://twitter.com/ohmyworldshow 

Mother’s Day should be on a Monday. Time Magazine. https://time.com/4778901/mothers-day-2018-maternity-leave/ 

This Is How You Can Cope With Being a Working Mom. Psych Central. https://psychcentral.com/stress/suggestions-for-stressed-out-working-moms 

Managers Make or Break Their People. Leadership Development Can Help. https://trainingindustry.com/articles/leadership/managers-make-or-break-their-people-leadership-development-can-help/

Throughout my career, I have seen friends and colleagues suffer the effects of depression, PTSD, anxiety, trauma and more, both personal and work-related. I have suffered many of those symptoms myself through the nature of my work in national security and countering hate and extremism. Like many of you, I’ve experienced first-hand the severely detrimental effects on mental health that stem from an unprepared or unwilling workplace and leadership, particularly in high-stress, high-stakes career fields like national security, the military, conflict journalism, medicine, tech and more.

I created Mind/work so that we all may have an outlet through which to learn, exchange ideas and together champion a complete transformation of the workplace: from a place that treats people like commodities to be discarded at the slightest sign of need or vulnerability, to a space that respects, nurtures and supports people when they show up for the job. 

On the show, I’ll be talking to doctors and journalists, activists and politicians, artists, changemakers and mental health professionals to share the challenges they’ve faced at work and lessons they’ve learned. Most importantly, we’ll be discussing solutions for how you can protect your mental health and that of others around you in your field of work.

So join me as we pull back the curtain on issues we all face, but rarely discuss out loud. Become a part of the Mind/work community by heading over to our website, www.mindwork.show and connecting with us on social media for behind the scenes content, community discussions, live Q and As, and more about my own personal journey. Send me a message with your thoughts, experiences, suggestions on the topic you want me to cover next, or anything that’s on your mind. And catch us every Tuesday wherever you listen to your podcasts or on Youtube at jasminemelgamal.