Leaders Dealing with Stress in the Workplace in the context of COVID-19.

Two weeks ago a client of mine was speaking with me about stress, specifically surrounding his staff during the Covid-19 season. In his role as a CEO, he had noticed an increase in anxiety among his team members through some out-of-character behaviours. Stress seems to be a topic that is surfacing more often of late. As his coach, we unpacked things together, and I was reminded that many leaders are not trained, or experienced, in how to lead others who are being impacted by stress. So, I thought I would share some of what we discussed together and some actions he took, in this short article. This is such a big topic, so the following is not meant to be exhaustive by any means.

If you are like most business leaders, you have a load of work to do, along with managing your staff through strategic and routine business results. So, the last thing you need is another added responsibility of dealing with individual and group stress.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 stresses are a reality (not to mention other recent global issues), and effective leaders must reprioritise to deal with these presenting staff issues to prevent them from becoming chronic. Typically, chronic stress is the result of not dealing with immediate stress when it surfaces. I promise you, if you do not deal with it immediately, you will deal with it eventually, and it will be more difficult the longer you try to ignore it, which can often bring financial pain as well.

I think it is good to be reminded that before COVID-19, stress issues already existed with depression being the leading cause of disability in the workplace. And usually people don’t get to depression overnight; it is the end result of unaddressed workplace (or other) stress. When you add to this mix that anxiety is the most common mental health problem seen by doctors, along with the global season we are in, it creates the perfect storm.

I get it, “You are not a clinical psychologist.” “Why should I have to deal with this stuff?” “I didn’t sign up for this!” However, if left unchecked chronic stress will be the result, and this brings long-term negative impact upon you as a leader, all staff members, the business and any particular stressed employee with whom we owe a duty of care.  

The good thing is that you don’t have to be a psychologist to deal with stress in your staff. I remember being in senior leadership and offering to pay for one of my middle managers to see a psychologist. Warning – don’t say, “I think you are nuts, can I pay for you to see someone?” You need to be in a trusted position to suggest this, which was my scenario. It was the best thing because not only did they grow in resilience and show up at work as their best self, but their home life improved and our organisation’s positive reputation also increased.

Having stated the above, there are definitely steps you as a leader can take as a part of a preventative strategy. These are some of the steps I discussed with the CEO and thought I would leave them here for your reflection. 

1.     Don’t shy away from talking about stress but simply ask in a curious way how your direct reports/employees are travelling. Keep a good relationship with them where they feel safe to come to you if they are struggling. Too often we can react to negative information given to us by staff, and this sends a message that you don’t want to hear about any negative stuff. In other words, “Don’t shoot the messenger.” This can be a habit which impacts other areas of your leadership. Emotional intelligence work is a powerful way to shift this habit.

2.     As simple as this may sound, often it is good to define what stress is when speaking to staff just to give them a bit of a handle on what is happening for them – to demystify it a little. During this season, you have a clear opening to broach the topic in your team meeting, or one-on-one. I like Heidi Hanna’s definition of stress, which in my thinking uses an engineering analogy: “Stress occurs when demand exceeds capacity.” It is simple but informative. A bridge needs to be able to withstand the amount of weight or force that is exerted upon it, if it breaks under pressure, that is going to cause a whole lot of hurt. Let staff know that we don’t want you to experience this, but to speak up if you are struggling. Insider tip – people rarely admit problems, so keep asking how they are travelling.

Back to the analogy - one thing about a bridge is that it is designed to sustain some consistent stress every time a vehicle travels over it; it just needs to be designed to handle the amount of traffic. So, all stress is not bad. We all need some stress in our lives because it motivates us to act and change our situation, usually for the good. But when the stress is intense and/or long-term, it can overwhelm our biological systems (hormonally speaking with cortisol, etc.) and run our emotional energy down to dangerous levels. I’ve been there, 18 years ago now, but I can recall the details as if it were yesterday. If these dangerous levels are sustained too long, they will be the straw on the proverbial camel’s back that brings anyone down. This is often at the point of producing some trauma (potentially PTSD) or burnout that can often lead toward depression. Suffice to say, that you don’t want anyone in your team to go there, so start with finding ways to increase awareness of what stress is.

