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#47 Leadership Insights from my Conversation with Adam Nemer

• Mark Cundiff

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Leadership Insights on Mental Health: The Power of a Five-Minute Conversation (Learning to Lead Show Ep. 47)


Host Mark Cundiff shares leadership insights from his conversation with Adam Nemer, author of Simple Mental Health and former Kaiser Permanente CFO, describing it as his most compelling and challenging episode due to Nemer’s 20-year struggle after his father’s death by suicide and a pivotal “five-minute mental health first aid” conversation with a leader named Dave. 

Nemer explains his shift from nearly two decades at Kaiser to founding Simple Mental Health to help leaders create safe, stigma-free workplaces, noting that 25% of U.S. adults experience a mental health issue annually and stigma can delay help-seeking for up to 10 years. 

Key discussion topics include leading while battling mental illness, unprocessed trauma, mental health literacy, culture and psychological safety, treating mental health like physical health, and the business impact of investing in mental health, with takeaways emphasizing action, normalization, and performance effects.

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🔎 About LeaderNotes

LeaderNotes is a quick-hit companion to each episode of The Learning to Lead Show. In just 5–10 minutes, Mark Cundiff recaps the top leadership insights, frameworks, and action steps from each interview, designed for busy, growth-minded leaders who want to review and apply the episode’s biggest takeaways on the go. It’s like the highlight reel + playbook—all in one.


Contact Mark at: mark@markjcundiff.com

Hello, welcome to the Learning to Lead Show. I'm your host, mark Kiff. In today's episode number 47, I want to give you some leadership insights from my conversation with Adam er, the author of Simple Mental Health. I want to share that this was the most compelling, challenging. A conversation that I've had on the Learning to Lead show so far because it's the story of a man who went through a journey of 20 years of mental and emotional anguish after the death of his father by way of suicide, and he found them. If you have not listened to episode 46, if you do not listen to any other episode of the Learning to Lead Show, I would just ask, even Beg you, challenge you any way I could convince you to listen to that episode. I think it could be an episode that would change the way you lead forever, the way that you think about mental health and your responsibility as a leader. To address it, to help others with their mental health. It is a powerful conversation. Adam NNemer joined the show for one of the most important leadership conversations that you'll hear this year. He is a former healthcare executive for Kaiser Permanente. He was the CFO and he ascended to this role in the midst of all the challenges that he was going through. And you get to learn a story about a man named Dave who comes into his life and does a five minute mental health First aid. Yeah, that's right. Five Minute Mental Health First Aid that changed the trajectory of his life forever. Adam was an executive for Kaiser Permanente for nearly two decades, and then he left there to start his own organization titled Simple Mental Health. This organization is built around trying to communicate, train inform leaders about how to make it safe for their team members to deal with their mental health. He shared a stat during our conversation that 25% of all adults in the US suffer some type of mental health issue during the course of a year, and less than half of those will do anything about it, get any type of help. And so one of the things that he shared there is that it normally takes sometimes up to 10 years for someone. Who's suffering with a mental health issue to reach out and get help, and the number one reason for that is because of stigma. Here are some of the key topics that we discussed during our conversation on the Learning to Lead Show. Episode number 46. We talked about his leadership journey at Kaiser Permanente. How he was leading while silently battling mental illness, the impact of unprocessed trauma over time. We're going to highlight the five minute conversation that changed everything. He talked about mental health literacy as a leadership skill. He talked about why leaders mess what's right in front of them many times. Adam shared the role of stigma in preventing people from getting help and how this is the number one cause for people to not go and reach out and ask professionals for help. He talks about how culture shapes whether people speak up or stay silent. We also discussed how treating mental health, like physical health in the workplace will be a game changer. The measurable business impact of mental health investment. In other words, there's a positive return on investment for your people and for your business if you deal with mental health in a good way. And he talked about building psychologically safe and high performing teams. There were five key takeaways that I got out of this show. Number one, one conversation can change or save a life. Adam's Turning Point wasn't a program policy or initiative, it was a leader named Dave who noticed that something was off. He asked a simple question. He took action, and he helped this man named Adam Nemer get the help he needed to turn his life around. Leadership isn't always about big moves. Sometimes it's about one moment of courage. The key leadership lesson there, don't underestimate the power of a five minute conversation. Take away number two, leaders see the signs. They don't just act. Most leaders notice when something's off, but they hesitate because of this. Three things. They don't know what to say. They fear saying the wrong thing. They think it's not their role. The issue isn't awareness, it's action. Our key leadership insight for this takeaway is caring without acting isn't leadership. It's avoidance. Number three, mental health impacts performance more than you think, the data Adam shared. It's hard to ignore 25% now, up from the 20% when he wrote his book, 25% of people struggle with mental health each year. Depression alone can reduce productivity by 35%. Think about that. Depression alone can reduce productivity by 35%. People struggling with mental health have five times more unplanned absences. And most leaders are trying to solve performance problems without addressing the root cause. So what's our leadership lesson here? If you ignore mental health, you're managing symptoms, not solving problems. Take away Number four, culture is built by what leaders normalize. At Kaiser when Adam opened up about his struggles, three things happens, others followed. Conversations changed and trust increased and performance skyrocketed. Leadership insight. what you model. Your team multiplies. There was a lot of positive outcomes from Adam going through the process that he went through. Then sharing that with his team and being supported by his boss, Dave, they normalized it that it was okay for people to get help with their mental health. What does your organization look like if someone comes out? Are they stigmatized? Are they cast aside? One of Adam's biggest fears about coming out was that he would be fired and that just didn't happen at Kaiser. Take away. Number five, treat mental health like physical health, period. Adam's leader, David did something simple but rare. He treated Adam's mental health crisis the same way he would treat cancer or a heart attack. No judgment, no hesitation. Full support. That's what leadership looks like. Is that what your organization looks like? Is that the way you lead? Is that the way the people in your organization would treat someone like Adam, who came out with these issues, who after he came out and went and got help was outta work as the CFO for six weeks? To begin his journey and that Yes, that's right. He was just beginning his journey to deal with his mental health. What is the leadership lesson here? If someone on your team is struggling? The question isn't, is this my place? It's, how would I respond if this were physical? If the person was choking, what would you do if they passed out in the floor, what would you do? If they had cancer, what would you do? Ask yourself those questions again, if you have not listened to this conversation, I think it will challenge you. I think it will inspire you. I think it may confront you on some of the things that you are not doing, but most of all, I think it is a conversation that could help you save a life. If you got value out of today's episode, please go and give us a rating. Those ratings help us spread the word about what's going on with our conversations on the Learning to Lead Show. Make sure that you subscribe so that you get each new episode in your podcast app. And also make sure you download Leader Notes. Leader Notes will give you a summary. It'll give you key applications that you can apply. We'll also mention the resources. We'll give you the links to the resources and the people that we're talking to so that you can connect with them and follow them on social media. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Learning to Lead Show. Now go out and learn, grow, and lead, and take your organization, your team, to the next level.