When I sat down with Sarah Harris, a licensed clinical social worker turned workplace culture consultant, I was struck by how her career path reflects the challenges organizations are grappling with today. After more than two decades in clinical practice specializing in anxiety, depression, and trauma, Sarah made a deliberate shift to coaching leaders and reshaping workplace cultures. She explained why: “We spend so much of our time in the workplace. When I worked with clients on coping skills, sometimes they’d return to workplaces where leaders embraced those strategies, and sometimes they were told flat out, ‘No, you can’t do that.’ I realized I needed to help leaders understand how to create healthy workplace cultures where people want to stay.”
Her message is straightforward: people want to contribute meaningfully to their work, and leaders often overlook how small cultural or practical changes can make that possible.
Breaking Down the Stigma
One of Sarah’s biggest concerns is the confusion surrounding the term “mental health.” She draws a sharp distinction between the everyday reality of mental health — how people think, feel, and behave — and clinically diagnosed conditions that significantly impair functioning. “The stigma comes from how we use the term,” she said. “When someone says, ‘I’m so OCD because I want my bills facing the same way,’ that’s not OCD. That’s being organized. An OCD diagnosis is crippling and can consume hours of someone’s day.”
The same applies to how people talk about anxiety. “Anxiety itself is an emotion. An anxiety disorder is something different. It is pervasive and negatively impacts your ability to function at work or in your relationships,” Sarah explained. The casual use of clinical language blurs these lines and trivializes real conditions. It comes down to this: leaders need to be more careful with the language they use, not only to reduce stigma but also to set a tone that employees can trust.
Small Shifts, Big Impact
Sarah believes that cultural change often starts with small, inexpensive actions that leaders model. She challenges leaders to examine their own behavior first. “Eat lunch away from your desk,” she told me. “If you promote downtime but scarf soup at your desk while answering emails, you’re not communicating the culture you want. Pick up your bowl, go outside, sit in the lounge, and for 20 minutes, just eat. Employees are always watching. Your behavior is the culture.”
These kinds of actions signal to employees that rest, balance, and humanity are valued. Without them, cultural statements and posters on the wall mean little. After all, “if your employees see you saying one thing and doing another, they will believe the behavior, not the slogan,” Sarah said.
The Neuroscience of Safety
In her coaching model, “The Growth Leader,” Sarah blends psychology with neuroscience, drawing heavily from polyvagal theory. This theory emphasizes that nervous systems communicate with each other subconsciously. Leaders often overlook how their body language, tone, or physical presence shapes the emotional state of their employees. “If you’re tapping your fingers, avoiding eye contact, or shifting uncomfortably, the other person’s nervous system picks up on that as unsafe,” she explained. “Sometimes just stepping back six inches can change how safe they feel, and only then can they focus on your words.”
This perspective makes psychological safety less abstract and more practical. Leaders can train themselves to notice their own nervous system cues while paying closer attention to the physical and emotional signals of others. These small adjustments create environments where employees feel safe enough to engage fully.
Listening Before Leading
Listening is at the heart of Sarah’s work. Many leaders fear that listening too much will weaken their authority. Sarah believes the opposite is true. “You still get to make the final decision,” she said. “But by asking your team where they see bottlenecks and then showing them how their input influenced your decision, you build trust and retention.”
She illustrated this point with a story from her time in the hospital system. Two competing programs were forced to merge under new leadership. Management invited employees to solve critical challenges in small groups, covering everything from patient check-in procedures to documentation systems. “It was messy. Feelings got hurt and arguments broke out. But everyone knew their voice had been heard. They had a hand in shaping the new program. That led to more buy-in, and many of those clinicians stayed for over ten years, which is rare in the mental health field.”
The lesson is clear: Leaders do not have to provide every answer. Instead, they need to create space where employees can contribute, even if the process is uncomfortable.
Spotting the Flicker of Burnout
Sarah describes burnout as something that rarely begins with a fire. It starts as a flicker. Leaders who pay attention can spot early warning signs before things spiral. “If someone who’s usually on time starts showing up 10 minutes later, or if an engaged team member seems checked out, that’s a signal. Don’t ignore it,” she warned. Increased errors, subtle tardiness, and a loss of interest are all signs that someone may be struggling. By addressing these early, leaders can help employees before burnout spreads across a team.
Building Psychological Inclusion
Sarah emphasizes that inclusion is not only about diversity metrics but about whether people feel safe to contribute. She encourages leaders to run small experiments. “Gather a few employees and start the conversation with your own vulnerability as a leader,” she suggested. “Say, ‘I know there is always room to grow. Where are the hiccups you’re seeing in how we do things?’ Then listen. Don’t problem-solve right away. Don’t fall back on, ‘We’ve always done it this way.’”
She recalled a small but powerful example from her hospital work. The front desk staff were frequently disrupted because they had to leave their station to escort new patients. A simple adjustment — having the next clinician pick up the patient directly — fixed the problem without requiring more staff or major resources. “Employees know you don’t have the money to make sweeping changes. Trust them to come up with solutions that work.”
Life Balance Over Work-Life Balance
When I asked Sarah what shaped her views on leadership most, she didn’t hesitate. She said she wants to throw out the phrase “work-life balance.” She explained, “Work is part of life. To try and separate them is unrealistic. I want to promote life balance, acknowledging that what happens at home, in the community, and in the world affects how we function at work. When workplaces accept that, we create psychological safety.”
Her point reframes how organizations should approach well-being. Rather than pretending employees can leave personal challenges at the door, leaders should recognize the integration of work and life and create space for employees to navigate both.
Final Thoughts
Sarah Harris’ insights reinforce a truth that often gets lost in organizational strategy: healthy workplaces are built through human behavior, not lofty mission statements. Leaders do not have to be mental health professionals, but they do need to model balance, reduce stigma, and listen with genuine intention. As Sarah summed up, “Your employees want to work. Sometimes they just need a modification.”
For leaders ready to take action, it might start with something as simple as closing the laptop, taking lunch outside, and giving undivided attention the next time an employee knocks on the door.