During times of stress it can be easy to fall into the trap of being too hard on employees. Like most things in life it’s a situation where you’re looking for a balance between demanding and compassionate. You want to provide a situation that brings out the best in each individual on the team. That changes a bit from person to person. But mostly you’re looking for encouraging ways to bring out the best in them.
Let’s say times have been stressful. You feel that maybe you’re seeing signs of burnout from the team. You are wondering if you’re being too hard on them. How do you know? How does it compare to others?
Here are a few things to watch for…
1. You Amplify Small Things
When we get stressed out we often focus on the small things. I know I’ve done it with blogging. A writer is doing 99% of things wonderfully. They’re getting it in on time. The post is research and written well. Then you have the one little grammar error in there and it can throw the entire thing off…for me.
Do this once, okay. Do it twice, yes. But repeat this pattern over and over and you’re going to burn out your team. Obviously the little details are important. You want to focus on how to improve on those things. But you have to keep it positive. You have to find ways to provide good feedback and positive reinforcement.
It’s also worthwhile to look at your internal values. If one or two small things are critical to your being, make sure your team knows about those. And hire those that have the same or similar values.
2. You Overlook Improvement
Sometimes we dwell on a mistake a person made early on in their career. We can’t get over the fact that maybe they improved at some point in the future. We retell that failure story over and over to ourselves. And even to new employees or to that same employee over and over.
You have to look for the signs of improvement. And you have to understand that improvement is usually not a straight line. It may be that a person goes from making a mistake once a month to once a quarter. Then they slip back. But then they stop doing it for a year.
Don’t take improvement for granted.
3. You’re Trying To Control Too Much
Bosses can be very controlling. Not all the time. But it fits a certain personality. Control can be good for certain things. For your own life. But you can quickly get into murky territory when you start trying to control things you can’t control.
In the name of control, you may be stifling growth and innovation. Obviously you want employees to follow procedures. But to expect people to be robots is setting yourself and them up for failure.
In almost every situation you have to provide an environment of autonomy.
4. You Never Blame Yourself
When something goes wrong do you first look at your employees for blame? In almost every situation you should first ask what you did wrong. How you could have prevented the situation. Even if you go back to the point where you hired or kept employing the employee that made the mistake.
By always being quick to blame an employee you’re going to create a tense situation. One that likely leads to burnout and poor performance.
5. Your Team Avoids You
If your team members are avoiding you a lot then it’s probably a good sign that things are not good. They may be afraid of setting you off in some way. They may be afraid of disappointing you or failing at their job. They have just gone to the place that avoidance is best for survival.
Obviously that’s not good. It doesn’t lead to good work in the short term and it definitely doesn’t lead to improvement.
6. Your Team Seems Anxious
Another sign is anxious. Your team members may not avoid you, but they may seem anxious around you. They worry about the future. They seem tense. All kinds of negative reactions to you, the future, the company.
Conclusion
It’s easy to fall into a pattern that leads to burnout. Stress comes from a lot of different angles. Perhaps you’re feeling that you’re being too hard on your team. If you’re feeling that way, you probably are being too hard on them. Maybe a few of these other signs are indicators as well. And hopefully they spark some ideas for getting things back on the right track.