✨When You Ask for Help, You Make It Safe for Everyone (028)

You set the tone.

As leaders, when you say… “I don’t know,” “I’m at capacity,” or “I need a hand,” you don’t lose authority, you create safety.

That single move tells your team: it’s normal to ask for help here. And that’s how cultures shift from silent struggle to shared problem-solving.

Here’s what Happens when Leaders Model Help-Seeking

1. Fear slows everything down. Help speeds it up. People surface blockers earlier, decisions get better, and rework shrinks.

2. You stop carrying everything alone. Your team learns how to carry things together.

3. Safety spreads. If it’s safe for you to ask, it’s safe for me to ask, so issues show up sooner, smaller, and solvable.

The Blueprint for Mentally Healthy Workplaces calls out three pillars - Protect, Respond, Promote that together shape a healthy environment.

A leader’s visible willingness to ask for help activates all three. Let’s delve into the Blueprint lens.

The Blueprint lens: how help-seeking leadership strengthens the pillars

Let’s have a look at the three pillars. When leaders ask for help, they're actually strengthening three key areas

1. Protect: Reduce risks at their source

   Signal safety: “I’m stuck—can we work together on this?” tells your team that surfacing workload, clarity, or conflict issues won’t be punished. That supports consultation, hazard identification, and better work design.

   Make change visible: Regularly share what you learned when you asked for help and what changed (e.g., reprioritised deadlines). Visibility prevents cynicism and meets the Blueprint’s call to make action transparent.

2. Respond: Notice, talk, and tailor support

   Lower the stigma: If leaders seek coaching, Employee Assistance Program (EAP), or peer input, employees will do it sooner too. Early conversations and reasonable adjustments become normal, not exceptional.

   Build capability: Treat help-seeking as a core management skill alongside recognising signs of distress and knowing referral pathways.

3. Promote: Design work so people thrive

   Enable growth: Asking for help invites cross-skill learning, meaningful connection, and shared problem solving, all elements the Blueprint links to positive, purpose-driven work.

   Integrate into BAU: Bake help-seeking into routines, 1:1s, and planning - so it isn’t a one-off campaign.

So how do you put this into practice? World Mental Health Day gives us the perfect opportunity to do just that!

A World Mental Health Day challenge for leaders

10 October 2025 is World Mental Health Day.

Try making one visible ask for help and tell your team why you’re doing it. Then, in your next stand-up, invite each person to name one help they need. That tiny, public act moves your culture from silent struggle to shared problem-solving is the hallmark of a workplace where people burn bright, not out.

Here is a reminder to carry with you - asking for help is your new superpower!

“Strong leaders ask for help.”

Burn Bright Not Out Keeps Your Spark Alive

If you’d like a nudge to practise this in this community, do reach out…

1. Free PDF: 10 Scripts to Protect Your Energy (and stay a team player). Reply SCRIPTS and I’ll send it.

2. Vision Board Workshop (90-minutes live): keep your values front-and-centre so your yeses serve you. Reply VISION for dates.

3. Burn Bright Coaching: success without sacrifice for high-functioning leaders. Reply COACH for details.

To your speak,

Mary