Anxiety

Passages

Every passage tagged with this emotion in the Vela corpus. Search the body text, narrow by source or register, click through to a book’s profile to see how the passage sits with the rest of the work.

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• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  People differ dramatically in how well they assess their preparedness for new challenges; some who are anxious may shy away when they are more than ready, while others champing at the bit need a good deal of growth yet. For an inexperienced employee, a small role on a cross-functional team might be an ideal opportunity to see more tenured teammates in action and learn how other areas of the company operate. For a more seasoned worker, a leadership opportunity on a project may be appropriate. Margaret Rogers, vice president of Pariveda Solutions, a technology consulting firm, shared an example of a manager who has two employees who have an interest in developing their public speaking skills. “From previous meetings, you know one of them is less experienced and more nervous about talking in public,” she said. “This employee might benefit more from a small group setting, like a lunch-and-learn, during which he gives a short presentation. Because the other employee has had more practice, you might have her fly solo and present on a topic at the next companywide meeting or at a conference in front of a larger audience.” Rogers also recommends varying the level of control employees have over their own development based on their experience. A more seasoned employee should be given greater latitude to select opportunities for growth, while more guidance will be required for a new hire. But even with recruits, such as those fresh out of college, it’s crucial to allow some degree of input into the process. It’s also important to allow for stretching that might lead to some mistakes made, or even a failure on a project, within reasonable constraints, of course. Running into difficulties and experiencing failures can lead to powerful learning experiences and help identify skill gaps, which leaders and employees can then determine ways to fill. The key to reduce anxiety is that people should be coached that setbacks are considered learning opportunities, and a potential failure should never be significantly damaging to the employee’s overall performance, or that of the team. For example, asking a new person to make a presentation pitching an improvement idea to the team in a staff meeting might offer a chance to make a persuasive case, but success or failure isn’t going to negatively impact results. With effective coaching, leaders can help an employee who doesn’t quite get something right to understand the experience was a terrific demonstration of initiative and creative thinking, rather than a failure. The employee can also build awareness of what success in such an endeavor will require. Margaret Rogers comments in this regard, “Remember, safety is necessary when confidence is low, but pushing employees to the edge of discomfort results in real development.” Method 8: Encourage Peer-to-Peer Support Today, when an employee wants to learn a new skill, their first stop is rarely their boss.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  It took considerable coaching, as well as some pretty blunt 360- degree feedback, to get him to see the light, that he’d gone too far and was adding significantly to the team’s anxiety levels. In another case, we were asked to work with a leader who had come from outside the organization to assume a senior role over a team that needed some direction. She told us she’d never been big on conflict. “I expect my employees to do their jobs without hand-holding,” she said in our first session. In 360s with her team, we heard several complaints that her new employees didn’t know where they really stood with her. Everything was hinted at. “Become a better coach” and “become more assertive” were the two leadership skills we worked with her on over the coming months. Executive coach Peter Bregman had a similar experience with two of his clients. One of them was seen as the apparent successor to the CEO, but he had a problem. “Several of his direct reports were close friends, and he didn’t hold them accountable in the same way he held his other direct reports,” said Bregman. “They didn’t do what he asked and weren’t delivering the results expected. It was hurting his business and his reputation.” Bregman said the other members of this team saw the problem clearly enough and they admitted it was affecting their own motivation because of the unfairness. The leader, on the other hand, had blinders on. He didn’t see it. Bregman’s other client was CEO of a fast-growing billion-dollar enterprise. “He’s warm, gregarious, and authentic,” said the coach. “He’s learned, the hard way, that having friends when you’re the boss can be complicated.” He used to have work friends come to his house for dinner and get to know his family. “But then I had to make hard calls for the good of the business, including firing one of them, and it became too painful. I became hesitant to make decisions because of it. So no, I’m not looking for friends at work.” Bregman explained that this second leader doesn’t avoid friendships with employees because he is a bad guy.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  Since the conflict-averse find it hard to say no and don’t want to ruffle feathers, they can often feel misused. From Conflict to CollaborationIt’s worth noting how a manager can spot the difference between someone playing a healthy role as a team builder and an employee plagued by conflict aversion. A few clues to help spot the conflict-averse: if they shy away from difficult conversations, even when such discussions are necessary; if they try to change the topic or flee the scene when things get tense; if they get uncomfortable during debates in staff meetings or brainstorming sessions; or if they resist expressing their feelings or thoughts during meetings—yet might display passive-aggressive tendencies afterward or be upset that their voice was not heard. When managers perceive that a conflict-avoidance issue may exist, they can do a great deal to address it by working with employees to stand up for themselves. They may also help them take time to consider their own opinions before agreeing to anything that might violate their values, and stick to their guns when challenged. Dieken suggests leaders help their employees understand that sugarcoating is actually a selfish act, and that “candor is a gift. While you may be trying to spare another person’s feelings, sugarcoating is a superficial attempt to seem more appealing. If you filter out bad news, you’re dooming others. You help people use better judgment when you arm them with accurate information, even if it’s not what they want to hear.” In some cases, we’ve found the culture of an entire team or organization can be conflict-avoidant, which can be an incredible frustration to those workers who want the group to break out of the status quo. When leading a culture like this, managers play a vital role in steering group discussions to be more inclusive. One leader who has begun to embrace this process is Darcy Verhun, president of FYidoctors. He told us, “We’re operating through a different lens now—Zoom meetings—and that means not everybody can or will be able to participate verbally in a conversation. The other day, during an important meeting, I had a powerful sense that we weren’t utilizing everybody’s full intellectual horsepower. So, as we were wrapping up, I stopped and asked each person on the Zoom call, ‘What are you thinking about this topic but haven’t said?’ It turned out to be a game-changing question.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  In the ensuing years, we’ve heard so much from managers about the problem, and we began to understand that we could help them solve it. We appreciate that the prospect of plunging into what to know about anxiety as a leader is daunting, so we’ve done the plunging for you. The last thing any of us need is more heavy lifting. The goal with this work has been to create a simple guide for managers that they can read very quickly, providing practices to implement immediately. We’ve organized the book by the eight leading sources of anxiety in the workplace, with a chapter for each strategy. They address such anxiety-inducing issues as: Employees’ uncertainty about the organization’s strategy for contending with challenges, and how it affects job security.Work overload and the need for managers to help balance loads and help prioritize.A lack of clarity about prospects for career growth and development, as well as the need for clarity in everyday work situations.How perfectionism has become the enemy of getting things done.Fear of speaking up, contributing, and debating issues.Feeling marginalized as “others” for women, people of color, those on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, and religious minorities.Being excluded socially by team members, with the sense of alienation from working remotely an emerging variation of this problem.A lack of confidence and feeling undervalued.Some of us tend to be more troubled by one or two of these issues more than others, and it takes creativity on the part of a leader to help. One worker in your care may become extremely anxious about tight project deadlines. His challenge might be more about his perfectionism than feeling like there’s too much work. It’s the fear of how well he can do something that’s eating at him, not how much he has to do and by when. Another employee may be entirely confident in the quality of her work but be stressed because she’s seen signs of trouble ahead for the team, or organization, and is not at all confident that management has a plan to address the issues, or what her role will be given this uncertain future. As leaders, once we know what to look for, we can more effectively begin addressing the problem with the solutions provided here. And we won’t just share what to do, we’ll illustrate how , using examples of real managers and their employees. Here’s one quick story to give you a taste. Dr. Ken Huey, CEO of Red Mountain Colorado residential treatment facility, told us of a new hire in his company who missed two important appointments her first week on the job. He said, “I was thinking, ‘Is this going to work out?’

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  We nodded. “A lot of leading is just that. It’s about resolving people issues, but it’s also about enabling others to succeed.” We added that some folks loved what he loathed. Later we explained to Greg’s boss that while he might become a serviceable manager, there was a very good chance he would be miserable in the role, which might lead to anxiety and burnout. It also might be clear, pretty fast, to his team members that his heart wasn’t in the job. We wish everyone always took our brilliant advice (or that our advice was always brilliant). This story took a turn for the worse. Based on the director’s continued recommendation, after she was promoted to another role a few months later, Greg took over the team. He was smart, he’d figure it out, the company brass reasoned. That situation lasted for just about six months before the team revolted. Greg, they said, was slow to respond to their concerns, unsympathetic to their personal issues, and wrapped up in his own deliverables. The HR partner assigned to his team had tried to coach Greg during the months he was in the role; but as sharp as Greg was, he just couldn’t seem to change. Thankfully, the company didn’t fire him. The HR partner and Greg worked together to create a new role in which he would continue on the payroll as the team’s senior consultant. In the three years since, he has taken on other tasks (internal executive coaching for one), broadened his reach working as a liaison with other departments, and assumed more responsibility in product development. Greg is a bright guy who, to the benefit of everyone involved, is no longer managing anyone except himself. As this organization learned, putting people in the wrong positions can cause anxiety and undue stress, not only for the person in the wrong position, but also for the team they work with. One last hard truth about this process is that sometimes coming to a clear understanding with an employee about the path they need to be on may lead to them leaving your team. And that might be optimal for the company and employee. That was the view of the CEO of a large insurance company we worked with. We conducted motivation training for about a thousand leaders. Many were able to better align their daily tasks with their key drivers. As we sat down with the CEO to discuss the results, he told us three of his valued managers had decided to move on because of the training—one to become a teacher, another to open a small business, and the third to go back to university. We were a little nervous how he’d react, but he was just fine. “If they aren’t happy, their employees are going to smell it on them,” he said. “And to lose only three out of a thousand is pretty good.