6 LinkedIn Learning Courses for Building Workplace Mental Health Skills
Around the world, an estimated 12 billion working days are lost to depression and anxiety every year, according to the World Health Organization. This can have a huge impact on productivity, employee engagement, and staff retention. But more importantly, it can make it difficult for employees to thrive, especially those working in emotionally demanding nonprofit roles.
Whether you’re a team leader or an individual contributor, prioritizing mental health at work is ultimately an investment in yourself, your team, and your nonprofit’s future. One way to do that is by developing critical skills around mental wellness. This includes the ability to navigate adversity, manage your emotional response to stress, and identify the warning signs of burnout
To help you get started, we’ve rounded up six LinkedIn Learning courses that cover a range of mental health skills. Don’t have access to LinkedIn Learning through your organization? You can watch the first course on this list for free right now, and check out top tips from all six.
6 LinkedIn Learning courses to support your nonprofit team’s mental health
1. Embracing Resilience
Led by Tatiana Kolovou, a professor at Indiana University’s Kelley School of Business, “Embracing Resilience” explores how to bounce back from difficult situations and navigate periods of stress and adversity better. You’ll learn strategies for:
Raising your resilience threshold by getting comfortable with the uncomfortable
Facing rejection in your day-to-day life
Building your resilience over time through reflection
Quick tip from the course:
“Being aware of your daily energy flow can help you be better prepared for challenging situations. If you can control the time you take a tough call where you have a confrontational meeting, be mindful and schedule it when you have the most energy. If you can't, then develop a strategy or plan for dealing with the situation. In either case, your highest energy times of the day will help you think more clearly and stay optimistic.”
“Embracing Resilience” is included in the Professional Soft Skills Learning Pathway from Microsoft and LinkedIn, which you can watch for free through 2025. Other skills covered in this learning path include emotional intelligence, critical thinking, teamwork, trust, and more.
2. Improving Your Mental Health at Work
Psychologist and author Karen Doll’s “Improving Your Mental Health at Work” highlights the importance of mental health awareness in the work environment, from the fundamentals of well-being to the role that everyone can play in nurturing a healthy environment. You’ll discover:
Stress management techniques
Tips for fostering your focus and setting effective boundaries
Organizational practices for improving mental health
Quick tip from the course:
“When you feel fearful, insecure, overwhelmed, or frankly anything more negative than necessary, if you notice yourself getting into the trap of self-persecuting and judgmental thinking, hit pause and ask yourself: ‘what would you tell a friend right now?’ Try saying that to yourself. Remember, self-compassion is not pity or selfishness. It's necessary for mental health. The next time you feel disappointed in yourself, try writing yourself a kind letter like you would send to a friend.”
3. Managing Your Emotional Response to Workplace Stress
In her course “Managing Your Emotional Response to Workplace Stress,” author, speaker, and executive coach Melody Wilding shares actionable tips and practical scenarios to help you manage your stress and emotional triggers in the workplace. Topics covered include:
Responding to feedback productively
Recognizing the difference between imposter syndrome and an unhealthy workplace dynamic
Separating your self worth from your work
Quick tip from the course:
“Overfunctioning means you take on too much responsibility and try to hero your way through your work, fixing or rescuing situations and people, because you fear that if you don't, no one will… So, how do you start to unravel this habit? First, observe your patterns. Pay attention. Where are you assuming more than your fair share of the workload or responsibility? Look for where you feel resentment that you're overworked, underappreciated, or not recognized for your efforts. Resentment is a strong emotional signal that can guide you towards specific situations to change.”
4. Building Better Digital Habits for Focus and Well-Being
One mental health factor that didn’t exist a few decades ago is our constant interaction with technology and digital devices. For some nonprofit professionals, the entire day is spent in front of a screen, with the majority of interpersonal interactions taking place through it. In his course “Building Better Digital Habits for Focus and Well-Being,” digital and social well-being expert Chris Flack offers tips for managing this specific aspect of modern work in a healthy way, including:
Building a proactive relationship with technology
Reducing digital multitasking
Developing better digital habits with sleep, exercise, and mindfulness
Quick tip from the course:
“Being in control of our technology is incredibly empowering. We can do this by planning our digital use… If you have your email open all day, each time you get a message that nudge is giving you less control of your day. Instead, you could batch check email at specific times throughout the day. To ensure your colleagues know you'll get back to them, have an automatic reply that lets them know what times you'll be checking email and if it's urgent to call you.”
5. Avoiding Burnout
Employee burnout is a major mental health concern for organizations everywhere. And as McKinsey & Company highlights, “while burnout affects workers in all sectors around the world, nonprofit organizations appear to be among those particularly vulnerable to it.” Authenticity expert Todd Dewett offers tips for recognizing and overcoming burnout in his course “Avoiding Burnout,” including:
Spotting the signs and major causes of burnout
Jumpstarting your recovery
Owning your experience to find the right support
Quick tip from the course:
“Distancing yourself from the place and the things that caused burnout is one of the best ways to let go of unproductive emotions and to gain a better perspective about how you might return successfully… A few extra days away from work can be very needed and a very useful way to heal. Next, to keep the healing going, you need a support group. This may or may not include one of your colleagues, but it will definitely include a couple close friends and family. They need to know what you're going through, so be straight with them. Be open to their thoughts and advice and suck up all the positivity, support, and love you can get.”
6. Talking About Mental Health as a Leader
A recent study from Businessolver found that “there’s nearly 90% agreement across employees, HR professionals, and CEOs that it’s important for senior leadership to openly discuss mental health issues to foster a safe environment that encourages others to do the same.” If you’re a nonprofit leader or aspire to be one, consider taking this course from organizational psychologist Melissa Doman to help you start fostering a safe and supportive culture at your organization. Topics covered include:
Addressing mental health as a core leadership skill
Navigating why team members are nervous to talk about mental health
Building skills to initiate important conversations within your team
Quick tip from this course:
“When you have a team to lead, wouldn't it make logical sense to let your team know if you're having mental health challenges? It's okay to talk about these things at work, and most importantly, what you're planning to do about that. Team members witnessing their managers talking about their own mental health and seeing the follow-through on how they plan to take action to manage it is powerful.”
Mental health is a cause every nonprofit can champion
No matter how your nonprofit approaches fulfilling its mission, your work begins with your people. Ensuring that your people everything they need to feel fulfilled, happy, and engaged is one one of the best investments you can make toward advancing your cause.
To learn more about how LinkedIn Learning can support your team’s well-being, career development, and more, reach out today.
