Workplace Stress On The Rise? What Good Leaders Can Do

You may have felt it lately, as has the people you work with, but studies are now confirming it. Stress in the workplace is on the rise.

According to several detailed in a Forbes article, 80 percent of workers feel stress and 30 percent of workers said they are “always” or “often” under stress at work. Other studies are indicating that this stress is growing, with 60 percent of workers feeling that work-related pressures are increasing.

Much of this stress are connected to time management. For most businesses, often there is more actual work to be accomplished than there are hours in the workday.

And if you have a dedicated team, they can sometimes push themselves and take on as much of it as they can, but that can come at a cost. Sometimes, the accomplishment of these short-term tasks get in the way of the long-term well-being of your people, and by extension, your company.

As a leader, it’s your role to look out for your employees. It’s also your responsibility to look after yourself, because you aren’t immune to stress either. So what exactly can you do to address this?

Set the calendar

One good practice is to fix the team’s schedule and stick to it. Having a shared calendar means you’re on top of the workload of each individual worker, knowing how heavy the load is on each one before you assign any more tasks. That goes a long way for the employees. Also, having a strict calendar means everyone can be punctual for meetings, saving precious minutes for everyone involved.

Be more efficient with meetings

Speaking of meetings, it would probably be good to cut down on those. While they obviously have a lot of value, too many meetings can be time-consuming. It’s not really that meeting need to be cut down, but it has to be more efficient. Make sure people are all engaged in the meetings and that the discussions are focused on the agenda. This would prevent you from to meeting over and over about the same things. That’s a better use of people’s time.

Learn how to delegate

Delegating responsibilities is one of the best time-management decisions a leader can make. Delegation done right means less tasks for the leaders, freeing them up for either more important tasks or simply to lighten the load, but it also means long-term growth for your team members.

Is your company one that can benefit from delegating tasks? Find out what services TukkoLabs can offer to help you be at your best.

SOURCES:

“Time Has Become The Enemy Of Good Leadership.” Forbes, 17 November 2018, Web.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danpontefract/2018/11/17/time-has-become-the-enemy-of-good-leadership/#6f1f2a073949

“Don’t Be Afraid to Delegate.” New York Times, 29 April 2018, Web.

https://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/29/business/smallbusiness/29toolkit.html