Newsletter 4 - Other people's stress
In the current world of redundancies and unemployment, your colleagues
and your team may be feeling the stress and anxiety of uncertainty. How will
you deal with this?
The first and most difficult thing is to realise that we each need to take responsibility
for our own anxieties. You need to manage your own worries, and your
staff need to manage theirs - easier said than done, I know, but worth remembering.
As well as this, as a manager you do have some responsibility for helping
your staff to cope with their stress. What does this mean?
You need to be observant - notice whether their behaviour changes, check for
people over-working or doing very long hours. You need to be consistent - don't
get caught up in the problems of the moment, but focus on the overall work that
needs to be done. As well as being observant and consistent, you need
to be as knowledgeable and clear as you can about the situation at work and keep people
informed.
So, you observe that someone is looking stressed, getting angry, working
late, showing all the signs. What should you do? One thing that sometimes helps is
getting them to map out their situation. Unspoken fears can be more destructive
than fears that have been expressed.
Rather than saying, "You look stressed," or "Are
you alright?" it may be better to say that you know that this is a difficult
situation and ask them how they're coping. This normalises the situation,
and doesn't make them feel defensive.
If they tell you what they're anxious about, it can be valuable to ask "And what
else?" so that they have the opportunity to state all their fears and face them.
You may be tempted to reassure them - "I'm sure it's not as bad as you think" -
but often that's not much help. It's more useful to ask "And if that happens,
what are your options?" or "And do you have a plan of what to do next?"
Talking in this way can help a person to mobilise their resources
rather than be paralysed by fear and worry. Even when you can't change a situation, it
can look different and less frightening when you shift the way you think about
it.
March 2009
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