You're leading a team in People Management. How can you prevent burnout and foster a supportive culture?

To prevent burnout and foster a supportive culture in People Management, leaders should assess their team's workload, encourage flexibility, build trust, promote growth, seek feedback, and prioritize well-being. Regularly assess the workload to ensure it is realistic, balanced, and aligned with skills and goals. Use tools like project management software, workload matrices, or surveys to monitor progress and challenges. Establish open communication with the team, set realistic goals, and encourage team building activities.

Many bosses fail to face the facts when it comes to work estimation. Often succumbing under pressure from their own boss, they make unreasonable demands from employees which can reflect on their poor management skills. This is setting up a team for failure. It takes courage, for a manager to standup to their own boss and defend his/her own direct reports if facts suggest that the scope of work has blown out of proportion. Often having this attribute is what makes a successful manager. This can surprisingly motivate an employee to put in their best effort and they also enjoy the work they are doing which is super important. Workload assessment often gives back more rewards than a disorganized manager can hope to reap.

In addition to tools to measure progress and metrices, it's important to establish an open communication with the team. Its ideal to check in with colleagues about their well-being and address any issues promptly. Set realistic goals achievable within the time and break down bigger tasks into smaller ones. Encourage team building activities and do something fun as a team once in a while! Encourage team to use their vacation days and promote and environment of learning and collaboration.

To prevent burnout and foster a supportive culture in People Management, it's crucial to prioritize supporting well-being. Encourage self-care practices, provide resources for managing stress, and promote a healthy work-life balance. By prioritizing employee health and happiness, you demonstrate empathy and create a culture where team members feel valued and supported. Remember, investing in your team's well-being not only prevents burnout but also enhances productivity and contributes to long-term success.

This is a very important aspect of people management. Showing empathy towards employees is an essential part of being successful. How often have you seen an angry manager in a meeting who publicly mocks an employee who frequently shows up late? The clear solution would have been if the manager takes his conversations 1-1 and starts of with understanding the situation. What if this employee had a health issue or a family or other personal issue and they are too afraid of bringing it up. The manager's attitude can usually be the cause of frequent intimidations which may stall the relationship eventually leading to a failed organization.

The best way to build trust is by publicly acknowledging the complexity of projects and the volume of effort required to accomplish them. Honesty is the younger sister of trust - as they say. It takes a lot of courage for a manager to say that. However trust goes both ways, and it's very possible that some direct reports may exploit the situation and purposefully explode the scope of a project. But this then goes back to work ethics, and it's very easy to identify such tendencies. A second aspect of building trust is to "let go". This means you handover a clearly defined project and stay away from micromanagement. Frequent recalibrations of sprint velocities may be detrimental to employee morale.