What can you do to reduce your team’s stress? How can you help them focus on what really needs to get done?
What the Experts Say
As a leader, it’s your job to help your people find balance, says HBR. Of course, you need results, but you also want a team that’s not at constant risk of being burnt out. Research shows that memory, attention, and concentration suffer when people try to manage the constant stream of communication and distraction that’s a regular part of the workplace. Julie Morgenstern, productivity expert and author of Never Check E-Mail in the Morning, sees this every day: “Almost everyone struggles to focus at work,” she says. “We want to think, write, and strategise, but because these functions require deep thinking and uninterrupted time, we stay busy with the tasks, meetings, and messages that pop up all day long rather than tackling really important projects.” Liane Davey, vice president of team solutions at Knightsbridge Human Capital and author of You First, agrees, noting that an overly busy office can kill morale and leave employees disengaged and less capable of getting everything done. It’s on you, the manager, to help your people cut through the chaos, reduce stress, and make sure your team can accomplish its most important work.
Focus your team on the things that matter
The first step, says Davey, is to identify the unique contribution your team makes to the organisation. Begin by asking, “What does the company expect from my team that no other group can accomplish?” Don’t answer this alone in your office. Involve your team. Once you all agree on your team’s purpose, it becomes the guiding principle for how everyone should spend their time and the litmus test for what work team members should take on and what they should let go.
Edit their workload
Evaluate each project based on whether or not it’s in what Davey calls “the sweet spot” — what you’ve previously identified as your group’s unique purpose, what they’re good at, and what’s important to the larger goals of the organisation. “It’s the manager’s responsibility to develop an action plan that allows everyone to be more productive and to insulate their teams from low-priority work that may trickle down from senior management,” she says. When a new assignment comes your way, don’t automatically say yes. “Remember to consider each project with an eye to whether or not it takes advantage of what your team, and only your team, has to offer,” Morgenstern says.
Schedule uninterrupted work
“When you get distracted by something at work,” says Morgenstern, “it takes at least 20 minutes to refocus on the task at hand.” Encourage your team to set aside an hour or more (Morgenstern’s team gives it three hours) each morning for quiet, proactive work. “Be sure everyone understands that there are to be no interruptions unless it’s an emergency,” she recommends. By making it a group goal, you increase your collective focus and prevent backsliding. Also check that your team members know how to break larger projects up into smaller tasks that can be accomplished in the amount of time you’ve set aside for strategic work each day. “Once they use this time effectively,” she says, “their productivity will improve.”
Fix your meetings
“Meetings can be a huge waste of time,” says Davey. To avoid that problem, “every meeting should include standing agenda items to allow for productive discussions and decision making about the team’s core assignments,” she says. Morgenstern suggests that managers establish no more than three objectives, decide who needs to be there, set limits on the duration of meetings, and use the last 15 minutes to clarify how the participants will move forward. Above all, make sure a meeting is really necessary. “Sometimes an email or memo can accomplish the same goal in a much shorter amount of time,” she suggests.
Set limits on e-mail
Technology has created an always-on culture, where work bleeds into evenings and weekends. But that can be counterproductive if your people never feel they have a break. Morgenstern suggests setting boundaries on the work day and limiting after-hours emails to urgent issues. “So many people are addicted to their phones, but over time, most people realise that there’s very little that can’t wait and that it’s far more important to connect to what’s meaningful to us both personally and professionally,” she says. The brain is actually wired for rest, adds Davey. “Without taking time to recharge, we create unsustainable levels of stress and anxiety.”
Lead by example
When setting new norms for your team, you need to walk the talk yourself. “The movement against busy starts at the top,” Davey says, pointing to the way Jeff Weiner of LinkedIn schedules time for what he calls “nothing.” Talk to your team about what you’re doing and why, Morgenstern recommends, and if one of your strategies isn’t working, admit it, try something different, and move on. Show that you’re committed to making a change both individually and as a group. “It takes a while to break these habits,” she says, “but once you all get used to a deeper sense of accomplishment, you’ll never go back.”
Principles to Remember
Do:
Agree on what’s unique about your group’s skills and experience
Reduce or eliminate assignments that don’t align with your team’s purpose
Schedule time for high-level, strategic work
Don’t:
E-mail your employees at all hours — set limits on technology use
Call meetings without an explicit purpose — stick to an agenda
Underestimate the importance of your own behavior — you set the norms on your team
Image: Stress via Shutterstock
