How Storytelling Strengthens Employee Well-being and Cultivates Connection at Work
- Mind Share Partners
- Apr 16
- 3 min read
“I wore being a workaholic as a badge of honor,” said Dr. Vignetta Charles, CEO of ETR, in a video where she details her mental health journey at work.
For a long time, Dr. Charles judged her own success by how much she “could handle” at work. She started noticing that overworking was taking a toll on both her professional and personal life. She decided to take a sabbatical, and later shared her journey with her team during an all-staff meeting—including her struggle with guilt for taking the time-off that she needed to rest.
Many of her colleagues identified with her experience. Many shared that they could now see a path for themselves to take pride in their work, while also take care of their own well-being.
Dr. Charles says it best: “You don’t have to sacrifice wellness for hard work—you can work hard and still be well.”
Storytelling holds a vital role within a modern well-being strategy
Storytelling is a powerful stigma-buster in the workplace, yet is under-utilized in employee well-being efforts. Leaders play an important role in shaping work culture. They can reinforce values around well-being by communicating to employees that their psychological safety and well-being are a priority.
In our work with global organizations, we’ve seen first-hand that when senior leaders share a personal story around mental health, it communicates to workers that “this is a priority and it’s okay to talk about” better than any campaign, training or program ever could alone.
It’s why companies like Hyatt include executive storytelling as a pillar of their well-being strategy. Senior leaders at Hyatt share their personal stories around mental health with the entire 10,000-person team through a series called “Mental Health Matters.” The purpose of the internal program is to reduce stigma and to normalize talking about mental health at work.
Whether it’s Dr. Charles, Hyatt, or a software company where a storytelling session deepened employee connection across the organization, storytelling breaks through stigma and helps model healthy behaviors for employees.
When leaders share the ways they are taking care of their own mental health—especially through company resources and policies—it lets employees know it’s okay for them to do the same. Storytelling also provides a unique opportunity for team members to learn more about one another, including leaders who can often feel distant from the employee experience.
How to include storytelling in your well-being strategy
At Mind Share Partners, we help organizations host storytelling sessions that help to normalize mental health conversations and create deeper connections. These events can look like a company-wide session at your next all-team, or an ongoing series (like Hyatt).
In addition to the words themselves, the way mental health stories are delivered is equally important. This is why we offer coaching as a part of every client partnership. We ensure that leaders and employees sharing their stories are doing it in a way that will have the most impact and be well-received.
For help with implementing a storytelling session at your organization, or weaving it into your greater well-being strategy, connect with us here.
About the author
Nina Tomaro, Content Marketing Manager at Mind Share Partners
Nina develops and drives the organization's content marketing strategy. As one of the organization's early team members, Nina has a deep breadth of knowledge about workplace mental health and drives the creation of Mind Share Partners resources to support organizations in creating mentally healthy workplace cultures. She has led projects for the organization like Leaders Go First and Company Culture Change.