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  It also means using technology platforms and social media to provide ways that employees can connect and get to know each other, replicating the old water- cooler talk or sticking your head over the cubicle wall. Managers with remote teams also should spread leadership around to enhance ownership and engagement—asking certain folks on the team to run meetings about a subject they are passionate about or conduct training sessions on an area of their expertise. Bosses can also bring some fun into the mix by encouraging home workspace decorating contests or background competitions. Even little things can help build connection. For instance, if leaders bring in lunch for people who are in the office, they can make sure to send food to remote people as well. That’s a nice touch. Beth Schinoff of Boston College and Blake Ashforth and Kevin Corley of Arizona State University say that remote work is changing how we relate to our coworkers in two important ways. First, employees are going to become less likely to live close to their coworkers. “This means that we may not have the opportunity for in-person, informal shared experiences . . . as well as organizationally sponsored shared experiences.” Second, workers will increasingly rely on technology to communicate with colleagues versus face-to- face interactions. Interacting through media like text, instant message, and even teleconferences can make it harder to get a sense of who someone is. “We can’t assess body language and other nonlinguistic cues in the same way we can in- person,” the authors say. “When we work via technology, it is also more likely that we will only communicate with our virtual coworkers when we have a reason to.” Given these fundamental differences in how we relate when working virtually, how do remote colleagues gain the friendships that are necessary to enhance engagement and loyalty, not to mention drive better outcomes? Schinoff and her colleagues advocate developing a cadence. “Remote workers feel like they have cadence with a coworker when they understand who that person is and can predict how they will interact,” they write. “Cadence is especially important when we work virtually because it helps us anticipate when we will [need to] interact with our virtual coworkers and how those interactions will go, things that are much easier to do when communicating face-to-face. When we don’t have cadence with our coworkers, we might find it difficult to get in contact with them or find it frustrating to interact with them when we do.” What can leaders and managers do to establish such a cadence when their people are remote? This involves setting the stage for employees to get to know each other. But instead of asking team members to introduce themselves, which can be anxiety-inducing, roundabout ways can produce better results.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  After all, don’t we debate things in every other area of our lives? We find that when team members are free to speak up and know their voices will be heard, it can increase engagement, enhance psychological safety, and over time bolster self-confidence and a sense of ownership. A vigorous exchange of competing perspectives has been shown to improve team performance on numerous fronts, especially in enhancing the development of exciting new ideas. The best leaders facilitate this by: Encouraging a good degree of healthy discussion in a safe environment.Setting ground rules for debate and encouraging all voices to be heard.De-escalating quarreling with a calming process that brings order and safety to participants.Asking team members to clarify their opinions with facts when working through tough issues.Creating clear plans and timelines for moving forward after debates conclude.For employees who are highly conflict-averse, however, when they see debate brewing it can be upsetting and cause them to flee or freeze. Dieken adds that some people will try to sugarcoat things to avoid any conflict: “They’d rather perjure themselves than have an uncomfortable discussion. These are often people-pleasers, perfectionists, the highly anxious. They sidestep so they don’t have to deliver unwelcome news, or they hold back for fear that people won’t like them or will blame them.” Others who have these tendencies retreat into passive-aggressive behaviors. Fearing to speak the truth in a group setting, they are more than happy to keep their opinions to themselves. To those who are conflict-averse, a handful of team members sharing their views aggressively, or with a great deal of assurance, can feel threatening. To help smooth over tensions among their colleagues, they may intensify their own anxiety by taking undo responsibility in an attempt to quash the debate. Because they so value harmony and relationships, they are usually willing to sacrifice much, including their own mental comfort, to ensure relationships stay intact. It’s possible some use this approach in their personal lives. Some friends may like them because they seem so kind, while others take advantage of the way they avoid conflict. I know she’s allergic to cats, but Jacqueline will take care of Felix while we are away. She’s great.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  We found a good example of team load-balancing when we worked with a biotech firm. A leader of a quality team had called such a meeting during a crisis in the factory: A contaminant had been found in one of their sterile products. During the meeting, a senior staff member mentioned they could postpone their deviation reports for up to thirty days and still meet FDA requirements. The reports document exceptions found to normal operating procedures, and the team normally prided themselves on completing them within days. Decision made, the team was then able to prioritize the next few weeks’ efforts on finding the point of contamination. The quality team got through the crisis and found it helpful to continue to meet weekly thereafter to balance loads, which resulted in the streamlining of several of their key processes. They discovered some work they’d been doing for years could be safely omitted entirely—for instance, one batch report was no longer required at all by regulators, and an internal audit that had been conducted monthly could be done quarterly. Left to work individually, the team members would most likely never have come up with these solutions. Tensions would have mounted, and goals might have been missed. Instead, conditions improved for everyone. Method 3: Rotate People If it’s possible given the nature of their business, leaders should consider moving people out of high-load and high-stress jobs into lower-stress ones in a rotating schedule to avoid anxiety overload. “Changes of pace, changes of demands, and shifts into situations that may not be so draining enable people to replenish their energies and get new and more accurate perspectives on themselves and their roles,” counseled Harvard’s Harry Levinson. Change also helps people be able to look forward to a time when they can get out of tough assignments. A study among nurses in the United States found job rotation helped reduce burnout. It also inspired staff members to achieve higher performance and allowed them to gain new knowledge and skills. Best of all for their hospitals, it increased the quality of care given to patients. A practitioner of job rotating is Matthew Ross, co-owner of The Slumber Yard, an online mattress review firm. His goal with moving people between jobs has been to enhance employee satisfaction, reduce turnover, and have his team members gain valuable new skills. Employees transfer to other lateral jobs as often as quarterly, and he finds that training employees to be competent in multiple disciplines helps reduce stress when one of them has to fill in for a colleague who’s out for a day or if an employee moves on. When done thoughtfully and with proper training, rotating jobs can also be an opportunity to help people move out of their comfort zones and work in areas where they may not normally be assigned. It’s also a chance to consider a person’s core motivators, to find work that will give them a greater sense of satisfaction.