EXECUTIVE COACHING www.ceotodaymagazine.com 55 In addition, over the past decade, there has been a marked shift in the presenting needs of the clients that I coach. Whilst many of my clients historically tended to focus on issues within the work setting, the vast majority are now keen to discuss factors outside of the work arena. One emerging topic is relational issues with their teenagers/young adult children. With one in four young Australians having a mental health condition at any one time, it is not uncommon for clients to be navigating a challenging home setting. The emotional toll on the entire family unit is often significant and cannot be “left at the door” once the client enters the work setting. As the ethos of coaching psychology is about the “whole person”, I can assist them to navigate this pathway. This need will no doubt continue. Since 2020 there has been an increase in mental health issues across the globe. In effect, leaders are having to navigate their way through a world that has been in perpetual chaos and in which so many people are struggling. What projects are you working on? Dr Roesler and I are particularly concerned about the declining mental health of young females. Currently across the globe females have worse mental health than males, and those aged between 1624 years are three times more likely to have a mental health condition. There is large heterogeneity in the size of the mental health gender gap across countries. Of interest, more gender-equal countries have larger gender gaps across all mental health outcomes, and higher GDP per capita is associated with worse average mental health. These Can you please tell us a little bit about how you have found yourself working with teenagers and young adults, given that your core client group is CEOs and leaders? I joined a not-for-profit organisation (the Helmsman Project) in 2012. This Project helps young people develop important life skills, so they can overcome setbacks and find the confidence to pursue their dreams. I coached young females, and thoroughly enjoyed the process. Given my workingclass background and being a firstgeneration Australian, I could fully appreciate the needs being met by this programme. My interest in helping young people has continued to grow from this rich experience. statistics have been attributed to a possible incongruence between expectations and reality in high gender-equal countries. We know that developing the selfesteemof young females (andmales), has long-lasting benefits. Indeed, the World Health Organisation recently stipulated that enhancing the selfesteem of young people can reduce the likelihood of having mental health problems down the track, as the issues that emerge in adolescence tend to continue into adulthood. Mental health issues tend to emerge around the age of 14 years, and by the age of 24, 75% of mental health conditions have become apparent. In 2012 we created an evidencebased program specifically aimed at enhancing the well-being and self-esteem of young people. The program (named Soleil) was then validated with over 200 females. The results have been outstanding. However, over the years we kept thinking “wouldn’t it be fantastic if all young women could have access to these skills and enhance their mental health and wellbeing”. In 2021 we began collaborating with our Swiss-based team to utilise technology to make our program accessible to more people, as we felt that this is the logical future of mental health care. We are about to launch our interactive coaching app for young females. This is very exciting for me. These young women are our future leaders. If we can have even a small part to play in developing psychologically healthy leaders, who are well equipped to engage with a complex and connected world, we can feel we have contributed to a promising future for all. I am a firm believer that leadership development also entails personal development, and the leadership literature increasingly supports this. “ “
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