Your Team is Fatiguing You. Now What?

Sometimes it hits us: We are pretty tired of managing our team. They each have needs, career aspirations, and opinions (strong or not), make mistakes, and need feedback. This, in part, defines the aspects that a manager can expect. We often focus on how to be grounded, to help you provide the necessary assistance your team needs and wants. But, sometimes, focusing on everyone but yourself leads to burnout. Especially when you are still responsible for your own deliverables and work streams.

What’s more, blurred boundaries and increased workloads cause stress. Additional stress seldom causes us to be the best versions of ourselves, as described in my last post. So what gives? How can you re-energize yourself to feel less fatigued and show up for your team?

First, you need to understand burnout. Burnout is a sure way to feel not only out of juice but will contribute to sparking additional conflict on your team. Next, you need to employ tactics to defuse burnout.

• Overcome your need (or desire) to micromanage.
  Surely you must set expectations and follow through on accountability. But you must also remember that if you are seeking perfection, micromanagement is its close friend. To counter micromanagement, one study suggests a decrease in meeting time. A weekly check-in is more than reasonable, but a daily run down to look at your team’s work through a microscope will only fuel the micromanagement bug.

• Make time for yourself.
  What does rest look like for you? You must make the time to rejuvenate in order to put your best foot forth for your team. Take a walk, go to the gym, spend time with friends, etc. Keep these plans in the diary each week.

Managing People, Under Pressure

I naturally can’t help but think of Bowie and Queen when I consider being “under pressure” – and what a relevant description for many working people. We are often under pressure whether that pressure is because of a deadline or the amount of work we need to accomplish. 

What has become commonplace in most of Corporate America is high pressure and high stress. It’s no surprise that Americans work long hours, increase revenue goals YOY, and mandate higher work output (in less time). 

But how does being under pressure affect your ability to manage? It won’t take us long to think of an example when we were pressed for time and reacted poorly to a colleague or subordinate in response to the external stress factor. Stressors can leave you with a short fuse, and will inadvertently create an environment where your team may fear your inconsistency in mood. If you are fostering an environment of fear, trust will be hard to come by and collaboration/idea sharing will slow. 

Since KPIs, deadlines, and aggressive goals aren’t going away any time soon, what can you do to balance the pressures of work while also managing well? 

First, a great practice is being able to acknowledge your feelings without judgment. If you need pointers, revisit my post about mindfulness in management. When you observe that you are mad or anxious about something, you will be more likely to communicate your concern and not misplace your angst on a team member. 

Second, answer what is the worst outcome of the situation you are facing. When you work through worst-case circumstances, you are better equipped to deal with them, according to Hendrie Weisinger and J. P. Pawliw-Fry.

Third, and this may be counterintuitive but it’s proven, slow down. We are more likely to make mistakes when we are in a rush, and are most certainly more likely to make a mess both interpersonally and with the task at hand when we are only processing in our emotional brain (thank you amygdala). By pausing, breathing, and engaging our prefrontal cortex (the most developed part of our brain) we will be poised to solve problems, reason soundly, and even be more creative. 

Hiring the Right Talent

We knew it was bound to happen – the long-discussed exodus: Baby boomers are retiring in waves. They are departing with their expertise, and their multi-decade exposure to (and correcting of) recurring problems. While we can sit and discuss the changing tide of the times – perhaps a reality that does not suit all generations in Corporate America (although not unlike past evolution) – we would be remiss if we thought we were not losing something significant. Those years of experience are not easily replaced. And this is why attracting strong talent, and hiring the right talent, is so vital at this juncture in your corporation. 

I am a firm believer that anyone with discernment and critical thinking can be taught to be excellent at a certain skill or craft. But herein lies an issue that many managers are facing: Team members, whether new or five years into their positions, remain somewhat unskilled, needing consistent training for improvement. Without this training and guidance, your team runs the risk of stagnancy, a decrease in innovation, deadlines missed, and problems going left unsolved. There certainly should be an expectation that managers will need to train and mentor their team members. But, this should not be the entirety of the job. Again, herein lies an opportunity for businesses to be thoughtful about their new hires.

If you’ve never thought about durable skills and perishable skills, now is the time. In a recent Forbes article, this distinction between durable skills and perishable skills is made, mainly to demonstrate how one must aim to retain employees with durable skills. And, it seems logical that a company will benefit from not only retaining employees with durable skills but attracting and hiring those with durable skills. 

What is a durable skill? This is the ability for a person to pair their life knowledge to their work. How can they use their own experiences to thrive in the corporate environment? As I noted, I am a firm believer that if you hire someone with critical thinking (a durable skill) you will be better suited than hiring the person with more years of experience and no ability to deduce thoughtfully.  “Durability” as I will refer to it, also speaks to a person’s ability to communicate well and navigate through challenges with a solution-focused mindset. Even if a person is somewhat unseasoned, they will be poised for success because they will seek out the answers, look to their manager for guidance when necessary, and pride themselves on resiliency and self-sufficiency.

On the flip, perishable skills are specialized. They are specific to an industry or specific organization. The training is in fact done on the job. 

Isn’t the perfect pairing, then, a hire who has durable skills because they can seemingly be taught the perishable skills? Indeed. 

As a manager, how might you help someone learn critical thinking? It is not a quantitative output and this is a struggle managers face. While a manager may be able to train on concepts and specializations (which naturally takes ample time) it is more challenging to teach someone how to communicate effectively, ratiocinate often, and solve problems independently. 

Thus, as we are facing a time of skillful people leaving the workplace, seek new hires with durable skill sets. Keep this front of mind throughout the interview process. 

Questions to consider: 

• How might you measure someone’s critical thinking? 

• How might you assess their ability to communicate? 

• How will you determine their emotion regulation and maturity (EQ)?

Mindfulness in Leadership

If we all implemented mindfulness in daily life – whether at work or at home – I have no doubt we would see the benefits as a collective. We might observe a decrease in reactivity, an increase in listening, and likely a shift in focus. As I take clients through my initial 15-session series for individual coaching, we address mindfulness as a self-regulation practice. This methodology is intended to help leaders take a brief pause, assessing feelings throughout the day, especially when feeling “overwhelmed.” It’s efficient to say “overwhelmed” or “busy” but in actuality, we might feel anger, embarrassment, sadness, or even fear. Such feelings might emerge when your team has made a sizable mistake, when you have a tight deadline, when you’ve worked a 13-hour day, when there’s legal trouble, or when there are pending layoffs… the list goes on.

The reason mindfulness can be a powerful tool in a leader’s toolbelt is two-fold. First, it does not require the allocation of funds (no apps or technology needed!). Second, it changes behavior over time; managers will become more behaviorally predictable and anger less readily. With a simple practice each day we can rewire our brains and it will have an immediate effect on those around us. 

In fact, there was a 2019 German study with almost 60 organizational teams. The researchers found that leaders who participated in mindfulness practice (or “intervention”) demonstrated lower aggression (when rated by their employees) and stronger transformational leadership behaviors than compared to the control group. While reading a book on management can surely shed light on topics managers know not of, the practice of mindfulness is just that: A practice. And you will improve over time. 

Ultimately, mindfulness will support you (as a manager, leader, or even individual contributor) to become a more effective communicator. When we are aware of our feelings, we have improved self-regulation which allows for more purposeful discourse and this allows space for diffusing conflict. 

If you’re interested in learning more and want a “how to” on mindfulness, drop me a note here.

First published on LinkedIn