Managing your own stress might be difficult enough. However, as a manager, how could you assist your team members in coping with their emotions of stress, burnout, or detachment? Due to the increasing demands and complexity of work, plus the fact that many of us now work in 24-hour environments, stress and burnout are frequent. Keeping productive and engaged in today’s high-pressure environments can be difficult. While it is doubtful that the pace or intensity of labor would alter significantly in the near future, there is an increasing body of research indicating that some forms of development activities might effectively increase resilience.
The CDC reports that 40% of workers describe their workplaces as “very or highly stressful.” According to reports, workplace stress costs US firms more than $300 billion annually. The below are some points to help you deal with team stress.
Demonstrate And Promote Well-being Behaviors
Stress levels among workers are increasing, with more than half of the worldwide workforce (53 percent) saying that they are closest to burnout than they had been five years ago, per a Regus Group survey of more than 22,000 business professionals in 100 countries. And, while stress could be contagious, the contrary is also true: when a team member feels well-being, the effect appears to extend throughout the team. According to a recent Gallup analysis, those who report having well-being were 20% more prone to have additional team members who reported flourishing six months later. Takeaway: Recognize and prioritize activities that improve personal and team well-being. They could include providing personal development tools such as mindfulness and adaptability training; explicitly motivating people to take time to work out or other rejuvenating activities such as walking meetings, or including buffer time in deliverables calendars to allow for flexible and manageable work.
Beautify The Ecosystem
A significant amount of stress is caused by the environment. Consider every component of your workplace environment and what it contributes (or does not contribute) to your team’s welfare. Employee engagement can be impacted by seemingly little factors such as the qualities of the coffee or the height of the cubicle walls.
Refresh the office with a bright color scheme, new plants, or new tableware. Consider installing a ping pong or foosball table if you have the room to allow employees to de-stress for a few minutes. Employees will feel less stressed as a result of any improvements that increase their enjoyment.
Preserve Transparency
Maintain communication with team members. Keeping workers in the dark about critical business concerns can quickly develop a sense of detachment from the organization and fears about the future — both of which are significant pressures.
Conduct quarterly meetings to keep the team informed of management planning developments, reinforce agreed aims and values, and dispel any perception of being left out. Reiterate the team’s critical role in the company’s mission and express gratitude for the employees’ efforts. Inform them of the status of performance indicators and the impact they have on their work.
Allow For A Flexible Work Schedule And Remote Work
You hired your staff because you believe they are capable of performing their duties well and on time—now give them the opportunity to demonstrate that capability. Your office should not feel like a prison cell, but rather like a location where work can be accomplished. Inform your staff that the value and timeliness of their work, not the time they punch the clock, define their job.
Allow staff to work remotely and provide start and end times that are flexible. This flexibility benefits office morale significantly, and the policy demonstrates to staff that you trust them sufficiently not to babysit.
Maintain Reasonable Expectations
Great leaders recognize that imposing unreasonable expectations, or demands that are contradictory with the company’s declared principles or that are out of step with employees’ capabilities, adds unnecessary stress to people. These demands are likely to have negative effects in the form of team disengagement, demoralization, staff attrition, and the spiraling expenses associated with high turnover. The pursuit of large, difficult goals and the commitment to accomplish them are the seeds of leadership excellence. The trick is to lead in such a way that your staff not only supports your vision but also feels secure in their jobs. Employees must believe they are capable of reaching expectations.
Develop Your Brain’s Ability To Cope With Chaos
Neuroscience research demonstrates that mindfulness meditation can be used to educate the brain and develop beneficial mental habits that increase resilience and work productivity (and in life). At Wisdom Labs, we’ve observed that leaders and teams that educate their brains to cultivate mindfulness collaborate more efficiently, manage stress more effectively, and maintain peak performance. You do not need to be a mindfulness specialist to assist yourself and your team members in developing this fundamental human capacity. Technology can also be beneficial: Try exploring a few mindfulness applications or devices on your own and share them with others. Calm, Headspace, and the Muse are all excellent apps.
Final Words
Prolonged exposure to excessive stress in the workplace can result in decreased employee satisfaction, burnout, and team disintegration. Utilizing the methods listed above can assist you in managing team stress and sustaining more constant rates of operational output and outcome quality, shifting workplace culture toward a more positive work environment, increasing employee satisfaction and engagement goals, and improving your own career and personal life quality.
It’s worth emphasizing once more the importance of managing your personal stress. It will assist you in being more successful and genuine in your efforts to control the stress of your team. Adopt the behaviors of the most effective leaders when it comes to self-management. For instance, appreciate the benefits of spending time with family and friends, engaging in physical activity, and simply decompressing.
