Geoff is a global advocate, campaigner and consultant in addressing the stigma of mental ill-health in the workplace. He inspires and provokes organisations globally to put purpose and wellbeing at the centre of everything they do by motivating people to take action in creating workplaces that enhance the lives of everyone. He brings his own experience of addressing the stigma of mental ill-health within Unilever, helping to archetype the transformation of this company with purpose at its core. Geoff provides a real practitioner’s perspective on how to address the stigma linked to depression and anxiety within workplaces today, and on how to elevate wellbeing to a strategic priority in the boardroom.
All sessions by Geoff →Geoff shares his own powerful story of mental ill health and provides a very practical and simple approach to caring for ones self in the demanding times and workplaces. Leaders within organisations are unable to care for the wellbeing and health of employees if they do not care for their own health and wellbeing.
This session will challenge and provoke our own misconceptions of self care and remind mis all about the importance of poor health. There cannot be anything more important than ones health, yet so few of us prioritise caring for our wellbeing in a holistic manner.
Geoff takes a very practical approach and challenges us all to shift our own mindset with respect to our own health, and therefore the health and wellbeing of others.
During the expert session, Geoff engages the audience through a personal story about mental health struggles and self-care, encouraging openness around mental and emotional health issues. Using the Mentimeter app, he leads interactive exercises based on his CANDO framework: Connection, Activity, Niceness, Discover.
Audience members participate in Q&A sessions to deepen their understanding of prioritizing self-care and addressing organizational factors influencing well-being.
Make time every day for connection with others, physical activity, practicing niceness, and continuing learning new things to maintain your physical and mental health. This is essential for effectiveness in personal and professional aspects of life.
Encourage workplaces to invest in resources that enhance employees' physical, mental, and emotional health by defining influential factors, addressing organizational barriers, creating policies for manageable meeting schedules with short breaks, and fostering a culture that promotes self-care.
Use the CANDO framework as a reminder to prioritize connection, activity, niceness, and discovery in your daily routine to ensure you're taking care of yourself and maintaining optimal health. This will help you be more productive and effective overall.
In this expert session, Geoff Mcdonald shares his personal journey with mental health struggles, specifically anxiety and depression. He highlights how society often stigmatizes mental and emotional health issues, making it difficult for people to ask for help.
Mcdonald recounts his experience in 2008 when he had his first panic attack, leading to a diagnosis of anxiety-fueled depression. Before this incident, he had little understanding of these conditions.
Mcdonald's story might be triggering for some listeners, but he encourages those dealing with similar issues to reach out to loved ones or friends for support. The core theme of his talk is the importance of self-care and maintaining good health in today's demanding organizations and society.
He believes that both physical and mental health are valuable assets that require significant energy to be effective in personal and professional aspects of life.
To help listeners prioritize self-care, Mcdonald introduces the acronym "CAN DO":
Mcdonald encourages listeners to make self-care a priority, even if it means setting aside some time each day. He emphasizes that neglecting one's health could lead to more significant issues later on.
When responding to Jen's question, Mcdonald discusses the role organizations play in promoting well-being and self-care in the workplace. He recommends defining factors that influence employees' physical, mental, and emotional health, investing in resources to enhance those elements, addressing organizational factors such as leadership behavior and cultural barriers, and creating policies for reasonable meeting schedules with short breaks.
At an individual level, Mcdonald advocates using the CANDO framework to encourage individuals to take responsibility for their well-being. He emphasizes that employers and employees must work together to create a culture that values self-care and prioritizes mental health.
Overall, Mcdonald's message is one of empathy, compassion, and the importance of taking care of ourselves in challenging times.
From the survey every participant gets when the session ends, in their own words.
Excellent session about an invisible struggle. People that might be struggling don't seem to have awareness or access to the right resources. It might be good to establish what resources the company offers and more visibly present them afterwards. Thanks!
It’s was amazing session… We are so busy with our normal work and family… some time we forget about ourselves… it’s a great to have such sessions, so that we put a hold and think about our mental health.. Thank you so much.!!
Thank you for providing also your external employees such a great webinar.
Thanks you, very interesting and very good speaker
It has been very interesting. Thanks!!!
A powerful and inspiring story on how to overcome depression; how to help yourself and others to prevent or overcome mental health problems.
Excellent speaker. Love the personal experience he was able to speak about. Very good talk.
"Tell your story" - I love this. This has been very helpful in my personal journey on coping with miscarriage. I realize I get lighter after I shared my stories. i feel i am not alone and i feel i am normal. Thank you so much for sharing your story.
No prior knowledge is assumed. It is built for a general working audience, and people who already know the subject get the research and the practical side rather than an introduction. What the hour itself covers: Geoff shares his own powerful story of mental ill health and provides a very practical and simple approach to caring for ones self in the demanding times and workplaces. Leaders within organisations are unable to care for the wellbeing and health of employees if they do not care for their own health and wellbeing.
Geoff McDonald is one of the experts we auditioned ourselves, and we produce every session so we see how each one lands. Participants rate this session 4.3 out of 5, across 301 responses, and rate Geoff personally 4.5 out of 5.
It is interactive, and the block higher up on this page says exactly how for this session. Nobody has to speak up who does not want to: the chat and the polls carry most of it, and the questions can come in anonymously.
It runs 45 min / 15 min: the talk, then live questions. All you do is pick a date. We brief Geoff, produce the session, host and moderate it, run the Q&A, and send you the report within an hour of the end.
A team, a department, an employee network or every single employee at once, with no cap and no per-seat price. It runs inside your own Microsoft Teams, Zoom or Google Meet, or on a branded page we build. No integration, no login, no company device or e-mail.
The session is delivered in English. You can add high accuracy live subtitles in 8, 16 or 24 languages, so everyone follows in their own. That is a paid option, priced by the number of languages you need.
No, and that is by design. There is nothing to install, nothing to integrate and no connection to your systems, so there is nothing for IT to validate: we join your own Teams, Zoom or Meet as a guest speaker, or we host a page and your people open a link. No software, no accounts, and no data of yours that we can reach. It is why hundreds of companies, among them some of the largest technology and financial firms in the world, were able to start within a day.
We never receive or hold personal data about your employees. Because the session runs in your own environment, attendance and identity stay with you, and what we report back is aggregated: numbers, ratings and survey answers, not people. That is also why IT approval usually takes minutes rather than weeks.
You keep the recording and can share it internally. You also get attendance over time, participant ratings for the content and the speaker, the survey answers, and the topics your people asked for next.
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