Navigating a world of economic uncertainty. Encouraging innovation whilst maintaining operational efficiency. Adopting and adapting to the brave new world of AI and digital transformation. Dealing with the complexities of hybrid working. Oh yes, and not to mention having to face the continual pressure of both meeting and beating financial targets.
It certainly is a tough time to be a leader. Plenty of stress and pressure all around.
So, what exactly can leaders do to successfully address the challenges highlighted above without sacrificing the mental wellbeing of the teams they lead? As well as their own?
Two things they shouldn’t do:
- Bury their heads in the sand and pretend that there is no human cost when it comes to the pursuit of success. According to two reports carried out in 2024, 79% of the UK workforce experienced moderate to high stress in their jobs, and a sobering figure of 25% felt unable to cope at work. Those are big numbers, aren’t they?
- Believe that the antidote to stress in the workplace is to send the team on resilience training courses, provide access to weekly yoga classes or make sure that there is plenty of fresh fruit lying around the place. None of these laudable activities are really addressing the root issue.
Here are 5 more fundamental measures leaders could consider if they want the success without the excessive stress.
5 Fundamental Measures Too Consider
Spell out the purpose
If the team are simply turning up for five days a week to collect their pay checks, their resilience muscle will not come to their rescue when the pressure is on. We are always a lot more resilient when there is more at stake, when what we are doing has some higher purpose or deeper meaning. It’s up to the leader to spell this out.
Encourage vulnerability
It really is OK not to be OK. In the wise words of Michelle Obama: “We should make it clear that getting help isn’t a sign of weakness, it’s a sign of strength.” And the best way of getting your team to be vulnerable is to get the ball rolling and demonstrate some vulnerability yourself. That will open the floodgates.
Identify the stressors
By encouraging each and every one of your team members to be open and honest about how they are feeling, you will then be able to be able to pinpoint the different sources of stress. And remember that what is misery to one person might well be manna from heaven to another.
Take action
Having identified the different causes of stress amongst your team, work out what steps you can take to eliminate these at an organisational level. For example, how can you improve levels of communication? What can you do to reduce bureaucratic complexity? And what steps can you encourage the individual to take at a personal level? How can they help themselves?
Hold a regular “Fika” meeting
In Swedish, fika refers to the ingrained practice of taking a break, slowing down, re-charging the batteries. It can be a regular occurrence in the workplace, providing you and the team with all the permission you need to check in with one another. And instead of a healthy fruit bowl, pastries, cakes and cookies are the order of the day!
The current hectic, frantic, unpredictable and unsettling environment won’t be changing any time soon. And maybe the human condition wasn’t really cut out for all this. But’s let’s do our absolute best as leaders to provide ourselves and our teams with the right “equipment”, both at the practical and emotional level, to deal with the turbulence.
