34. R U OK? With Graeme Cowan

In the age of modern technology when we are all available all of the time, burn out is becoming more common. Cybersecurity, a notoriously 'on-call' industry, is a prime example where working long hours can take its toll on our mental and physical health. But what can we do to address it, before it gets out of hand?   My guest this week is Graeme Cowan. As a mental health and resilience author and speaker, and Board Director of R U OK?, Graeme spends his professional life helping people understand just that.   Graeme uses his first-hand experience after coming through an experience of extreme burn out to help others appreciate and understand the importance of looking out for themselves, as well as looking out for the people around them.   In this episode, Graeme talks us through his personal experience of burnout, and his evolution out of that period of his life. Crossing paths with Gavin Larkin resulted in the launch of R U OK? Day in 2009, and Graeme shares how its simplicity helped it to grow. We cover a whole range of topics on how to consider and address issues that can lead to burnout, an issue that we know is prevalent in the cybersecurity industry.   My goal for my discussion with Graeme was to give you the knowledge to build safe, resilient, and healthy security teams and leaders, but this episode goes so much further than that. It is PACKED full of information, resources and simple, actionable ideas that you can use today immediately to check in not only with your team, but also with yourself.   Enjoy!   Links: Graeme's Website LinkedIn Twitter Back From The Brink R U OK? TED Talk on the Harvard Study of Adult Development Self-Care Snapshot Checklist Project Aristotle results Debunking Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Peter Gollwitzer Time Stamps: 00:30 - Graeme's introduction and background 01:46 - Graeme's story 03.10 - The origin of RuOK 06:12 - The impact of stress and long working hours 07:01 - "I don't really believe so much in the concept of work-life balance, because that assumes that work is bad, life is good. And if you believe in your work, work can be very good for you. Lots of evidence around shows that work is essential to our wellbeing. But having said that, we also have to make sure there is time in our day, in our week, for the things that really help us." - Graeme Cowan 07:38 - Three areas that we need to regularly top-up 08:02 - Harvard Study of Adult Development 09:04 - How to wind down and disconnect when working in an on-call role 14:36 - The role of mindset on burnout, and the benefits of self-care 20:28 - Creating a safe space to empower your staff to call out when their resilience is being tested 21:13 - "From a leader's perspective, I really recommend that if they want to have a high performing team, they need to be continually asking themselves these three questions; Are we connected? Do we feel safe? and Do we have a shared future?" – Graeme Cowan 26:14 - Key advice for building safe, resilient, and healthy security teams and leaders