Today’s pandemic breeds anxiety and fear to people. A recent conducted study of Mind Share Partners, together with Quadratics and SAP, shared helpful ways how managers should support their employees during this pandemic.
Be Vulnerable
Share to your team the discomfort you are experiencing right now. As you impart to your team the mental challenges you are experiencing right now due to the present happenings, your colleagues will be comfortable to discuss about their mental health issues.
Interestingly, study revealed that authentic leadership cultivates trust and boosts employee engagement and performance.
Model Healthy Behaviors
As managers, you need to walk your talk. It is not enough that you only discussed mental issue, but your actions do not support it. Traditional managers only look after your work and how it is being done. In this pressing time, you need to encourage your team members to prioritize self-care. Allow them to take a break for a while to regenerate energy and motivation.
Check on them
Further, recent study found out that nearly 40% of global employees revealed that nobody at their company had asked them if they were doing okay. Ideally, managers should take time to check out their team members. Checking on your people is one way how managers should support their employees during this pandemic. They should go beyond the questions of “how are you?”
When they share their problems, know that it is okay if you do not know what to say about their situation. What matters is that you listen to what they are going through.
Offering Flexibility
In these challenging times, there are things that your team does not tell you, including their problems. That is why, as the manager, you need to know what is truly happening to them so that you will able to understand their situations. Communication is vital in supporting one’s mental health.
Thus, proactive communication defines inclusive flexibility. Giving considerations in this trying time is very helpful.
“Ask team members to be patient and understanding with one another as they adapt. Trust them and assume the best. They are relying on you and will remember how you treated them during this unprecedented time,” as cited in the news of Harvard Business Review.
Effective Communication
As mentioned earlier, effective communication is beneficial to one’s health. Another result from the study revealed that “employees who felt their managers were not good at communicating have been 23% more likely than others to experience mental health declines since the outbreak”.
Accordingly, managers should tell their team about organizational changes, new working schedules and protocols.
With the things that are going lately, it is really important to encourage your team to use mental health support resources in the company.
Moreover, managers may be the one to advocate in supporting mental health, but it is the senior leaders of the company should be the utmost concerned individuals about this matter.
