The Catalyst
Mental Health Initiative
Mental health and wellness resources for the Customer Success community
First, let’s take a few deep breaths
It’s okay... you can relax for a couple of seconds 😊
Sync your breathing with this logo. Inhale as it gets bigger. Hold for a moment. Exhale as it gets smaller.
When ready, scroll to the next section.
What would you like to see or do?
CS Mental Health Report
We anonymously surveyed Customer Success leaders about the state of mental health and wellness in CS.
CS Meditations
A 7-day intro to meditation series created specifically for CS professionals and the stresses they deal with.
Breathing Exercises
Situational breathing exercises to help with feelings of frustration, anxiety or getting overwhelmed with work.
Templates & Interviews
Templates for an annual reflection and gratitude exercise, along with interviews about mental health and leadership.
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Data on Mental Health in CS
Get the full report
Customer Success can be an extremely stressful field. We put together this report to highlight the ways in which the Customer Success community in particular has been affected by mental health and wellness issues, and to provide some tactical advice from industry leaders around how best to manage this in the workplace.
This ebook answers questions like:
Are you comfortable telling colleagues you’re taking a mental health day?
How much PTO did you take in 2019 and in 2020?
Have you ever received formal training on how to manage mental health in the workplace?
How can you make mental health a higher priority for company leadership?
How can you create a more connected team in this remote environment?
Are you comfortable telling colleagues you’ve taken time off due to mental health and wellness concerns?
“If you want your team to engage, you have to go first. Be honest, vulnerable, and share how you're taking care of your own mental health and wellness. It'll help to create a safe space to talk about it and for everyone to understand that it's okay to not be okay.”
“Leaders can make mental health a priority by taking time off themselves, being open about what they're doing, setting an example, and then finding ways to create a trickle-down effect.”
Compared to last year, how connected do you feel with your team?
“Be vulnerable. Share with your team some details about your personal and professional life and ask about theirs. Show empathy and encourage people to prioritize important aspects of their personal life as much as important work challenges. Support them by allowing the flexibility they need to make time for both.”
“Put away all distractions (like Slack) during your 1:1s and be okay with allowing the first few minutes to be small talk. It's important to not always stay in the weeds about work with your team members. Create connections within your team and with other teams! I can't be in 15 places at once, so I've found it's been really helpful to set up peer mentorships within our team. In addition, we've started inviting one department outside of CS to a team meeting once a month for some bonding with us. Our team has given positive feedback on this, and loves making those connections with other teams that might be easier to establish if we were working in person.”
How often do you proactively speak with your team about mental health and well-being?
“Mental health impacts everything, including the bottom line. Mental health can impact productivity, morale, and employee retention. It's really simple if you think of it that way. Investing in mental health initiatives is actually an investment in team productivity, morale, and retention, which can decrease the overall costs of recruiting. I've always been quoted as saying, ’Happy team members = happy customers,’ and that is one of the strongest churn fighters out there.”
“Mental health should not be a taboo topic with your team. For me, it's about ensuring your people feel comfortable prioritizing their work/life balance. Make your interactions a safe space for people to express how they are feeling, and if you are hearing signs of burnout, this is a great opportunity to proactively suggest that person take a mental health break.”
Meditations For the CS Community
Put your mind first
You spend your work life making your customers happy, but what about you? This is the world's first meditation series designed specifically for Customer Success professionals. For 7 days, we will be guiding you through how you can use meditation to take care of your mind and mental health just like you take care of your customers. Best of all, these meditations are only about 10 minutes long, so they’re easy to fit into your day.
Renewal: a 7-day intro to meditation
We spend our working lives making our customers happy, but what about ourselves? This is the world's first meditation series designed specifically for Customer Success professionals. For 7 days, we will be guiding you through how you can use meditation to take care of your mind and mental health just like you take care of your customers.
There is no wrong way to meditate. On today's meditation, we guide you through step by step how you can practice meditation in a way that's comfortable and works for you.
There are many tools we can use to find peace amidst a flurry of zoom calls. On today's meditation, we will be learning a powerful technique called visualization. This helps us practice mindfulness by walking through our own minds.
There will always be days where things don't go our way as Customer Success professionals. On today's meditation, we will explore how to find positivity in any situation.
While we might be stuck where we live and only see the outside world through zoom calls, we can still have a vacation in our mind! On today's episode, we have another visualization to help you escape the stresses of Customer Success.
We may not always see eye to eye with our customers, and some customer situations can be particularly challenging. On today's episode, we look at a meditation to help us not only improve our customer relationships but any relationships we have in our life.
Sometimes our customers (as much as we love them) take our their frustrations on us. On today's meditation we explore a method that can help us calm and heal after those experiences. We will also learn how we can better react, communicate and resolve issues when they occur.
Congratulations, you have made it to our final meditation in the series! On today's meditation, we will look at where we have been feeling the most stress and how we can begin to heal.
Breathing Exercises to Feel Calm & Collected
A breath of fresh air
These 3 breathing exercises are an excellent way to alleviate stress, nerves or anxiety, and they’re only 2 minutes long! They are perfect for before a big presentation, in-between meetings, or after a stressful customer call.
Deep breath in...
When you have to deal with a frustrated customer, turn to this brief exercise to calm your body and mind.
It can be difficult to stay calm when things get out of hand. Use this brief exercise to center yourself when dealing with factors outside of your control.
In Customer Success, you have to wear a lot of hats! With everything you do for your customers, it can often feel like you don't have enough hours in the day to get it all done. Turn to this brief exercise to help resolve your anxiety.
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