22 JUNE, KUALA LUMPUR– World Islamic Economic Forum (WIEF) Foundation, through its WIEF Young Leaders Network (WYN), organised the WIEF thinkTALK on Mental Strategy: Building High Performing Teams, today, at 2:00PM via Zoom. Session was attended by participants from 13 countries, including South Africa, Japan, Comoros and United Arab Emirates.
Speakers for this second edition of WIEF thinkTALK were Azran Osman-Rani, CEO and co-founder of Naluri, Malaysia, Jason van Schie, Managing Director of FlourishDx, Australia and Cat Triviño, Co-founder and Chief Product & Data Officer of MindNation, Philippines, while Cheryl Tan, Founder of The Breathe Movement, Singapore was the moderator.
‘In Australia, we have an alarming trend of people who are getting ill because of work, not ill at work, or what they bring into work, but ill because of work.’ Jason said. ‘We have a workers compensation scheme, where, if you have an injury or an illness caused by work, the insurer will pay for your recovery and time out of work.’ He explained that 10% of all injury claims in Australia are actually due to psychological injuries.
Cat Triviño explained that she is seeing a shift in Philippines, in terms of priorities with both big and small organisations. They have started allocating budgets for mental health care programmes. Unfortunately, there are still many who struggle to understand that poor mental health management could heavily impact the bottom line, the output, the business, and even the performance of their teams at work, which will eventually cause their brightest talents to quit.
Mental health discussion in workplace is still heavily stigmatized. While situations may differ from one country to another, generally, mental health in workplace is something that needs to be addressed on a higher levels, by top leaders. A safe environment, where employees are allowed to speak up and disclose when things aren’t going well, without fear of repercussions, either personally or professionally.
‘(The Philippines) is a highly religious country and very much centred on family. Those 2 things can be positives but they can also negate a lot of the ideas and beliefs when it comes to mental health and the control that we can have. A lot of times, family members are not equipped with the right tools or capacity to help you with your mental health concerns. They may be encouraging or even downplaying experiences that you’re feeling.’ Cat said.
Azran educated the participants on Naluri’s approach, the T.H.I.N.K model, to help victim handle stress; T- Take control. H- Hopeful outlook. I- Informed actions. N- Nurturing ourselves and our network. K- Knowing your goals. He added that Malaysia ranked the highest on Power Distance Index (PDI), which means it is a hierarchical society that doesn’t normalise younger employees speaking up about their ideas or problems with their superior, voluntarily. ‘Saying I’ve got an open door policy or do a management walk about or event hold a townhall and expect employees to voice out their concerns is not going to work in our society.’
WIEF thinkTALK Series 2023 are three virtual sessions designed to empower young changemakers with compelling ideas and in-depth knowledge from prominent leaders as well as industry experts on leadership, business, entrepreneurship and current global issues. The series bring together inspiring thinkers who are willing to contribute thoughts and individuals from every discipline who seek knowledge in this world of disruption that we inhabit.
For more information or interview requests, contact Faizah Jaafar at +6019 399 7746 (faizah@wief.org) or follow WIEF Foundation on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter for regular updates on future events and happenings.
About WIEF Foundation’s Young Leaders Network (WYN)
Aimed at promoting cross-border business opportunities and social projects for the common good, the WYN is a global youth network for young pioneers and changemakers to connect and collaborate. WYN’s flagship leadership programme, Young Fellows, focuses on creating a top-class leadership mentality in the next generation, coupled with a strong moral compass embodied in its philosophy of altruistic leadership under the tagline Learn. Empower. Earn. Return.
WYN organises flagship programmes such as the WIEF IdeaLab (a boutique startup networking conference), the annual WIEF Young Fellows programme (a leadership programme nurturing top class leaders with a strong moral compass), the MOCAfest (WIEF’s creative arts initiative to help empower creative talents across the globe), the MOCAfellows (a creative arts residency for emerging artists), the Internship Programme (a cross-border internship placement programme), ThinkTalk (a community dialogue session) and the WYN Networking Evening (a speed networking event, bringing together young professionals from different industries).
About World Islamic Economic Forum Foundation (WIEF)
Established in March 2006, the WIEF aims to enhance and elevate the economic situation of communities around the world through encouraging trade and business opportunities and by undertaking various capacity building programmes mainly the annual World Islamic Economic Forum. The platform promotes an inclusive global economy by promoting business cooperation among Muslims and non-Muslim communities. As a Non- Governmental Organisation (NGO) that organises and manages the Forum, we are dedicated to building bridges through business and ultimately promotes stronger cross-border partnerships for the economic well- being of nations worldwide.
The Forum also brings together government leaders, captains of industry, entrepreneurs, corporate executives and academicians from various fields across major economic centres around the world to discuss current issues that affect and shape the future of the commerce industry. The programmes within the Forum consists of panel discussions and master-classes that demonstrate thought leadership on current economic issues.
Aside from the WIEF Forum, we have various other exciting initiatives and activities which offer impactful networking opportunities:
- WIEF Roundtable series (WRT)
- WIEF Education Trust (WET)
- WIEF Businesswomen Network (WBN)
- WIEF Young Leaders Network (WYN)
- WIEF Powertalk (WRT)
For more information, visit www.wief.org
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