Leading during stressful times

It’s hard to avoid stress in the workplace—whether it’s current events weighing on you or new leadership in your office creating tension, stress can pop up at any place or time. For managers, it can be hard to lift spirits when office morale is stifled by external and internal stressors outside your control, but it is undeniably important. 

Why it matters: An effective manager knows their team well enough to recognize shifts in the office’s mood and devises a plan to address office-wide concerns. While it can be tricky for those new to management to recognize changes, learning your team members’ habits and working patterns can help catch and address underlying causes of stress before they become a big problem.

An employee’s mental health is directly impacted by their management. A poll by the Workplace Institute found that a person’s manager has more of an impact on their mental health than their doctor or therapist. According to respondents, managers have just as high of an impact on an employee’s mental well-being as their spouse. 

Know your team

Knowing your team, whether you are managing a group of three or 50, can help when the stressful times roll around. As a manager, it is important to get to know those working under you in order to best predict what stressors might impact your team and how. For Erin Stammer, CCE, vice president of credit at PNW Railcars (Portland, OR), having a tight-knit team makes it easier to have open conversations about stress. 

“We have a good knowledge of each other’s individual stress levels,” Stammer said. “When global events happen, we are able to react pretty quickly, get together and sort of unload and speak to each other about our concerns and make accommodations.” 

Understanding not just your team as a whole, but each person individually can help managers assist during stressful times. “It’s important to take the time to know and understand that each individual on your team has different kinds of stress and that different people react differently to stress,” Stammer said. “And understand that each individual’s thoughts, preferences and stress levels are not going to be the same as the rest of the team.”

Identify problems early on

In an industry that’s all about predicting trends and preparing for every situation, identifying problems early on should feel like second nature for credit managers. By understanding your team and their work habits, you can identify potential stressors early on. Chelsea Hirn, CBA, director of credit operations for KGP Telecommunications, LLC (Faribault, MN), finds that creating an open environment is key. If employees feel they can talk to their managers about the stressors weighing on them, managers will be more adept at managing stressful times. 

“It’s really easy to kind of push through work, but then you have performance lagging and the unforeseeable outcome that you didn’t want,” Hirn said. “I have an open emotional policy: come to me first and let’s talk about this. Let me know how you’re feeling through this transition, because I’d rather you do that than quit or silently not do your work or take out some sort of revenge on your work.”

Preparing for disaster

Natural disasters are becoming more impactful, and it can be hard to manage the stress that comes with them as they drastically alter the day-to-day flow of our personal and professional lives. Working in Hurricane Alley in Texas, this comes up a lot for Don Giallanza, CCE, commercial credit manager at Chevron Phillips Chemical Company (The Woodlands, TX). 

“When Hurricane Beryl hit Houston, we were down for a week,” Giallanza said. “People were stressed out because you couldn’t get to our office, trees were down and the power was out.” 

In these fraught times, when many might not be able to work, it’s important to have strong communication within your team. “If my power is on, I am going to work, but somebody else might not be able to work,” Giallanza said. “We need to make sure work is getting covered but family first. Secure your home, and we’re going to figure it out.” 

Create a safe working environment

Creating a collaborative working environment can not only help build a strong team but can help foster a safe space that mitigates stress for workers. As a manager, it is important to consider your role in building a strong and united team. 

“Having team-building exercises, making work a fun environment for everyone to participate in, and giving incentives for extra work really helps,” Hirn said. “Having allotted overtime and just really making sure that they have an environment where they feel safe.”

The bottom line: By fostering a collaborative work environment with strong communication, managers can mitigate the impact stressful times have on office morale. Also, knowing your employees, both individually and as a team, will help you anticipate stressors before they escalate too far.