How to Manage Your Team During High-stress Situations?

The aura of a workplace looks like a little bit of hard work, a little bit of teamwork, and a lot more of stress.

How to Manage Your Team During High-stress Situations?

People not only have work pressure to contend with but they also have to carry their personal stress with them. Add a particularly high-stress situation to an existing stressed environment, and you need a leader who can manage the stress and productivity for the entire team. As a good leader, you must know how to manage your team during high-stress situations at the workplace.

A little bit of stress is necessary, even healthy, to drive employees and keep them on track. But, when the stress levels exceed a certain limit, that’s when productivity suffers, the sense of team begins to dwindle, and chaos sets in. High-stress situations don’t always come with warning signs, making them even more stressful.

For instance, the Covid-19 pandemic has been an unfathomably stressful period for the entire world. Nobody was aware of the consequences even when it first began. Some struggled more than others and some also lost more than others. With uncertainty surrounding the economy, the nature of work, the future of work, and more, employees were sent into a state of panic and shock.

Such adverse circumstances as the pandemic might be a once-in-a-lifetime global event, but adversity might reveal itself in other ways, such as a deal gone very wrong, a setback in the industry, a period of recession, a very tight deadline, a need for redeeming, a particularly large project, among others. Amidst the panic that comes with these situations, it becomes imperative to understand ways to manage stress in the workplace and bring out the best of them. A leader’s responsibility is not confined to assigning tasks to their employees and checking the deadlines. A leader serves as a guide and mentor, especially through challenging times.

Below are tips to manage your team during high-stress situations:

1. Encourage your team to adopt a healthy lifestyle

While it might seem insignificant, it is well-known and well-documented that a poor sleep schedule and an unhealthy body will lead to a lack of concentration, a decrease in motivation and eventually, reduced productivity. In order for you to manage your team during high-stress situations, it is primarily required for your team to be capable of working through high-stress situations. So, encourage your team to pursue a healthy and balanced lifestyle which will greatly benefit their output at the workplace. You could encourage this by ensuring healthy snacks are available at the workplace or encouraging a conversation around exercise, health, and general wellness among peers. This will not only help create a positive work environment, but will also help employees become more productive and effective at their work.

2. Be solution-oriented

As a leader, if you are to manage your team during high-stress situations, you must be able to move past the problem and look for a solution. Thinking and complaining about what went wrong or what might go wrong is an undesired and yet common approach to a situation that does not go as planned. Situations that trigger stress and panic are inevitable, but it is much more productive to invest your time in finding the befitting solution to the impending problem. This also passes on a great lesson for your teammates and develops in them a sense of trust towards you and in-turn, the company. This will help to cultivate a sense of problem-solving in all members of the team since they will have a strong leader to follow.

3. Be a good listener

Communication is the best way to manage your team during high-stress situations. Asking your employees to share their opinions on how to overcome a particular situation, whether they have just the right resources to do their jobs properly, to express how they want to work as a team, are all questions that will bring out a brighter productive side in them that merely assigning tasks will never do. These are questions that are best asked on a regular basis and not exclusively when a high-stress situation presents itself. This will allow your team to remain calm and act practically in a potentially chaos-inducing situation.

4. Be open and provide them with the required support

Everybody requires some time to adjust to adverse circumstances. Reactions to such situations are very subjective. Someone might respond to the situation confidently whereas the other may feel overwhelmed. It is your responsibility to gauge who needs what kind of attention and provide the necessary means for them to adjust accordingly. It is imperative to make your team members feel comfortable and secure in their job and role. Speaking with them, explaining the situation, explaining your plan to move forward, etc, makes it easier for employees to remain focused and not regress into panic and gossip that will hinder productivity.

5. Motivate them as much as possible

Positive motivation is far stronger than negative motivation, so provide them with as much positivity and encouragement as you can in order for them to sustain the drive to accomplish what is required through a difficult time. Motivation will act as the fuel for them to work for the set targets even in the most adverse circumstances.

Read: Tips to Lead Your Team in a Crisis

Summary

Your team members look up to you not only as a leader but a role model. The more you uplift their confidence, the more they will want to put in as much as they are capable of. Situations that create a tense work environment are something you usually cannot foresee. When they happen they challenge you to find appropriate solutions for them. Your team will make up the tools you need to succeed. These tips will help you manage a stressful situation and manage your team during high-stress situations by helping you maintain your team’s composure and confidence in an adverse situation and help you come through it victorious.