We are all exposed to a lot of negative news and events every day. Sometimes this condition causes that focus and productivityWe will decrease at work and we will not be able to easily separate our worries and concerns from our work duties. Now, if stress and anxiety are collective and penetrate into the work environment, the challenges of managers to manage teams will multiply.
In such situations, successful leaders know that they have to change their approaches and with more flexibility and empathy, they provide a safe space to go through these turbulent times. In this article, we will introduce you to five key strategies that will help you manage your team in the best way in the face of difficult and stressful situations and prevent a decrease in concentration and efficiency. Stay with us.
5 strategies for managing teams in stressful situations
Managing a team in any organization has its own challenges. As a manager, you should be able to manage these challenges and bring your employees’ focus and productivity back to normal when the anxiety of social events overwhelms your employees. In the following, we will provide you with five practical and useful solutions in this case:
1. Keep calm!
Although this technique seems a bit cliché, in critical situations – both in your personal life and in your work life – you need to be able to keep calm and not let the tense situation and stress spread to your team. Sometimes managers themselves can become a source of anxiety and stress with frequent messaging, excessive monitoring, and meddling in details.
You may imagine that these behaviors seem normal, and as a manager, you should try to direct the productivity and focus of your team members to the normal path with continuous monitoring and awareness of details. But these tasks not only add to their stress, but may also cause more confusion and confusion for your employees. In this case, you can try the following solutions:
- Accept your anxiety and acknowledge its existence; But don’t let it control your behavior.
- Stop your anxiety reactions and try to act carefully and correctly.
- Avoid doing unnecessary and extreme things and act correctly and on time.
- Don’t forget that in difficult days, your calmness can inspire the team and stabilize it.
2. Transparency in crisis: even when you have no news, give news!
In stressful situations, rumors spread quickly in the workplace. These rumors usually stem from a lack of information and transparency and double the anxiety of the team. One of the best things you can do as a manager is to make transparency a priority, and even if you don’t have any new news, share it with your employees.
In situations where the progress of projects slows down due to the distraction of team members or external stressors, your silence fuels the confusion and worry of team members. Instead of leaving the team in the dark, explain the reason for the delays clearly and manage expectations. Clear communication with team members reassures them that the situation is under control and that everything is moving in the right direction.
Remember that transparency and effective communication, even in the absence of new news, increase the team’s sense of security and break it out of the cycle of anxiety and rumors. To improve communication in this situation, you can try the following solutions:
- Avoid silence. Sometimes teams need reliable and up-to-date information to get out of the confusion. Try to follow the news from reliable sources and if necessary, provide them with the latest updates as well.
- Avoid excessive sharing of news and communication with team members. The goal is to provide helpful and reassuring information, not to annoy.
- If necessary, discuss the current situation with employees in meetings and try to answer their questions in the best possible way.
3. Bring stability back to your team by setting a clear path
In stressful situations, a good manager should be able to clearly define priorities. When team members know what they need to focus on, they are less likely to waste time on unimportant tasks like catching up on the news. When goals are not clear, people get confused and don’t know what to prioritize.
If you set two or three main goals each week, not only will you make progress on the important things, but the block will prevent you from wasting energy and focus. Additionally, team members feel more secure in their roles when they know their efforts contribute to the organization’s larger goals. Also, by providing a clear direction, in addition to improving the productivity of team members, it proves to them that you can be trusted as a leader in any situation.
4. Prepare yourself for any encounter
Global news and events, such as political, economic or even war developments, can have a profound effect on the mentality and focus of team members. As a manager, you need to be aware of the important events of the day so that you can anticipate when your team might encounter negative emotions and prepare yourself to deal with these situations.
You may ask why is it important to be aware of the news? News directly affects our mood and concentration, and unexpected or worrying changes in politics, economy, etc. can cause anxiety and stress in the team. When you are aware of the situation, you can perform better in the face of these emotions and avoid undermining the productivity of the team. This will make you a trustworthy and empathetic leader in the eyes of others.
In this context, you can try the following solutions:
- Take some time every morning and make sure of the important developments so that you arrive at your workplace with more information.
- Allow space for other people’s feelings and anxieties and provide opportunities for your team members to talk about their worries and concerns.
- Be flexible and reduce the workload of employees if necessary.
- In collaboration with the HR team, form support groups and try to facilitate the use of psychological counseling services for your employees.
5. Accept the loss of concentration and productivity during stressful times
When your team is in a stressful situation and they are dealing with big worries and concerns, you should not expect the usual performance from them. Instead of insisting on this unrealistic expectation, accept it and make the necessary plans accordingly. This also reduces the anxiety of the team and strengthens the morale of the employees.
Accepting productivity loss in stressful times is a sign of intelligence and empathy of a manager. When your team members see that you understand the situation and handle the situation with a realistic perspective, you will not only gain their trust, but it will improve their productivity in the long run. With careful planning and a revision of expectations, you can turn a stressful situation into an opportunity to strengthen your team spirit and unity.
Team management in stressful situations is an art!
Difficult and tense moments are opportunities that you can take advantage of to become an empathetic and reliable manager in the minds of your employees and prove to them that even in difficult situations you can lead your team to stability and success. The five strategies that we introduced to you in this article can work in this field. Don’t forget that as a leader, you also need understanding and empathy. In addition to the things we have mentioned in this article, what strategies do you know for team management in stressful situations?
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