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  For those who struggle with perfectionism, life is an endless report card about their accomplishments, looks, quality of friends, and so on. And that is a fast track to unhappiness and a great deal of worry. A key difference between unhealthy perfectionism and healthy striving is being able to define realistic expectations and knowing when to say “that’s good enough.” A particularly subversive aspect of perfectionism, which perfectionists themselves generally aren’t aware of, is that they’re not actually driven so much to be perfect as much as to be seen as perfect, which leads them to be obsessed with not failing, holding themselves to unattainable standards, and avoiding public mistakes at all costs. As such, they can spend so much time tinkering or deciding on a course of action that they get little done. In addition, perfectionists often feel a heightened need for positive validation and approval, while dreading any form of negative judgment or criticism. Research shows that perfectionism can lead people to put in less effort, not more—with their subconscious leading them to reason: “Since I’m not going to get this exactly right, I won’t try as hard.” And the vicious effect is this creates more pressure when people fall behind and feel criticized for inadequate work. Benjamin Cherkasky, a therapist and researcher on perfectionism at Northwestern University’s Family Institute, understands that twisted logic firsthand. He says he quit a competitive swim team when he was in the eighth grade even though he loved the sport. The thing was, he wasn’t winning as many races as he thought he should. “I’m not Michael Phelps, so why am I even on the team?” Cherkasky recalls thinking. He realized only years later that unrealistic standards were taking the joy out of his time in the pool. One final effect of perfectionism is that it may cause people to isolate themselves and detach from their work and from others. It can cause overwhelming emotional suffering and act as both a cause and symptom of anxiety. While perfectionism has long been a problem among employees, in recent years, it’s become a good deal more common.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  Also, so much of the expertise that makes businesses run well isn’t in the heads of leaders, or in a training manual or formal process, it’s learned from hands-on experience and kept in the collective know-how of employees. Team members can share a wealth of “learning by doing” knowledge with one another, and they are building a culture of continuous learning along the way. Organizations are encouraging peers to assist one another with their day-to-day work, and with networking and pursuing learning opportunities, in a myriad of creative ways. Many firms we work with have set up online marketplaces on their intranets to facilitate this, while others hold peer-learning workshops to connect employees who are willing to teach specific skills to their colleagues. Another great practice that can be less anxiety-producing for introverted employees than giving a presentation is asking them to create how-to videos on important processes, which are posted on the company’s internal network. Some might also be shown to new employees when they come on board. Generally, three to four minutes is the optimal length, and a wealth of free filmmaking services are available online, along with tutorials about best practices for recording and editing. In their book The Expertise Economy , Kelly Palmer and David Blake advocate formalizing peer-to-peer learning to build employee confidence. They point to a few characteristics that summarize best practices that can get a team learning more from each other and peers around the organization: Appoint a facilitator. Assign a person who can organize peer-learning sessions and keep meetings on topic, whether in person or online.Build a safe environment. Help participants feel safe to ask questions and share thoughts and experiences. Invite specialists to “parachute” in from other departments and pick their brains.Focus on real-world situations. Team members are more likely to participate, and learn more effectively, if learning sessions address their current challenges.* * * While there are many uncertainties today, especially about the working world, we are certain that those leaders who will be successful in the future will give greater attention to people development. To solve the seemingly intractable problems of our time, and to move our organizations in a more prosperous direction, great bosses will pay more attention to their people—especially finding ways for them to grow. Success going forward will depend largely on finding ways to bring the unique motivators, style, and talents of our people to bear. SUMMARYHelp Chart Career DevelopmentResearch shows younger workers are more eager to move up or out, and more than 75 percent of Gen Zers say they believe they should be promoted within their first year on the job.