What is the link between leaders’ behaviour and employee stress and wellbeing?
It is widely recognised that leaders, and in particular managers and supervisors, set the tone of the work group. It follows then that if these individuals are suffering from stress, this is going to be contagious and affect the team. Of course there are other factors that can affect how managers interact with their teams but stress is one of the most common. The negative atmosphere becomes pervasive and this undermines wellbeing and morale.
But it doesn’t have to be like this. Leaders, managers and supervisors who have been trained to recognise the signs of stress in themselves and understand the link between their behaviour and the wellbeing and performance of their teams know what leadership behaviours to use to keep the atmosphere positive.
This doesn’t mean bottling stress up or being unauthentic. It’s about deploying the right knowledge and skills as a well-trained manager or supervisor. Organisations that invest in leadership and stress management training for their managers and supervisors do so because they recognise the link between leaders’ behaviour and employee stress and wellbeing and they know that it is key to driving employee engagement and productivity.
So what do good leadership skills for stress management and wellbeing look like?
In a nutshell, it’s about acting as a good role model, inspiring the team, encouraging creativity, providing coaching and mentoring and paying attention to individual needs.
Some managers and supervisors might not feel comfortable initially with this sort of thing or with topics like stress management and wellbeing. That is understandable but it can’t be ignored. Being good with these soft skills is vital in the modern workplace and it is in exactly these areas that there are still significant gains to be made in terms of driving employee engagement, productivity and performance. It’s also good for the health and wellbeing of everyone on the team, so what’s not to like?
Improving leadership skills for stress management and wellbeing – together with Cafe Therapy
The key message here is: Give your managers and supervisors the leadership skills for stress management and wellbeing because these individuals play such a vital role in determining the wellbeing, engagement and performance of the people they manage and supervise. People leading teams and even companies are not always aware when their behaviour is impacting on their workforce negatively, even though key performance indicators such as sickness absence and staff turnover are a good measure of when improvements need to be made. There is a general tendency to select managers for their work ethic and strength of character rather than their people skills, forgetting that this is only part of a much broader toolkit required to get the best out of a team. And so training is particularly important for managers who have evolved into leadership roles.
Cafe Therapy can help you improve your team leader, manager and supervisor leadership skills by partnering with your company to deliver enlightening and effective training and workshops, as well as helping you access, evaluate and act upon feedback from your people. Drop us an email and start a conversation with Cafe Therapy.
