Growth Is Good for Mental Health and Business.
Every organization has employees who are showing up, meeting expectations, and getting through their workdays, but don’t necessarily feel like they’re moving forward.
They aren’t always disengaged. They may not be experiencing burnout or an identifiable mental health concern. They might simply feel stuck.
Organizational psychologist Adam Grant has described this experience as languishing, or looking at life through a foggy windshield. It’s a state where people aren’t necessarily struggling in an obvious way, but they aren’t thriving either.
For employers, this is an important distinction. Mental health isn’t just about identifying when employees are struggling. It’s also about creating conditions that help people stay well.
And one of those conditions is a consistent sense of growth.
The Connection Between Progress and Mental Health
We often think about employee development in terms of professional skills, career advancement, and organizational performance. But research suggests that the benefits of growth extend well beyond productivity.
In a foundational study, Keyes (2002) found that people experiencing languishing were significantly more likely to experience a future depressive episode than those who were flourishing. Research by Jenkins and Mostafa (2015) also connected informal learning with greater well-being.
Perhaps most relevant to the workplace, Amabile and Kramer (2011) found that making meaningful progress was the most common factor associated with employees’ reported best days at work.
The implication for employers is straightforward: Progress isn’t just a business outcome. It’s part of the employee experience that can contribute to psychological well-being.
When employees have opportunities to learn, develop new capabilities, and recognize their own progress, they gain more than professional skills. They build confidence, purpose, and a greater sense of control over their circumstances. Additionally, they become more invested in their work, loyal to the organization, and committed to their teams.
Conversely, environments where employees feel stagnant, disconnected from purpose, or unable to see the impact of their work can contribute to frustration and disengagement.
This doesn’t mean stagnation causes every mental health concern, or that professional development can replace clinical support. Mental health is complex, and many conditions require professional care.
It does mean employers have an opportunity to support mental health before problems escalate by making growth part of their organizational culture.
Growth Mindset Is More Than a Personal Responsibility
A growth mindset is often presented as an individual trait: the belief that abilities and capabilities can develop through effort, learning, and experience.
But in the workplace, an employee’s ability to grow is heavily influenced by the environment around them.
Consider two employees with similar responsibilities.
- One works in an environment where mistakes are treated as learning opportunities, managers regularly acknowledge progress, and employees are encouraged to explore new skills.
- The other works in an environment where expectations are unclear, feedback comes primarily when something goes wrong, and development is consistently deprioritized in favor of immediate deliverables.
Both employees may be equally motivated. But their experiences of growth, confidence, and psychological safety are likely to be very different.
This is where leadership becomes essential.
Organizations cannot simply tell employees to adopt a growth mindset. They need to create conditions that make growth possible.
That includes giving employees meaningful opportunities to develop, recognizing incremental improvement, and helping people understand how their contributions connect to something larger.
It also means acknowledging that growth isn’t always comfortable.
Learning new skills, navigating change, and receiving constructive feedback can introduce uncertainty. When leaders approach these experiences with empathy and psychological safety, they help employees build resilience rather than simply endure pressure.
Three Practical Ways Employers Can Build a Culture of Growth
Supporting employee growth doesn’t necessarily require an expensive development program or a complete overhaul of organizational processes.
Often, meaningful change begins with small, consistent practices that managers and employees can incorporate into their existing routines.
Here are three approaches organizations can begin using.
#1: Connect Daily Work to a Larger Purpose
The Tool: Find Your Motivator
Purpose is a powerful motivator. Research has associated a stronger sense of purpose with positive long-term health outcomes (Hill & Turiano, 2014; Boyle et al., 2010).
For employees, purpose doesn’t always mean identifying with an organization’s mission statement. It can be as simple as understanding why their work matters, who benefits from it, and how their efforts contribute to a meaningful outcome.
Leaders can reinforce this connection by regularly helping employees see the impact of their contributions.
Instead of focusing exclusively on what needs to get done, managers can also ask:
- What part of your work feels most meaningful right now?
- What skills or capabilities would you like to develop?
- Where do you want to see yourself grow over the next six months?
- How can I help connect your work to those goals?
These conversations help shift development from an occasional performance review topic into an ongoing part of the employee experience.
The goal isn’t to manufacture purpose for employees. It’s to help them identify what already matters to them and create opportunities to pursue it.
