Here's how you can help
After a brief glimmer of normalcy the dark clouds of economic uncertainty have begun to loom on the horizon. Lay offs, poor appraisals, businesses shutting down, have been in the news continuously since the pandemic hit and look unlikely to fade soon. Amidst all this professional uncertainty is exacerbated for people. Many have seen major setbacks in their careers, from having to leave to take care of their caregiving responsibilities, to being downsized.
These experiences can be devastating, leaving people feeling a flood of negative emotions and poor mental health. People who have not faced setbacks, face increased pressure to perform in an increasingly unyielding economic environment. That too has profound effects on the mind, often leading to chronic stress and performance anxiety.
These difficult circumstances have put leaders in a critical position wherein they have to support their greatest asset, the people, while making optimal business decisions. That’s no easy place to be. However, these are defining times when leaders can rise to the challenges and help their people develop mental resilience and foster a growth mind-set, to offset the setbacks and uncertainties.
People have faced unthinkable challenges in the last two years and many are still on the path of returning to emotional, financial, social stability. Given the backdrop it is the sense of safety and wellbeing that leaders are able to provide for their teams, that will play a central role in stabilizing productivity and in turn, growth.
Listed here are 5 ways how leaders can help facilitate a positive work environment:
Wellbeing assessment at work
The first step to fixing something is to understand and assess the damage! Emotional and mental wellbeing assessments are a good way to find out about the current state of wellbeing of your employees. Wellbeing assessments often give a comprehensive picture of the risks that the workforce is facing. Wellbeing initiatives framed based on this kind of need analysis are more focused and naturally have better outcomes.
Making connections
Human connections are one of the most underrated and yet the most effective ways to create emotionally safe workplaces. There is no need to wait for an affected employee to approach you. It is okay for you to make the first move.
This will help you make the connection personal. As a leader, it’s part of your role to invest time in forging strong bonds between your team members and stress on how collaboration and interdependence makes great teams work. This can help reduce anxiety and performance pressures and build a more relaxed environment.
Investing in team building activities
Team building activities that are focused not only on work related collaborations and appreciation but also focus on building a sense of belonging and friendship, can go a long way in creating a healthy team.
From company off-sites, friendly competitions, health or personality development workshops, sporting tournaments, and the like, in addition to activities that simply exemplifies positivity, good humour, warmth and other values that you want people to imbibe. This helps energise people and generate positive emotions and neutralise the tensions that often fester at work.
Transparency
Worse than no feedback at all is just positive feedback. People find it hard to trust and that amplifies uncertainty and anxiety. Honest, transparent and constructive feedback shared with empathy goes a long way in helping people feel safe. Charting a plan for the individual's growth helps them feel motivated and acknowledged.
Seek expert help proactively
Everyone at some point in their life needs support, guidance and counselling. And as a leader, you will see that in spite of the above mentioned efforts, a few employees continue to deal with anxiety and are in a state of despair. It is best to proactively arrange a mental health experts, as part of the wellbeing system, who can help employees deal with distressing times through interventions and initiatives.
We live in a competitive world where anxiety and fear are very common in work circles. Preparedness contributes to resilience in people and organizations. Evidence based wellbeing programmes are excellent strategies to help the workforce deal with unpleasant emotions and situations.
The above article has been written by Debasmita Sinha, Psychologist & Clinical Director, Manah Wellness
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