Is Someone on your Team…Struggling?

Is there someone on your Team, you know is struggling, but you don’t know what to do about it?

I can say with certainty that the majority of Leaders reading this are nodding their heads.

There are many reasons why people are struggling, and the most common lament is that people are coping with a high level of stress.  When stress is felt over an extended period of time, there are physical and relational consequences.  Sooner or later, a downward trend of productivity and motivation will follow.

As a Leader you have a role to play in supporting your Team Members.  Not that you become a therapist nor take on their burdens or even make excuses for gaps in their performance.  Connecting in conversation with empathy and care as one human to another is an important first step.

To gain understanding of how to help and lead others is to know and understand yourself first.  Not that you will apply the same formula, but once you have good self-awareness you are more open and curious about how others are wired.  You are more effective at supporting, or intervening, if necessary, with your Team Members/Direct Reports.

Sometimes the hardest part is getting a conversation started.  How do you start?  Here are a few ideas that can help make the connection and lower the sense of isolation and fear that people may experience as they are dealing with the causes of stress:

1. Listen.
   1. Look for opportunities to connect with your Team Members/Direct Reports.  Ask questions to which you don’t know the answer, meaning, that you are seeking to understand their perspective, their experience.  Closed ended questions give the message that you are trying to confirm your suspicions or assumptions and you are not open to hearing anything more.
   2. If your Team Member/Direct Report is not open to sharing, if they provide only vague or one-word answers, let them know you are open to talking, whenever they wish to say more.  Keep the door open for any level of discourse.
2. Orchestrate events where the whole team can decompress.
   3. Invite people to a potluck or shared lunch.
   4. Hold a meeting outside, at a picnic table or under a tree.
   5. Initiate an impromptu game, like paper airplane contest, or trash can volleyball.
   6. Host a breakfast, simple or with specialty items, such as pastries and lattés.
3. Always be present in a conversation, one on one or in a group.  Pay complete attention to all of the communication signals: verbal; gestures; selection of words; and tone.
4. Recommend and lead a mindfulness practice at the start of meetings and prior to highly charged conversations.

The pandemic years and the economic aftermath have raised our awareness that happiness, mental health, and well-being is a state of mind that needs tending.  When Team Members/Direct Reports have a good measure of well-being (definition: the state of being comfortable, healthy, or happy) it is a precursor to productive Team interactions and individual goal accomplishment.  Everyone wins and goes home feeling better and better equipped to handle the challenges of family life.