Another approach many find helpful is to write about their experiences. The simple act of getting the experience out of your head and on to paper can help you feel better. Research shows that writing about details of what happened and how you felt about the events leads your mind to start generating solutions about what steps to take next. Journaling can help you make sense of your experiences and see how they fit into the bigger picture of your life.
If you are ready to take an additional step (this takes courage and you will need to dig deep), do something to help others in your situation. Make a donation to a specific person or situation or a related charity. Or start a support program or fund-raising drive in your community. Taking action, no matter how small, often helps to alleviate the feelings of loss and helplessness associated with traumatic experiences. It also can help you give meaning to your losses.
Success Actions That Work:You can choose just one or any com- bination of the above techniques to work on rebuilding your life.
If you are uncomfortable with an approach or it is not working for you, move on to another one.
Welcome to the human experience. You might be down right now but that doesn’t mean you need to stay down. If possible, find something to laugh about. Imagining how much worse things could have been, can put setbacks in perspective and help you feel better. Reminding yourself of how others survived and thrived in a similar situation also can help reduce stress and put you in a better place to cope with your challenges. And using your experiences to help others not only gets your mind off of your own problems, but it can help heal your wounds.
We hope that you find one of these techniques helpful as you work through your current situation. With time and action, you may even come to see that your setbacks can provide the seeds for additional growth.
Question:I manage a great team, but some of them are burning the candle at both ends and it’s starting to affect their performance and team morale. I don’t want these key employees to burn out or quit on me. What specific things can I do to help them get stronger or work smarter?
As a manager, you understand the pressures in today’s business world. You are not alone in finding it difficult to support valuable team members and protect them from mental, physical, and emo- tional burnout. It’s no wonder that burnout is a concern, given the increasing demands to deliver more with less time and fewer resources.
You have a front-row seat to watch your team face conflict- ing demands, long working hours, and constant change in a tough and quickly changing business environment. Especially in this time of more frequent layoffs, good employees find themselves absorb- ing more work, spending longer hours at the office and less time at home, and forgoing the type of self-care that is needed for a continuous level of high performance.
It sounds like your team members are passionate about what they do, so that’s not the problem. They have the “why” in place and that is important. Work is simply becoming less fun and enjoyable for them because they are using up all of their men- tal, physical, and emotional reserves.
You want to make sure that your team sees you as being on their side. An effective manager is an ally and a resource for employees to help handle challenges and pressure, not the enemy. One of the best ways to be seen this way is by regularly communicating face
to face with team members in a relaxed and confidential manner.
Encourage your staff to talk about their challenges and then partner with them to find resources and strategies to meet these challenges.
As a manager, you need to have your finger on the pulse of your team and frequently check in to see how they are doing. It is common for people to deal with pressure by bottling it up inside.
Research shows that this can lead to increased stress, high blood pressure, low self-confidence, and other health problems. All of these things reduce a person’s productivity, ability to focus, and job satisfaction.
If you don’t give your staff opportunities to talk about their challenges, this negative, bottled up energy will begin to leak out and affect others in the office. Your employees may begin feeling sorry for themselves, complaining to each other, or even emotion- ally exploding. Obviously these types of nonproductive behaviors would negatively affect both individual and team productivity.
A general lack of physical activity, combined with increased physical tension and stress, can further undermine your team’s ability to effectively handle the demands of a competitive busi- ness world. Resiliency requires smart decision making on a daily basis. No one can sit for hours in front of a computer, on the phone, or in meetings and sustain a high level of energy and stamina. Without regular and proper breaks, one’s body slowly becomes drained of energy. Maintaining a sedentary work life re- sults in fatigue, poor concentration, disinterest, and a lower level of performance.
It sounds as if some of your employees need to be educated about taking regular minibreaks in order to optimize their per- formance. Your hard-working employees might think that they will get more done if they eat lunch at their desks while read- ing documents, answering e-mails, and returning calls, but this type of behavior cannot be sustained over time. Repeated stress without sufficient rest will lead to a lack of engagement and
burnout. Encourage your staff to get up and move around after completing a task. Simply taking their eyes off the computer screen and stretching for a few minutes will help them feel better and perform better.
So, what can you do as a manager? Here are a few ideas to help keep your team on a high-performance track and buffer them from burnout.