Leadership Lessons from Ajax #14: Leading Talent During Times of Stress and Uncertainty II

“I try to take one day at a time, but sometimes several days attack me at once.” 

Jennifer Yane

Guide dog puppies need to have their leaders provide support, love and guidance as they grow to help them manage new stressors each day.  Our guide dog puppy in training, Ajax, is a curious dog with an interest in seeing what happens in new situations.  This trait is both desirable but can be a problem if the consequence of his actions “spook” him and it results in a lowered level of prudent risk taking. 

Great leaders seem to be able to create the right psychologically stimulating climate and environment for talent to take risks and sometimes even fail.  However, they are also able to provide the support, mentoring and guidance that builds confidence that they can handle adversity and challenge with a sense of dignity and control to try new things again. 

Leaders seem to be play a critical role in moderating the impact of perceived stress on the job with performance and even health.  Great leaders enable and empower and weak leaders seem to facilitate disengagement, negativity and loss of self-esteem.

Our own research suggests that perceptions of stress are often quite high with 40 per cent to 60 per cent of all employees  reporting very high levels caused by both work and family challenges ((Nowack, K. (2007). Using Wellness Coaching as a Talent Management Tool. Selection & Development Review, Volume 23, No. 5, pp. 8-11)).  We have additional data to suggest that leaders who lack emotional intelligence seem to significantly impact talent retention, engagement and perceived stress ((Nowack, K. (2006). Emotional intelligence: Leaders Make a Difference. HR Trends, 17, 40-42)).

So, what can leaders do today to help talent manage the “white waters” of high workload, spillover into family, ambiguity about job security, uncertainties about the world economy and competition in the market?

1. Conduct “Stay Interviews” (from career guru Bev Kaye, Ph.D.) with high performance talent.
2. Utilize project management, communication, and social networking technology (e.g., Basecamp, GoToMeeting, Campfire, Windows Live Sync, Twitter, Backpack, Momentor www.momentor.com) to enhance productivity and reduce workload, and minimize some stress associated with commuting.
3. Utilize and refer to employee assistance programs (EAP). If you don’t have a strong EAP, consider purchasing a wellness content provider like LifeHub (www.lifehub.com) that contains information on career development, parenting, elder care, financial planning, emotional stress/health, lifestyle management (sleep, eating/nutrition, physical activity), wellness activities and health articles.
4. Encourage vacations (In a 9-year follow up of over 12,000 employees more frequent vacations exerted a direct positive effect on mortality (Gump & Matthews, 2000).  Take em or lose em (i.e., years off your life if you follow these famous University of Pittsburgh stress and health experts).
5. Use a “balanced scorecard” and constructively confront “slackers”….Emphasize getting things done along as well as how you get things done when you evaluate talent.
6. Support individual volunteering and team based community projects.  You learn a lot about your self and even more about others when you volunteer.  Instrumental support seems to lift the emotions of employees and provide a sense of fulfillment and accomplishment, particularly during stressful times.
7. Tell talent to go home at night (confront workaholism to minimize burnout and negative “spill over” effects). Turn off your server, save energy, turn off the lights in your office after hours and don’t send emails in the evenings to anyone on your staff.
8. Hold weekly team “route rap” sessions to “check and connect” to allow some anxiety and stress to dissipate through discussion and sharing.
9. Focus more on Leader Development (don’t promote competent jerks; improve promotion & selection systems of leaders at all levels; make talent retention part of executive compensation).  Remember, your greatest contribution of work stress is likely to be your leaders anyway.
10. Increase use of employee involvement (implement more self-managed work teams; increase opportunities for participative decision-making).  Participative leadership results in both greater “buy in” to group decisions  as well as a greater sense of confidence in the solutions and actions taken.
11. Provide more work-life balance options (provide and support telecommuting, flextime, and childcare services).  Two observations:  First, they actually save money for the organization and second, they tend to enhance talent commitment to stay with the organization.

I think I will alleviate some of my work stress and take Ajax out for a walk and practicing some new tasks he has to master to become a great guide dog in the future.  It will give me a chance to get some fresh air and some dedicated time for him to reinforce some important new behaviors he has to master…. Be well…..
[tags]StressScan, health stressors, financial stressors, stress, health, job burnout, hassles, kenneth nowack, ken nowack, nowack[/tags]

Ken Nowack

Kenneth Nowack, Ph.D. is a licensed psychologist (PSY13758) and President & Chief Research Officer/Co-Founder of Envisia Learning, is a member of the Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Ken also serves as the Associate Editor of Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research. His recent book Clueless: Coaching People Who Just Don’t Get It is available for free for a limited time by signing up for free blog updates (Learn more at our website)