#2: Make Continuous Learning Accessible
The Tool: The Stretch Hour
Professional development often becomes something employees are expected to pursue outside their regular responsibilities.
But when learning is consistently treated as optional or secondary, it becomes difficult to build a genuine culture of growth.
One simple approach is to encourage employees to dedicate an hour each week to learning something slightly beyond their current capabilities.
That might involve exploring a new technology, practicing a communication skill, developing leadership capabilities, shadowing a coworker in a different department, or learning something unrelated to their immediate role.
The important elements are consistency, autonomy, and an appropriate level of challenge.
Research by Jenkins and Mostafa (2015) suggests that informal learning is associated with improved well-being, reinforcing the value of learning beyond traditional training programs.
For employers, the opportunity is to make development accessible without making it another source of pressure.
Managers can support this by protecting time for learning, encouraging employees to share what they’ve discovered, and recognizing the effort involved in developing new capabilities.
A culture of continuous learning doesn’t require everyone to be constantly advancing toward a promotion. It requires employees to feel that their growth still matters.
#3: Make Progress Visible
The Tool: The Progress Receipt
One of the challenges of modern work is that progress isn’t always easy to recognize.
Employees move from one deadline to another, solve problems that quickly disappear from view, and often spend more time thinking about what’s unfinished than what they’ve accomplished.
Amabile and Kramer’s research on the progress principle highlights the importance of recognizing meaningful progress, including small wins.
Organizations can put this into practice through a simple reflection exercise.
At the end of each day or week, encourage employees to complete one sentence:
“This week, I moved ______ forward.”
The answer doesn’t need to represent a major achievement.
It could be resolving a difficult conversation, learning a new skill, completing a challenging task, or making progress on a longer-term goal.
Managers can reinforce the practice during one-on-ones, team check-ins, or weekly reflections.
Over time, these small acknowledgments help employees recognize development that might otherwise go unnoticed.
Importantly, this shouldn’t become another productivity measurement or reporting requirement. The purpose is to help employees see their own progress, not to create another mechanism for evaluating performance.
Why This Matters for a Prevention-Focused Mental Health Strategy
Most workplace mental health programs are designed to respond when employees need support.
Employee assistance programs, therapy benefits, and clinical resources play important roles in helping people manage mental health concerns. But these services are only one part of a comprehensive approach.
A prevention-focused strategy also considers the everyday experiences that influence employee well-being before someone reaches a point of crisis.
That includes psychological safety, leadership behavior, emotional regulation, meaningful relationships, and opportunities for personal growth.
For HR and benefits leaders, this creates an opportunity to think beyond access to care and consider the broader conditions that help employees remain mentally healthy.
It also changes how organizations can evaluate their efforts.
Rather than looking exclusively at whether employees access support when something goes wrong, employers can examine whether people are engaging in preventive education, building practical skills, participating in development opportunities, and experiencing a culture that supports their well-being.
Growth is particularly valuable because it connects individual and organizational priorities.
Employees benefit from greater confidence, capability, and purpose. Organizations benefit from a workforce better equipped to adapt, collaborate, and navigate challenges.
Neither outcome happens automatically. Both require intentional support.
Building an Environment Where People Can Flourish
Not every employee who feels stuck is experiencing a mental health concern. And not every mental health concern can be prevented through personal development or workplace culture.
But that doesn’t diminish the importance of creating environments where people have opportunities to grow.
For organizations, the question isn’t simply whether employees have access to mental health resources.
It’s whether the workplace itself contributes to their ability to remain well.
Are managers equipped to support development and recognize progress? Do employees have opportunities to learn without adding to their workload? Does the culture encourage curiosity, constructive feedback, and continuous improvement?
These are practical questions that connect leadership, culture, and mental health prevention.
And they represent opportunities for organizations to move from responding to employee struggles toward actively supporting employee well-being.
Because a healthier workforce isn’t built only by helping people when they’re struggling. It’s also built by giving them the tools, support, and opportunities to thrive.
Make Growth Part of Your Mental Health Strategy
Spirence helps organizations build a stronger culture of mental health prevention through clinically informed education, practical skill-building, leadership development, and measurable engagement.
Our platform gives employees opportunities to build emotional literacy, resilience, and personal growth skills, while equipping leaders with tools to create healthier, more supportive workplaces.
Build a healthier workforce before problems become crises.
Blake Cohen | MS, PsyD(c)
LEARNING & DEVELOPMENT STRATEGIST
