There are many reasons company leaders aren’t ready or willing to talk about mental health, publicly or in the workplace. It’s common to avoid such sensitive and complex subjects, but this is a mistake. Mental health and mental illness are workplace topics that are here to stay — and leaders need to adapt and embrace this change. How can they do this? Here are 4 useful tips for leaders to start these mental health conversations.

As we talk more about mental health at work, it’s important to understand the source of some of the challenges to having these conversations. Gender is one of the most important factors and it has a long history of influence in our society. It’s even led to gender-based emotion shaming, especially toward women. Thankfully, there are some things we can do to combat this behavior and have more constructive conversations.