Speak Up: loss, leadership, and therapy
Mark Huber on losing a friend to suicide, navigating a toxic workplace with a special forces CEO, and why he tells his team when he's going to therapy.
Mark lost one of his best friends to suicide right before college. A few years later, his younger sister survived a suicide attempt. Those two moments cemented his belief in mental health awareness and taught him a lesson he brings to work as a leader: you have to speak up, because you never know what people are dealing with.
He spent nearly two years of therapy talking through a toxic job where the CEO, a former Israeli special forces hostage negotiator, used gaslighting tactics. Therapy gave him a space to get level headed and stop drowning in the lows. Now he’s open about it, blocking off his calendar every Tuesday for his appointment, a move he picked up from a former boss.
Mark used to hide his ADHD, but now he tells his team it’s his superpower. He also tells them when he is not okay. He recently let his team know he was dealing with some personal stuff, and a week later, a team member felt safe enough to share that they were going through a loss. It’s all about creating an environment where people feel they can be human.
“They won't ever know how you feel unless you speak up and say something.”
Notes
- He lost a high school friend to suicide and his sister later survived a suicide attempt.
- He spent almost two years in therapy working through a toxic job with a CEO who was a former Israeli special forces hostage negotiator.
- He openly blocks off his calendar for therapy on Tuesdays, a practice he learned from a former boss.
- After hiding his ADHD for years, he now tells his team about it and calls it a superpower.