As you face uncertainty in the ever-changing world of work, the weight of your role as a leader can feel overwhelming. You’re looking for ways to manage ambiguity for yourself, while watching your team members struggle to overcome high levels of stress.
With all of the changes and unknowns that are constantly evolving each day, there doesn’t seem to be time to adjust to one new challenge before the next one appears. You and your employees are all faced with new realities and changing priorities that make it difficult to assess performance and measure success, and the ambiguity adds layers of pressure to your work.
With all of the changes and unknowns that are constantly evolving each day, there doesn’t seem to be time to adjust to one new challenge before the next one appears.
If this sounds familiar, here are 5 practical ways you can support your overwhelmed team members, despite the constantly changing environment.
1. Embrace your own humanity and vulnerability.
This is one of the most essential characteristics of a successful leader. When you’re able to acknowledge and accept your own vulnerability, it releases you from the need to be perfect. Feeling exposed or unprotected is uncomfortable, because it removes the illusion of control. But when you embrace your own humanity and accept the reality that you are not impermeable to the effects of the world around you, it allows you to receive the compassion you need in difficult times.
If you believe that as a leader you need to be stronger, more perfect–and less human–than those on your team, you’ll carry immense pressure and unnecessary stress. As you give yourself permission to make mistakes, however, you position yourself to grow and develop your leadership capacity, while also giving your employees the freedom to fail forward.
Accepting your vulnerability allows you to receive the compassion you need in difficult times.
2. Create space for your team members as humans.
As you learn to embrace your own needs as a human, it opens you up to empathizing with the experiences of others. Instead of dismissing their emotions, you can help them identify what they’re feeling and what they need in the moment. This emotional awareness and support ensures that your team members feel heard and cared for, which is one of the most significant ways employees know that they are valued and appreciated.
Offering your employees cognitive space for reflection enables them to recognize their own emotions and process them in a healthy manner. Rather than pushing people beyond their capacity, as you allow them to connect with what they’re experiencing, they will be free to work through the stress.
3. Replace judgment with curiosity.
“It’s not that big of a deal.”
“I shouldn’t feel this way.”
“I don’t have time to think about how I feel. I just need to do my job.”
“This shouldn’t bother me.”
“I should be able to handle this.”
Thoughts like these hold you back from acknowledging the emotions you’re experiencing because they shame you for what you’re feeling, rather than helping you to process through where you’re at in the moment.
Judging yourself for what you feel is not helpful, because your emotions are a natural response to something that is happening to you. It’s like breaking your toe and shaming yourself because of the pain you feel, instead of understanding it’s an involuntary reaction to a negative situation. Your pain is not the problem; it’s a result of the broken bone.
Instead of minimizing, overlooking, or stifling what you’re feeling, take the time to consider what factors have contributed to these emotions. Identify why you’re feeling this way. Validate that it is not wrong for you to feel what you feel.
Owning your emotions won’t make the challenging circumstances disappear, but it will have a profound impact on your ability to manage your stress level and care for yourself.
Release yourself from the burden of needing to edit your natural response to the frustrating circumstances you’re facing. Your emotions are not a problem. They don’t need to be ignored. Owning your emotions won’t make the challenging circumstances disappear, but it will have a profound impact on your ability to manage your stress level and care for yourself. As you accept where you are emotionally with curiosity, instead of judgment, you’ll be free to assess what you’re feeling and what you need in the moment.
4. Connect with your team.
Humans are built for connection and collaboration, and one of the common elements in times of high stress is a feeling of isolation or rejection. Feeling that the weight of the situation is fully on your shoulders is exhausting and overwhelming, and it can prevent you from being able to function effectively.
It takes intentionality and openness to continue strengthening relationships with your team members when tensions run high. Most likely you won’t feel like you have the time or energy to connect on a human level. After all, you’re already swamped with more responsibilities than you could possibly find time for.
It may not come naturally, but taking a moment to see and hear someone as a human is powerful and transformative, especially when there’s “no time” to connect.
In fact, you may feel like you’re doing your team members a favor by not relating to them personally during stressful times, because you want to give them as much space as possible to manage their workload. It may not come naturally, but taking a moment to see and hear someone as a human is powerful and transformative, especially when there’s “no time” to connect. The relief of knowing that someone is with you in the chaos, that you’re not alone, and that the workload is a shared burden, changes something internally in the way you perceive the challenging situation around you.
5. Model healthy boundaries.
The truth is that none of us functions at full capacity when we’re going non-stop. No matter how hard you try to defy the laws of time and space, the reality is that your body has limits. When you’re facing uncertainty in many aspects of your career (or life), the temptation is to go faster, push harder, and make sure you don’t stop until everything is taken care of.
As a leader, this is a very real struggle. You understand the weight of your responsibilities, and you are determined to exceed the expectations your organization (or you) have for yourself. On top of that, it’s natural for you to try to control as much as possible when you’re facing so much ambiguity.
But when you’re facing uncertain situations, what you actually need is firm boundaries that will prevent you from taking on too much or losing sight of life outside of work. You need to step away and create space for yourself to rest, reflect, and recharge, if you want to be physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy. (An added bonus is that when you set boundaries for yourself, you give your team members the freedom to prioritize their own health and wellness.)
You need to step away and create space for yourself to rest, reflect, and recharge, if you want to be physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy.
Refusing to step away from the stress will not only have a negative effect on your wellness, but it will also diminish your ability to think critically, make decisions, and achieve what you’re capable of.
Navigating uncertainty is not easy, especially when you’re a leader who cares about the people on your team, but incorporating these 5 practices into your leadership approach can help your team continue to thrive in the face of any obstacle.
Looking for more ways to support your team in achieving what they’re capable of? Learn more about LYN’s leadership development workshops and training here, or email us to connect!