A stressful work environment can never be comfortable or effective. To a limited extent, stress can serve as a useful driver and motivator. However, if stress is too intense or long term, it leads to fatigue, a higher error rate, conflicts within the team, and ultimately burnout among individual team members. Here are four tips to ensure that you keep stress among your subordinates at a reasonable level and help them cope with it more effectively.
Eliminate sources of stress
As a first step, according to HR Morning, you should identify the stressors your subordinates face. Stressors are factors and situations that act as triggers of stress. These often include communication errors, unclear role distribution, or specific work phases during which employees face an excessive number of tasks. Once you identify, describe, and analyze these stressors, you should attempt to eliminate them. Consider how the situation can be improved and consult potential solutions with your subordinates.
Consider redistributing roles
Is stress within the team caused by one individual handling too many responsibilities at a given moment? Does it stem from unclear role distribution? Can better definition of team roles help eliminate stressors? Reflect on whether redistributing responsibilities within the team could provide a solution. For example, during busy periods you can delegate work to another team, adjust existing processes, reorganize task distribution within the team, or decide that certain issues will not be addressed by your team at all.
Communicate regularly with your subordinates
To understand what causes stress among your subordinates, you must remain in close and regular contact with them. Discuss mental health, address workload levels of individual employees, and establish a culture in which people are not afraid to admit that they are under pressure and do not feel comfortable.
Lead by example
As a manager, you should lead by example. Demonstrate how to cope with stress. Delegate work, prioritize your tasks, and when you feel overwhelmed, speak openly about the issue. If you attempt to act as though stress does not exist and that the only response to stressful situations is to work harder, the situation within your team can never improve.
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