April is Stress Awareness Month, providing a crucial opportunity to focus on employee wellbeing. So, we're pleased to feature insights from mental health and wellbeing expert, Matt Balfour.
Matt is the Founder of Let's Go Wellbeing and has dedicated his career to supporting organizations in creating mentally healthy workplaces.
Drawing on his experience as a mental health speaker, MHFA instructor, content creator, and Samaritans listening volunteer, our subject matter expert, Matt, explores the dynamics of stress and provide practical strategies for L&D professionals to enhance employee wellbeing.
Since 1992, April has offered us the chance to reflect on the impact of stress both in and outside the workplace. It’s an opportunity to pause, look around, and ask: How are we really doing?
This year’s theme, #LeadWithLove, is a powerful reminder that our response to stress matters. At its heart, it's a call to action rooted in the principles of Unconditional Positive Regard.
A concept refined by 20th Century humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers, who was best known for his theories of personality and self-actualization. He believed that people thrive when they’re met with genuineness, empathy, and acceptance.
In his book “On Becoming a Person”, Rogers defines unconditional positive regard as love with no conditions of worth attached to it, caring that is not possessive and an atmosphere that simply demonstrates that ‘I care’ as opposed to ‘I care, but only if you meet expectations’.
That being said (and if we’re being honest), many of us don’t experience that kind of acceptance regularly.
#LeadWithLove aims to highlight that even the smallest steps taken towards self-care in combination with simple acts of kindness towards those around us can help to reduce stress and yield significant improvements to mental health over time.
Let’s clear something up: stress isn’t always bad.
It’s a natural, short-term response to something your brain sees as important. Whether it’s a presentation, a job interview, or just trying to get out of bed on a cold Monday morning—stress is your body’s way of gearing up.
It’s part of the flight or fight response; the sympathetic nervous system kicks in and you get a rush of cortisol and adrenaline.
As a result, your blood pressure and heart rate rise, your mind sharpens, and you’re ready to go.
But there’s a catch. While our brains know the difference between avoiding a potentially life-threatening situation such as nearly getting hit by a car and preparing for a big meeting… our bodies don’t. The physical reaction is pretty much the same.
So, when we’re constantly exposed to high-pressure environments, such as the workplace, hypervigilance becomes the new normal. We’re always braced, always ready, always “on.”
And over time, that takes a toll.
We start to feel drained, disconnected, or cynical. Our work suffers. We suffer. That’s burnout.
Burnout is our body’s way of resetting our nervous system—we are forced to disconnect, withdraw and conserve energy.
Psychologist Stephen Porges even links it to ancient mammalian survival strategies, when smaller animals were overwhelmed by threat, they’d freeze to avoid detection. It was a last resort. And for us, that “freeze” response still exists.
The downside? Once we reach that stage, recovery isn’t quick. In some cases, it can take months—or even years.
Staff turnover goes up. Productivity drops. Sickness absence rises.
Unfortunately, this idea of an unhealthy normal is in fact more ‘normal’ than you might think.
According to Deloitte, 63% of the 3,156 UK workers surveyed had experienced at least one sign of burnout.
In the US, the American Psychological Association found that 57% of 2,515 employed adults reported negative effects from work-related stress.
How can Learning and Development professionals raise awareness of workplace stress and support employee wellbeing in a way that’s meaningful and sustainable?
Well, firstly we should remember it’s not the thing but our relationship to it.
For example, we can’t control inflation, the cost-of-living crisis, housing markets and other macro-economic trends that affect us all. But we can help people manage their relationship with stress.
Take the Yerkes-Dodson Law. It shows that stress and performance are linked. Too little stress? We’re unmotivated. Too much? We’re overwhelmed.
But in the middle, that’s the sweet spot. A window of tolerance where we can perform at our best
It’s different for everyone. Some people work best under pressure. Others need time, space, and stability. And that’s okay.
Helping your team understand their own “window of tolerance”, the things that influence it and what it looks like in those around them can really help to embed the thinking needed for a preventative approach to stress management in the workplace.
Ever had someone say “everything” when you ask what’s stressing them out?
It probably felt like that to them. Because when we’re overwhelmed, our perspective shrinks. It’s all one big, tangled ball.
That’s why it helps to unpack it. Not all stress is the same.
To increase empathy and understanding amongst our teams we need to empower one another to organize and take control of our experiences. This includes educating people to recognize different types of stress and to think proactively about where they can get the right support.
For example, a pain killer, dark room and some electrolytes may be useful for a bad headache—which is a source of physical stress.
But probably wouldn’t be very helpful if you’d received news that you were being made redundant or suffered a bereavement—both of which are sources of acute stress.
The same goes for chronic stress, such as an increase in financial burden, emotional stress—such as difficulty with someone close to you or environmental stress—such as moving house or changing job.
Different sources of stress need different coping strategies!
That being said, not all coping strategies are created equal. Some might seem helpful in the short term—like avoiding responsibilities, excessive drinking, or turning to food—but over time, they often make things worse.
The good news? There’s a whole world of helpful coping strategies out there. And when teams share what works for them, it creates a culture of acceptance.
Some people journal. Others meditate. For me? Getting out into the hills and running half-marathons does the trick. It helps me breathe, put things in perspective, and remember that I’m more than the stress I’m carrying.
Leading with love isn’t about solving everyone’s problems. It’s about creating space to reflect, reset, and reconnect.
Sometimes, that’s taking the time to ask:
In addition, and maybe most importantly, it’s also an opportunity to ask: How am I showing up as a leader? That’s because people don’t copy what we say. They copy what we do.
So, start small and share what you’ve learned. If you’re looking for somewhere to start, try our free Stress Awareness learning module which explores:
It’s just one of many tools available through Learning Pool to help teams talk more openly about mental health and take the next step in leading with love.
Let’s keep this conversation going. You never know who needs to hear it.
Drawing from his personal experience and extensive work as a mental health speaker, MHFA instructor, and Samaritans listening volunteer, Matt provides practical guidance for building supportive environments.