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  Yet Sabat notes that stepping up once isn’t enough, and allyship is a journey that grows throughout a leader’s career. “Be open to criticism and feedback,” he adds. “If someone calls you out on the way you [respond to a situation], or if you said something problematic, be open to learning and growing.” Method 4: Advocate Susan Wojcicki, CEO of YouTube, says addressing imbalances requires those who have power and influence to extend their privilege. For instance, she says, “In every organization, there are many people—from senior leaders to first-time managers—who have the power to elevate women in the workplace.” One of those who advocated for Wojcicki was Bill Campbell, executive coach to a who’s-who of tech superstars. “I learned about an important invitation-only conference convening most of the top leaders in tech and media, yet my name was left off the guest list,” she said. “Many of the invitees were my peers [other tech CEOs], meaning that YouTube wouldn’t be represented while deals were cut and plans were made. I started to question whether I even belonged at the conference. But rather than let it go, I turned to Bill, someone I knew had a lot of influence. He immediately recognized I had a rightful place at the event, and within a day he worked his magic and I received my invitation.” When allies assume the role of advocates, they use their influence to bring peers from underrepresented groups into new circles. They hold their leadership peers accountable for including qualified colleagues of all genders, races and ethnicities, abilities, ages, body shapes and sizes, religions, and sexual orientations; and they actively mentor those from underrepresented groups and introduce them to people in their network. This means they aren’t just behind-the-scenes mentors, but public advocates for those they are mentoring. They find terrific satisfaction in identifying high-potential diverse talent, providing them stretch roles, and helping them overcome obstacles. They find this kind of mentoring behavior is good not only for the protégé, but for the leader and the organization. SUMMARYBecome an AllyThere has been a historic pattern of anxiety in particular groups within the workplace—those too often made to feel like “others.” Of particular concern are women, people of color, those on the LGBTQ+ spectrum, members of religious minorities, and those with disabilities.Many in these communities must hide their true identities. But when managers create cultures where people feel comfortable being themselves, dramatic performance gains can be unlocked as everyone is able to focus all their attention on work.Many leaders do not understand the level of implicit bias that occurs in our work cultures. Microaggressions are biases that reveal themselves in often subtle ways and leave people feeling uncomfortable or insulted.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  Of course, friendships in the office can be tricky. As a note: Team members’ interpersonal relationships are typically none of our business as managers; that is, until team performance is impacted. When taken to extremes, for instance, cliquishness can create Survivor -like alliances and tribes that can cause more exclusion for some. Also, when boundaries are blurred between the professional and the personal, there’s an opportunity for feelings and group performance to be hurt. However, the fact that there is potential for entanglements is not an excuse for managers to avoid connecting employees with each other. Workers don’t necessarily have to go out for drinks or share intimate personal details about themselves, e.g., So that’s the story of my lower back tattoo. No, positive relationships are built on vulnerability, authenticity, and compassion—and those can happen within work hours, within healthy boundaries (such as establishing rules about avoiding office gossip and that everyone should be included and treated equally). Managers should also model those behaviors in their interactions with their team members, say Seppälä and King. So, should managers try to be friends with those they supervise? While they can be warm and caring, managers should not be too chummy with their employees. We could point (as a bad example) to the wayward wisdom of Michael Scott of The Office , who was so concerned with being his employees’ best friend that he couldn’t hold anyone accountable. “Would I rather be feared or loved? Easy: both. I want people to be afraid of how much they love me,” he said. Though entertaining, no one should ever attempt to emulate Scott’s behavior in the workplace, or anywhere else. We were once asked to coach a high-potential manager. The division director admitted he’d promoted the fellow to a supervisory position because, in addition to being competent in his finance role, he got along with everyone. “He was the guy you’d most want to go to a party with,” said the director. But once Mr. Life of the Office became the “boss,” he became Mr. Tough Guy. What friendships had existed became frayed. No one wanted to even have a casual conversation with him. It seemed like all he could talk about was deadlines and quotas, and his constant scowl seemed to show his team members they weren’t doing all they could. It took considerable coaching, as well as some pretty blunt 360-degree feedback, to get him to see the light, that he’d gone too far and was adding significantly to the team’s anxiety levels. In another case, we were asked to work with a leader who had come from outside the organization to assume a senior role over a team that needed some direction.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  Rewarding those who ask for help is critical, she concluded. “Let them know it is excellent behavior.” Team check-ins might be done in regular staff meetings or in special update meetings. The goal is to ensure that all team members are on the same page as time progresses by asking questions such as: What fresh obstacles are we facing to hitting our team targets, what will we not be able to deliver on time if things keep going as they are, what are we hearing from the client, who on the team is held up waiting for what deliverables, and who needs help? As to individual check-ins, anxiety can be allayed when leaders regularly ask employees about their workloads privately. Let’s face it, some people will never be comfortable talking about feeling overloaded in a team setting. A particular issue to be aware of is that new hires and younger workers are often more reticent to ask for help, for various reasons. They’re afraid of being a burden. They want to look capable. For many, they’re used to being able to do all their work on their own (as with their college course load). Their lack of familiarity with many aspects of business procedures can be daunting or frustrating. It’s important to tell your people that you see asking for help as a sign of strength rather than weakness. Also let every employee know that you’re asking the entire team about how they’re managing their loads in individual meetings; that way they won’t feel singled out. You want to be sure that in asking, you convey that you’re doing so in order to solve problems where you can. Then it’s important to follow up to do just that. To lessen anxiety, we’ve found some good questions to ask in these individual check-ins include: Do you feel like you can complete the project by deadline without having to work unreasonable hours? Is there anyone else on the team who could help so you could meet the deadline? Is there any part of this project that might be delayed? Do you need any additional training or resources to be successful? What have you learned that we might do differently next time we are up against a task like this? Of course, wrenches can be thrown into the works at any moment that will require emergency one-on-ones.