A manager’s job is not an easy one – it can be a bit like herding cats!  In a high pressure environment you need everyone to perform at their best, but it can be easy to miss the signs that stress levels have risen into the danger zone.

Everyone has different tolerances for stress, and some stress is good to get people going and give them focus and direction.  However, there is a point where too much stress results in overwhelm, anxiety, depression and an immune system that stops fighting off any little germ that is around.  That means more sick days, detachment and lower work quality.

If you have team members who are irritable, hostile, destructive, inconsistent and have poor concentration and take everything personally, you’ve got problems.

Sometimes it can seem like a team member has had a personality transplant and someone who was a great team player has become withdrawn and listless.  It may be that they’re suffering from stress.  It may not even be work-related, a difficult divorce, bereavement or problematic home situation can just as easily contribute to a change in behaviour.  Does that mean it’s not your problem?  Not if you want a strong team that continues to function well.  Everyone is important.

A great manager 

• Knows their team members individually and takes time to talk to each one regularly, both informally around the workplace and formally in a 1-2-1
• Makes each team member feel valued with regular feedback – both good and ‘needs improvement’
• Practises open communication – so everyone knows what’s going on and understands their role, responsibilities and importance
• Helps each person in the team to develop their goals and career path
• Monitors workloads, scheduling and how roles interact
• Promotes work-life balance and encourages the team members to go home on time and take all their holiday allowance.

7 ways to enhance positive mental health at work

There are some strategies that will improve mental health for your team and you can make a significant difference by putting some of these into practice.

1. If you’re not the mental health champion for your team – assign someone to this role.  It’s a great way to ensure that someone is paying attention to this and catch problems before they escalate.  Promoting workplace wellness will open the door for your team members to feel comfortable talking about their challenges.
2. Consider ways to improve stress levels for your team members.  This might be making it a rule to leave within 30 minutes of the official end of the working day – and as the manager you’ll need to lead by example as, some people will feel that, if you’re still there, they need to stay too.
3. You could offer options for people to work from home or to have flexible hours, at least for some of the time.
4. Instead of having team meetings in a stuffy conference room or office space, have a walking meeting, where you combine discussion with a healthy walk.  Obviously this depends on both the weather and the local environment, it’s not going to work if you’re walking in a busy street, but most places have a quieter place somewhere nearby.  This works best with small numbers.
5. What about having a quiet room where people can have a power nap, or simply take time out to think or meditate?
6. Offer employee assistance programmes with counselling, coaching, mentoring, etc.
7. Institute two-way feedback – so there’s a structure for you, as manager, to get feedback from your team on your own performance. 

How to tackle those difficult conversations

Sometimes you will have to have one of those ‘you’re not performing well’ conversations.  Nobody enjoys those – whether they’re sitting in judgment or on the receiving end.

The secret of having less confrontational conversations is to focus on the outcome, not on the individual.  So, instead of ‘you’re not performing well’, you might say ‘This is the outcome we’re aiming to achieve [with details], and this is what we’re getting at the moment [example of current outcome].  What can we do to help you to bridge this gap?’

It's important to use the word ‘we’ in this as it implies that you’re there to support them and is not accusatory.

It also opens the door for someone who is suffering from stress to be more open and less defensive.

Like any problem, whether health-related or work-related, treating the symptoms won’t solve it long-term, it’s important to get to the root of the issue.  However, if you create an environment that prevents the problem occurring in the first place, you’ll have a happier and more productive workplace.