3.     In my discussion with the CEO, like most business leaders, he admitted he was no expert in these areas, so I suggested a couple of reliable tools he could use. One online assessment revealed how his individual employees tended to approach stress and what their current likelihood of effectiveness would be if not developed. Another instrument looked at their current workplace fulfilment and engagement levels. This gave him rich data to be proactive in meeting with them and get some helpful information out on the table. He was able to set some professional development goals in place, which brought mutual benefit. People felt heard and invested in, and he found that in a relatively short period of time, emotions were able to be brought back to a manageable level again – win, win. 

4.     Research has shown that employees who are constantly stressed will demonstrate emotionally out-of-character (flip) behaviours more often, creating dysfunctional workplace behaviour - and if not addressed – dysfunctional culture will develop. Unresolved stress produces more stress. With this in mind, we explored whether some of the stress being experienced was triggered as a result of misalignment with their current role. In other words, the stress has been there but now it has been exacerbated by the new global climate, or they are suffering from unaddressed issues that have arisen for them through COVID-19.

Interestingly enough, as I speak with other leaders, there are some unique challenges emerging from this COVID-19 season through employees starting to reintegrate back into the physical workplace. For some, working virtually has engendered more of a silo mentality, and now they are being asked to reengage as a team member. Thus, there are new struggles emerging with a sense of loss of control and loss of autonomy. In some organisations a few have stayed in the office while other team members worked remotely and reintegrating is causing some sort of jealousy, or sense that remote workers haven’t worked as hard as those holding the fort, creating turf wars. Leaders will do well during the post-covid-19 employee reintegration, if they keep their eyes wide open, so they can wisely call out into the open issues that need addressing.     

5. Finally, we discussed ways to assist with building resilience. How do we empower employees to take responsibility for their own well-being? Have you ever driven over an old bridge and noticed all the extra sub-structures added beyond its original design? They are put in place to give the bridge extra resilience to withstand more demand. This is what part of professional development can do for staff. It pays dividends long-term for the individual, plus it builds into organisational culture and business results. 

One helpful team exercise is to discuss workplace values around reducing stress, and what sorts of practices could be adopted as a team that we hold each other accountable to. This gets it out in the open and creates a supportive environment that doesn’t rely all on the leader to sustain it. Some solutions are so simple too. We all know that exercise is an antidote to stress, so simply not eating at your desk, making sure you take breaks, or installing stand up desks can be approaches taken to develop a supportive office environment. Don’t forget how much having a good laugh can alter your physiology too.

At a more individual level, you can get employees to examine what’s going on for them. For example, “Why the overwhelm (a feeling that no matter what I do, nothing matters – lost hope)?” Once insight is gained, resource them with what they need in order to break things down into more manageable size pieces or get them to re-examine how realistic their expectations are in their role. This is also where the use of assessments are helpful in gathering insight, because it is unbiased data gathered from their input.

Another helpful practice is learning the regular discipline of gratitude. Research has shown that doing this daily for 30 days literally shifts a person’s mood (their happiness quotient). It heightens the awareness of the good things in our lives, which retrains our brain to notice what is currently unappreciated. There are also free apps with mindfulness exercises, which may not suit every personality type, but research shows that something as simple as controlled breathing works to reduce stress symptoms. Don’t forget, you can always hire a coach for them as a customised approach toward solving any personal or professional development issues. Anyway, you get the idea. 

In summary, I just wanted to share some of the thoughts and action-plan that came out of a coaching session with one of my clients to multiply the benefits to others. I trust my ramblings have been helpful.

I’m curious, are there any practices that you have tried in your workplace that have yielded an effective way to deal with stress? I’d love to hear about what you did, which will assist others too.

If you are a leader and you manage staff and would love to develop in your own leadership growth or develop employee talent-management strategies, reach out by messaging me, or you can book time into my schedule here for a ‘free staff management strategy session’ – it’s my area of passion.