Throughout 2020, for most of us, there have probably been more stressors in our life – both personal and professional – than ever before. This means that the potential for your team members to feel overwhelmed is also probably higher than normal.
There are clear business reasons to effectively support your team so they don’t become overwhelmed and/or have measures in place if they do. People who aren’t overwhelmed (and therefore potentially stressed or anxious) are less likely to be off ill, more productive and likely to participate more proactively.
But beyond the business reasons – what are the human reasons
Every workplace is made up of humans; people working alongside, interacting with and maybe even becoming friends with, their fellow humans. Most of us don’t like to see our colleagues struggling and want to help them because it’s simply the right thing to do. And as the leader of the team or the practice owner, you have a certain level of responsibility for the well-being of your team.
To find out more about how you can support your team members and stop them from feeling overwhelmed, I spoke to Mindfulness in the Workplace trainer and speaker, Caroline Suggett…
Connie: How does feeling overwhelmed affect someone?
Caroline: Feeling overwhelmed is when we believe all our thoughts, don’t know that they are not facts and get caught up in letting them run wild in our head.
We have 60-80,000 thoughts every day, 80% of which are repetitive and generally about the past or the future.
Neither the past nor the future is in our control – the past has already happened and while we plan for the future, there are so many variations of what could happen between now and then that we can’t control it – COVID-19 has proven that.
Depending on the content of your thoughts, that can be emotionally exhausting.
Even more so because each thought that we have automatically generates a corresponding feeling. For example, if you have the thought ‘what if we go back into lockdown after Christmas?’, within a nano-second you will have a feeling about that.
The combination of both thought and feeling affects our behaviour and has a physical impact on our body.
For example, we might use maladaptive behaviours like drinking more coffee, smoking more, or trying to work even harder and ignoring opportunities for well-being.
The body also has a physical response to believing these thoughts. If the thoughts are anxious or fearful, the body will start producing stress hormones and begin moving into flight or fight mode.
When you go into flight or fight mode, your body stops doing anything superfluous. All your bodily maintenance, such as your digestive system, stops for a while as everything is directed into deciding whether you need to fight or fly, so all your energy is sent into your arms or legs.
And when chronic stress and maladaptive behaviours continue for a long time, it can result in physical symptoms such as insomnia, eczema or migraines. The more tired and stressed we become, the more likely we are to feel completely overwhelmed and that can lead to burnout.
Connie: If you’re a team leader, what are the signs that a member of your team might be feeling overwhelmed?
Caroline: There are a few different signs including:
- Resistance
- Looking/sounding anxious
- Withdrawal
- A change in confidence
- Indecisiveness
- A tired tone to their voice
Resistance is a key sign that someone might be feeling overwhelmed. By that I mean, they are resistant to a piece of work or idea, or they’re not getting back to you, or they’re resisting their colleagues.
They might also look and sound anxious, e.g. they’re breathless, they are experiencing concern over everything or going into a lot of detail about things.
Withdrawal can also be a sign, both physically and emotionally. They might physically withdraw by not coming into work due to illness or not turning up to meetings. Or, on a more emotional level, they might turn up to meetings but not participate. If you’re in an online or physical meeting, you can usually see someone who has withdrawn because they will be sitting back and not engaging on any level.
Their confidence might change, either by going up or down. While you might expect people to lose confidence in this situation, some people can swing the other way and become more bullish.
Indecisiveness is also a key sign. If someone struggles to make even small decisions it can be because they are feeling overwhelmed by all of their thoughts and over-thinking.
You can also listen to the tonality of their voice – if they sound tired, it could, of course, be because they are physically tired, but also because they are emotionally tired.
Connie: What measures can you put in place to create a workplace culture that prevents your team becoming overwhelmed?
Caroline: If you start to notice some of the above signs, there are a few different steps you can take.
Regular one-to-one calls
If you notice someone withdrawing, or showing some of the other signs, you can make a one-to-one call to that team member. It’s important to make this friendly and not scary, more about checking in with that person rather than checking up on them.
Ideally you would do this kind of call with everyone, individually, on a regular basis, such as weekly or fortnightly.
These one-to-one calls shouldn’t be focused on work; it’s about how your team member is doing, being warm and friendly to create a supportive relationship where they feel safe to open up.
Feedback questionnaires
Doing employee feedback questionnaires can also help.
It’s better to keep these short – around five questions – to increase the chance of people completing them, and to keep the focus on team well-being and how you can help them with that. For example, you can ask what they are most concerned about and what you, as a business, could do to make a positive difference to their wellbeing related to the workplace.
It can be worthwhile making surveys like this anonymous. As some people will feel more comfortable responding if it is anonymous and it may well reveal common themes that could benefit the whole team.
Mindfulness for leaders and the team
Being a mindful leader can also be helpful in trying to prevent overwhelm in your team. Whatever mental state the leader of a team is in cascades down to the other members, whether they realise it or not.
Mindfulness doesn’t take your problems away but it will allow you to create more space to just notice your thoughts and actually question whether that thought is true or an old belief or judgment. This can help you to stay grounded rather than being swept away by your thoughts.
If, as a leader, you are less stressed and more present in the moment, this will show in the way you communicate with your team. In turn, this naturally begins to impact the culture and atmosphere of the workplace and affect how your team feels.
I offer a Mindful Leader Programme where you can learn how to create a mindful day, create short mindfulness breaks throughout the day and learn how to let go of work at the end of the day.
This doesn’t necessarily mean taking hours out of your day to sit on a cushion and meditate. You can use a short walk on your lunch break to be mindful or practise mindfulness in one minute; just a minute of mindful breathing clears the whole blood system of the stress hormone. And it has a cumulative effect, so if you just do one minute every day, you will feel the benefit.
Of course, mindfulness isn’t just for leaders. You could encourage, or even fund, your team members to attend an online mindfulness course. These last for five to six weeks and consist of one hour a day to learn mindfulness tips and techniques that help to build self-awareness and clarity, communication skills and the ability to take an emotional and mental step back in order to watch their thoughts and choose a helpful response to whatever state they’re in.
Connie: Thank you, Caroline, for sharing your advice on what you can do as a leader to support your team in this situation.
Watch this video to hear more from Caroline and her tips for dealing with overwhelm.
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