In my last blog, I explained how people need to feel valued, loved, and wanted. I also explained that it’s normal for people to create situations to fulfill these needs. If managers do not work in tandem with these needs people will usually manufacture drama to get these needs met. So what can you, the manager, do to get some balance back into your team? Let me tell you about three that will make a massive and immediate difference:
1 – Create regular touch points to reassure people that ‘we are ok’
The wise leader doesn’t take the relationship for granted. It reassures regularly. Some managers make monthly appointments with their direct reports and remind them of why they were hired.
2 – Communicate clearly and courageously
Don’t assume your reports know you care. Tell them. Tell them specifically. And remember: most managers fail to do this because they lack the courage to open up to their reports. It takes guts to tell others you care about them and to be available. The results make it worthwhile though.
Read more on workplace mental health issues….
- Are Managers Being Set Up to Fail?
- 5 Signs You May Have a Mentally Ill Team Member
- You Don’t Really Care About Our Mental Health
3 – Articulate a clear vision for your team and make it a part of your daily discourse
It’s been said that ‘the people without a vision will perish’. A team without a clear vision will perish too. But long before then it will develop into fertile ground for mental health problems to thrive. That is the death knelt for a team if left unaddressed.
Simple.
By the way, just one of these things will make a massive difference to your team’s mental health and help you avoid problems.
Try them. Let me know what happens.
Peter Diaz is the CEO of Workplace Mental Health Institute. He’s an author and accredited mental health social worker with senior management experience. Having recovered from his own experience of bipolar depression, Peter is passionate about assisting organizations to address workplace mental health issues in a compassionate yet results-focussed way. He’s also a Dad, Husband, Trekkie and Thinker.
Connect with Peter Diaz on:
