For most of us, stress is an inevitable part of our lives. Not only because of work, but also because of our personal and family lives.
Stress has many negative consequences on both physical and mental health, so it is important to find ways to reduce and manage it.
Having a leader who understands this and helps to create a work environment in which this is possible is crucial for bringing about change in an organization's culture.
Here are six things a boss can do to help their team reduce stress and increase productivity:
Focus the team on what really matters:
The first step is to identify what the team brings to the company that no one else can. The answer to this question may seem simple, but it is important to involve employees in the process of finding it.
Once everyone agrees on the purpose of the group, it will become the guide by which everyone decides how to spend their time and the test for deciding whether to take on a new task or let it go.
Edit workload:
This means evaluating all projects to determine whether they meet certain criteria: Are they in line with the team's purpose? Are they consistent with the person's strengths? Are they important to the organization's goals? It is the leader's job to help everyone be more productive and protect them from low-priority tasks imposed by senior management.
When a project arises, the boss should consider it according to the above questions before making a decision.
Schedule uninterrupted work:
When a person is distracted from their work, it takes at least 20 minutes to refocus on the task at hand. What a leader can do to prevent this is to ask their team to set aside at least one hour each morning to do proactive work without interruptions, unless it is an emergency. By making this a group goal, collective concentration increases and everyone helps each other achieve it.
Another strategy is to help employees "break down" large projects into smaller tasks that can be completed during periods of concentrated work.
Reduce meetings:
Work meetings are inevitable, but they can also be a huge waste of time. That's why all meetings should have no more than three objectives, in order to ensure productive discussions and important decision-making.
Limits should also be set on their duration, and care should be taken to select only those people who really need to attend. But most importantly, before calling a meeting, the boss should consider whether an email or memo could achieve the same objective.
Set limits on emails:
Technology has meant that we are all always in work mode, as it can spill over into our free time or weekends thanks to email.
This is counterproductive because people never feel like they have had a break, and if they don't have that time to recharge their batteries, dangerous levels of stress and anxiety build up.
A leader must remember that few things are urgent and that it is more important to connect with what matters to us, both personally and professionally.
Leading by example:
If the boss wants to create new rules for his team, he must be prepared to live by them too. For example, Jeff Weiner, CEO of LinkedIn, schedules time for what he calls "nothing."
If a leader wants to reduce stress levels, they must be able to discuss this goal with their team and thus change the ways of managing the organization that are not working and are not consistent with this objective!