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  Such inclusion helps people feel like they are being brought into the inner circle to brainstorm solutions to challenges. Ambiguity either prolongs inevitable bad news or widens the trust gap. Or both. We were particularly affected by a conversation we had with Ryan Westwood, CEO of business management firm Simplus, who spoke about the link between anxiety and uncertainty. “There is an inherent distrust in leaders today,” he said. That is a powerful understanding, and we wish every manager knew how true it is. Westwood continued, “You have to prove that you can be trusted. When this pandemic hit, the first thing we did was cut the pay of the executive leadership, including myself. We communicated that early and it sent a message that we were willing to make sacrifices.” Still, three months into the crisis, the CEO and his team realized that they would have to make a few tough cuts. “We held an all-hands meeting with more than five hundred employees around the world, and I told everyone we’d tried to make it through without any layoffs, but we were going to have to, and it would affect about 3 percent of our people.” He explained why the cuts were absolutely necessary—showing the numbers—and Westwood outlined the plan for those who would be affected. “It was amazing how many messages I got later that said, ‘I never feel like I’m going to be blindsided here,’ or ‘I always feel like you’re going to be honest with me.’” The actual reduction in force was only 1 percent by the end because his team rallied and was able to minimize the impact. Openness, especially about delicate matters, is much too rare. As we consult with organizations, we find that many leaders come up short at helping employees honestly understand whether or not they have a solid future within the organization, or at what level their opportunities may top out. At one manufacturing plant, for example, the HR manager had worked for twenty years to receive the proper accreditations and certificates so that he might take over when the vice president of HR retired. When the day finally came and he sent in his application for the big job, he received a one-line email response from the CEO. It read, “We could not support you in this role.” There was no warning. No face-to-face candor. Just twenty years of work and then those eight words that would shape his, his coworkers’, and his family’s perception of the company forever. In contrast, in interviews we conducted at the American Express call centers, we were struck by how each member of Camaraza’s leadership team seemed compelled to be respectfully honest with employees about their development opportunities and career potential, even if they decided to leave because of that clarity. Asking someone to sail blindly into the future is never a good idea—for a team member or the organization.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  There are times we can incorporate employee suggestions into our strategy and there are times we can’t. There are decisions made above us that we like, and some we might not agree with as a leadership team, but you have to always explain the reasoning and listen with real intent to the feedback.” In this way, no matter what’s going on—good or bad—we face uncertainty together, as a team. SUMMARY Lead through Uncertainty Uncertainty can trigger various responses in people, often with negative consequences on performance. The most common uncertainty for today’s employees is whether or not a job will last. Uncertainty is exacerbated when managers don’t communicate enough about challenges facing their organizations and how those issues may affect their people and their teams. A good deal of employee uncertainty is about their own performance and development, i.e., How am I doing? and Do I have a future here? By meeting one-on-one regularly to evaluate performance and growth opportunities, leaders can help team members avoid misreading situations while enhancing their engagement and commitment to the organization. Leaders can use a set of methods to help reduce uncertainty: 1) make it okay to not have all the answers, 2) loosen your grip in tough times, 3) ensure everyone knows exactly what’s expected of them, 4) keep people focused on what can be controlled, 5) have a bias to action, and 6) offer constructive feedback. 3 How to Turn Less into More Help Team Members Deal with Overload You can’t calm the storm, so stop trying. What you can do is calm yourself. The storm will pass. —Timber Hawkeye In order to become a Navy SEAL—part of the world’s most elite special forces unit—one must first pass through what is called “Hell Week.” During this fourth week of basic conditioning, recruits train for five days and five nights solid, with a total of four hours of sleep. Brandon Webb passed the challenge. While many people assume physical toughness is the secret to becoming one of the 10 to 15 percent who will graduate, he says, “What SEAL training really tests is your mental mettle. It is designed to push you mentally to the brink, over and over again, until you are hardened and able to take on any task with confidence, regardless of the odds— or until you break.” According to Columbia Business School professor Rita McGrath, author of Seeing Around Corners, researchers have found two archetypes of behavior in those who attempt to pass SEAL training. First are called the “Taskers,” who look to complete each job assigned during this week of torture and then rest when they can. The other group are called “Optimizers,” those who imagine all the tasks lined up for them during the day and think about how much time and effort they should put into each. One group does better than the other.