What’s the aim of International Men’s Day? It’s training men

This year, the theme of International Men’s Day (Tuesday November 19^th) focuses on positive male role models. In an age of transition to AI, when new value is being placed on timeless human skills, what can men learn – from other men, as well as from women?  

Inaugurated in 1999 in Trinidad and Tobago, International Men’s Day (IMD) is supported by the UN’s education and culture body UNESCO. IMD is now celebrated in Singapore, Australia, India, UK, US, South Africa, Haiti, Jamaica, Hungary, Malta, Ghana, Moldova, and Canada, and interest elsewhere is growing.

According to IMD’s organisers, this month is “important for the masculine soul” as it includes events such as Movember – the international campaign promoting awareness of male health. However, for some in the workplace, the masculine soul might have some catching up to do.

Men at work

The rapid development of AI will potentially have a profound effect on workplace behaviours, particularly in areas that may take some men out of their comfort zone. Technology has long been over-shadowing roles that can be automated. To protect their jobs from the rise of AI, employees will need new skills that rely on human strengths.

Skills in client relationships and networking, feedback and mentoring, meetings management, and company culture can’t be left to a large language model. The simple fact is, whether tech developers like this or not, AI isn’t human. People with a solid understanding of emotional intelligence (EI) will outperform artificial competitors.

In the first years of this century, HR departments struggled to sell new EI concepts such as psychological safety. These were once known as soft skills and were readily dismissed, particularly by men. Caricature alpha male attitudes were often slow to make room for diversity, equity and collaboration.

In a hard-hearted approach to work, soft skills fared badly. Not anymore. ‘Soft’ capabilities, now rebranded as human skills, are particularly important in leadership, communication, and plugging the gaps left by AI.

Male role models in the workplace

In the mid-20^th century, women in the workplace called for gender equalities that extended to more than equal pay. A person’s right to speak freely, even when they don’t have the loudest voice in the room, was recognised in a 1999 paper by Amy Edmondson that introduced the concept of psychological safety. Since then, those with a louder voice have been encouraged to support colleagues as an ally, amplifying their comments and encouraging others to listen.

Male role models in the workplace can demonstrate psychological safety and allyship, encouraging not just those whose voices they’re supporting – but also other men to do the same.

The advantage to businesses here is that the greater the psychological safety, the more collaborative the team. And diverse teams that benefit from a range of voices demonstrate higher collective intelligence.

A 2010 paper co-authored by Anita Woolley and Thomas Malone, experts in organisational behaviour, found that a group’s collective intelligence is higher in teams whose members understand each other. They explained that a greater level of understanding was linked to:

• – the average social sensitivity of group members
• – the equality in distribution of conversational turn-taking
• – the proportion of females in the group

In other words, the higher the number of team-members who act with emotional intelligence – listening and supporting others – the stronger the group’s collective intelligence.

Supporting gender equality

As we’ve seen, gender equality is a business issue that relies on support from everyone across the workforce. Other ways that men can demonstrate positive behaviours at work include:

• – Clock it and stop it – men can ask colleagues to stop tokenism, bias, and stereotyping.
• – Sponsorship – advocating for a female employee, particularly in moments that can help her career.
• – Constructive collaboration – just as significant as self-serving, cut-throat competitiveness.
• – Backing flexible working practices – that benefit colleagues with young families.

Keeping an eye on male mental health

Beyond workplace issues, International Men’s Day celebrates the positive value men bring to their families and communities. However, their positive impact can be limited both at work and at home by poor mental health – traditionally a classic weak spot for men:

• – 5% of men in the UK are suffering from one of the common mental health disorders, according to Mental Health UK.
• – Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that almost double the rate of men die from alcohol-specific causes than women.
• – In 2023, nearly 75% of suicide deaths in England and Wales involved men, the highest rate since 1999.

According to the Mental Health Foundation, men are less likely to access psychological therapies than women: only 36% of referrals to NHS talking therapies are for men.

Championing men’s health

Men seeking to openly discuss male mental health may encounter what Mental Health UK calls “toxic masculinity”, a term describing unhelpful assumptions about what it means to be ‘masculine’ such as being stoic, not showing emotions, or being outwardly ‘tough’ versus being ‘soft’ and emotional. These perceptions are perpetuated by the media, reinforcing an image of men as typically ‘strong but silent.’

The Men’s Health Forum, (MHF), a charity supporting men’s health in the UK, promotes the idea of men’s health champions – volunteers among any group of people who watch out for their colleagues.

Health champions are empathetic, good listeners, willing to talk about health and other difficult issues and be supportive without being directive. For example, health champions can be particularly important for overcoming potential isolation around working from home.

Anyone concerned about the mental health of a friend or colleague can initiate a conversation using the ALEC model, described on the Movember site, here.

Backing the business case for wellbeing

Men’s health champions have been trained by MHF in a number of large organisations including the RAF, Network Rail, and the NHS. Meanwhile, other organisations have got behind the principles of International Men’s Day, (whether this year or in previous years), among them the UK Civil Service, Legal and General, Royal Bank of Scotland, Next, Lloyds Bank, Boots, Standard Chartered, and PwC.

The principle of health champions is catching on, for example Unilever has trained 4,000 of its global employees, so far, to be mental health champions, tasked with supporting their peers by looking for signs of people struggling with mental health and then helping them reach services that can offer support.

At Working Voices, our diversity and inclusion training courses give practical advice on managing bias and building support. Ultimately, in protecting equity, mental health, and wellbeing, we advocate a wider approach to culture through our Team Engagement programme.

Our Team Engagement training modules focus on psychological safety, trust, respect and belonging, and are designed to help individuals, teams and leaders develop a collaborative approach that we call social wellbeing. These initiatives, at Working Voices and elsewhere, are part of a broader direction of travel. Old stereotypical attitudes to workplace masculinity are evolving, and International Men’s Day is fast becoming a key part of the narrative.