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  Beth Schinoff of Boston College and Blake Ashforth and Kevin Corley of Arizona State University say that remote work is changing how we relate to our coworkers in two important ways. First, employees are going to become less likely to live close to their coworkers. “This means that we may not have the opportunity for in-person, informal shared experiences . . . as well as organizationally sponsored shared experiences.” Second, workers will increasingly rely on technology to communicate with colleagues versus face-to-face interactions. Interacting through media like text, instant message, and even teleconferences can make it harder to get a sense of who someone is. “We can’t assess body language and other nonlinguistic cues in the same way we can in-person,” the authors say. “When we work via technology, it is also more likely that we will only communicate with our virtual coworkers when we have a reason to.” Given these fundamental differences in how we relate when working virtually, how do remote colleagues gain the friendships that are necessary to enhance engagement and loyalty, not to mention drive better outcomes? Schinoff and her colleagues advocate developing a cadence. “Remote workers feel like they have cadence with a coworker when they understand who that person is and can predict how they will interact,” they write. “Cadence is especially important when we work virtually because it helps us anticipate when we will [need to] interact with our virtual coworkers and how those interactions will go, things that are much easier to do when communicating face-to-face. When we don’t have cadence with our coworkers, we might find it difficult to get in contact with them or find it frustrating to interact with them when we do.” What can leaders and managers do to establish such a cadence when their people are remote? This involves setting the stage for employees to get to know each other. But instead of asking team members to introduce themselves, which can be anxiety-inducing, roundabout ways can produce better results. For instance, one manager had employees share a song with their teammates that they had enjoyed listening to in the past week; another asked her people to share something off their bucket list. The spotlight moment became more about how awesome Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” is, or why Machu Picchu would be so cool to visit, than about the person; yet these quick sidelights gave tons of insights into the employee’s personality.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  Those graceful, smoothly gliding ducks are paddling like mad—just as these students are manically pushing themselves, frantically trying to stay afloat. In work teams, many people who might seem to be doing fine are, in reality, in danger of going under. Just about every leader we meet is able to recount a story of a valued employee whose stress and anxiety became so problematic that they couldn’t cope any longer. One leader told Chester, with clear concern, “I watched as the smartest employee I ever had slowly melted down in front of me.” Ghosting has become alarmingly common. A USA Today poll of organizations found up to half of applicants and workers were exhibiting some type of ghosting behavior toward employers, such as blowing off interviews or not showing up for work. One manager shared with Adrian that in retrospect she had missed signs in the behavior of an employee who one day simply stopped showing up for work. He had displayed growing irritability with teammates, a drop-off in productivity, and an increase in sick days. The signs of anxiety can sometimes be so subtle that even family and those closest to a person may be unaware. That’s the case with Chris Rainey, cofounder and CEO of HR Leaders and host of a popular podcast. Rainey told us he has felt heightened levels of anxiety since childhood but hid it from everyone. “I was working in sales, in a high-pressure, Wolf of Wall Street type of culture. Anxiety would build up and there would be days, even weeks when I would not be able to leave my house. I’d try to walk out the door but would have an anxiety attack. I was worried: Are they going to pass me up on that promotion? Will they think I’m lying? Here’s this extrovert on the phone every day who has anxiety? Right.” Rainey had been married for more than a decade, and he hadn’t even been able to tell his wife. “If there was a party, I would make excuses for why I couldn’t go. I felt anxious and overwhelmed in large crowds. I worried about having a panic attack, which is a vicious circle. You have anxiety about your anxiety.” Finally, just a year ago, Rainey was interviewing a guest on his podcast. Tim Munden, the chief learning officer of Unilever, was talking about mental well-being and his own PTSD. “I felt like a hypocrite,” said Rainey. “Tim was very vulnerable, sharing his challenges. I decided to speak about it for the first time. It was terrifying. I knew my wife was going to hear, my employees, my cofounder, people I grew up with. But it was one of the most groundbreaking moments in my life. The weight lifted off my shoulders.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  And it may create more anxiety for high achievers, who often are eager to know their work is valued. Individual recognition and team celebrations serve unique but different roles in building a high-performing team. Method 4: Provide Gratitude to High-Flyers, Too As leaders spread gratitude around their teams, it’s common for them to realize that there’s great value in not only rewarding big wins, but regularly praising achievements that meet expectations. We believe Chloe, who we introduced in Chapter 1, needed this kind of reinforcement that her work was valued. Yet some managers take this socialism of gratitude to extremes and begin to worry that everyone is treated fairly and that no one gets hurt feelings. While giving everyone a chance to shine is important—and leaders need to ensure that all team members are acknowledged for their unique achievements on a regular basis—it’s also vital not to hold back with high achievers. Offering appreciation is not just about strengthening those that may lack confidence, it’s also about reinforcing the work of those who seem to have plenty of confidence, those who are constantly going above and beyond. In many cases, managers don’t want to be seen as playing favorites or fawning over their “stars.” The leader of an engineering design team told us he learned a lesson about this the hard way. Jennifer, he said, was “by far my most innovative and productive designer.” The problem was, he didn’t want to give Jennifer too much praise because she was always so good. “Frankly, Jeff worked right next to Jennifer, and I didn’t want him to feel bad.” The manager also knew Jennifer was confident in her abilities and decided she probably didn’t need that many pats on the back. But it turned out that she, like most people, wanted to know her work was truly appreciated. “Over time I think Jennifer felt undervalued,” the manager said, reporting that “she left for a competitor a while ago.” When we asked if Jeff was still there, the manager chuckled sadly. Of course. Jeff wasn’t going anywhere. The bottom line: Gratitude is an anxiety reliever; and it can serve as the oxygen in the room that fuels engagement for all team members—especially for high achievers who are often gratitude sponges. Method 5: Keep Gratitude Close to the Action To help quell anxious feelings, gratitude should occur soon after an achievement. When team members do something above and beyond and then hear nothing from their manager for days or weeks, they can start to worry. To be recognized later is of some consequence, but frankly, in 99 percent of cases, when managers put it off, they forget.

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  McGrath had to explain to Bill that he would need to be specific and let operations know how many US states they needed to be ready to launch in. “But we don’t know yet,” Bill said. McGrath said that in his leadership role, Bill could more afford to be wrong than his lower-level operations contact. The project leader went back to Todd and said, “I expect you to be ready for fifteen states.” The conversation immediately changed for the better. Todd said his team could handle that, and even twenty states if they borrowed resources. While some degree of unknown about one’s work is inevitable, what this example illustrates is that managers may be able to fill gaps for their team members with clarity, even in volatile circumstances. In this chapter, we will introduce a series of six methods managers can use to help team members deal with uncertainty about big-picture issues, such as potential threats to the organization. First, however, we will discuss the most important issue leaders should communicate about to reduce uncertainty: individual performance and development. Communicating Frequently One-on-OneA good deal of employee anxiety is about their own performance and growth opportunities. In other words: How am I doing? and Do I have a future here? Managers create more ambiguity when they aren’t clear about such things. One executive we once reported to was wont to say to us as we handed him assignments, “This just isn’t it yet, but I’ll know it when I see it.” And then send us on our way. He thought he was giving his team “creative freedom” that would encourage our best work, but in reality he was ratcheting up anxiety to excruciating levels. Of course, we understand there are formal methods of giving employees feedback, e.g. the annual review, but research has shown infrequent check-ins like this are woefully inadequate at addressing the uncertainty that many feel about their jobs in the six or twelve months between these meetings. Many firms have decided to either alter performance reviews or abandon them entirely, replacing them with other processes for evaluating and developing employees that are more timely, frequent, and facilitated by the immediate supervisor. We call this process the continuous review , a way of supplying ongoing feedback and gauging employee performance with real-time metrics. Greg Piper, worldwide director of continuous improvement for Becton, Dickinson & Co., holds one-on-one performance and development sessions every other week for thirty minutes with each of his team members, who are all remote and spread around the globe. “‘What do you want to talk about?’ is always the first question I ask,” said Piper. Stephan Vincent, senior director of LifeGuides, a peer-to-peer support network, says he begins each day with the same question. “Every morning my first message to everyone on my team is, how are you feeling today ? Because today is probably different than yesterday.”

• From Anxiety at Work: 8 Strategies to Help Teams Build Resilience, Handle Uncertainty, and Get Stuff Done

  I completed a master’s degree in bioethics and became a staff neurologist. During that time, I moved multiple times, said goodbye to many relationships, and missed key events in the lives of my friends and family because I was working.” She summed up: “Resilience—the very idea that you’re able to recover or bounce back from hardship—is required to become a clinician. The path itself selects individuals who can navigate and tolerate the challenges it produces.” Boissy is mystified why most of the approaches that businesses take to helping people cope with crushing workloads are aimed at “fixing” the person, such as offering meditation and yoga classes, or tips for getting good sleep, healthy eating, and getting organized. While those can be effective ways to reduce stress and alleviate anxiety, they ignore a core problem: Organizations are hiring fewer staff members to do the work and raising stress to unhealthy levels. The result: It’s impossible to keep up. Focusing on just the individual diverts attention from fixing underlying issues with the amount of work assigned and the ways in which employees are managed and are expected to do their jobs, not to mention the clear fact that there needs to be a more realistic accounting of how many people are actually needed to accomplish tasks. Stress as a ToolAnother misconception we commonly hear is that overload is good for productivity. In the short term, for crunch situations, that actually can be true. The human body responds to stress by burning fuel to release energy, and that can give us a burst of speed to respond to immediate threats. But crunch time has become the standard, causing excessive pressure on team members. And research shows chronic stress causes wear and tear to our bodies, increasing the risk of developing anxiety as well as age-related diseases such as cancer, diabetes, and dementia. Consider the experience of an executive coaching client of ours, Quan, who is a midlevel manager at a technology company. In our first session, he bemoaned his situation: “My team worked sixteen-hour days to update our SAP system. We took it as a source of pride to accomplish the upgrade faster than any team before.” A problem arose, however. After leaders saw that Quan’s team had met this incredibly accelerated schedule, it became the new standard. “Now,” he said, “the company expects the next upgrade in a 10 percent shorter timeframe, and that really is impossible. I made a mistake in pushing my team so hard on the last upgrade.” Leaders often fail to appreciate that constantly demanding more and more work in less and less time will inevitably lead to employee frustration and distrust, rising anger levels, and eventually, for countless employees, burnout.