The particular stressors brought on by COVID-19 can exacerbate the chronic stress many employees are already experiencing. And, most company executives recognize that addressing workplace stress, the direct and indirect cause of many health problems- must be part of any strategy to improve employee health and reduce health care cost.
Study after study has revealed that employees sometimes take on the character traits of their leaders, be they positive or negative. In an article by Suzanne Lucas titled, How Wellness Enhances Your Emotional Intelligence: When you’re in a good place, you’re a better manager.
Here are some excerpts from this article which offers 3 tips for managers:
- “You’re a better leader when you’re not tired
More than a third of American employees aren’t getting enough sleep. Tiredness can cause a whole host of problems, including long-term physical health problems. But it also makes us less capable of thinking about what others need.
Some of the symptoms of tiredness are
- Slowed reflexes and responses
- Impaired decision-making and judgment
- Moodiness, such as irritability
- Reduced ability to pay attention to the situation at hand
- Low motivation
You can see how tiredness makes it difficult to control your emotions, navigate relationships with others, and be a good example to your employees. Cabanero says make sleep a priority if you want to be a good leader.
2. If you’re unhappy with yourself, you’re unhappy with others
Wellness includes focusing on what you need–often called self-care. This is not selfishness, but rather recognizing that you have needs. That may be through exercise, meditation, or eating a healthy diet. Giving yourself what you need to feel centered helps you be happy with yourself.
People who are happy and content with themselves will be more open to the needs of their employees, according to Cabanero. This makes perfect sense. If you’re frustrated with your own life, can you take the time to think about others’ needs?
People make mistakes all the time. Responding to them with patience and understanding is a sign of emotional intelligence. Taking mistakes personally is a huge problem and undermines your leadership.
3.Wellness programs only work when leaders set the example
As a health coach, Cabanero wants to see everyone healthy and on the right path, but companies have only limited influence on their employees. Having a leader demonstrate the need to take care of oneself can make a huge difference. HR expert Brenda Neckvatal, author of Best Practices in Human Resources: How to Claw Your Way From Want-to-Be to VP, agrees. “You can’t have a proper wellness program if the leadership doesn’t participate,” she says.
Having leadership actually demonstrate wellness in their own lives also demonstrates emotional intelligence. You can’t lead people if you’re unwilling to walk on the same path. That means focusing on your own health as well as theirs. If your goal in investing in a business wellness program is only to lower health insurance costs, your employees will see through it. If, on the other hand, you engage yourself, your employees will see the results as you become a better manager. That’s a winning wellness plan”.
Bottomline: Taking care of ourselves and each other—including our loved ones, friends, and coworkers—should be the first order of business right now. As leaders look to both near-term and long-term solutions to support their workforce during the COVID-19 outbreak, well-being should remain a focal point. leaders who are proactive, considerate, and flexible will be better positioned to weather this storm and to emerge post-pandemic with a resilient workforce.
About ATS
ATS offers a broad portfolio of time and attendance solutions that streamlines the collection, calculation, and reporting of employee hours for workforce management and eliminates the manual tasks of payroll preparation, increasing efficiency and reducing errors in corporate payroll departments.
Thousands of organizations across North, Central and South America and Europe- including more than half of the Fortune 500 – use ATS TimeWork OnDemand, Workforce Planning, Employee Scheduling HR and payroll solutions to manage their workforce.
Apex Time Solutions (ATS) is the global leader in delivering workforce management solutions in the cloud. Thousands of organizations that spans Canada, South America, US and Europe— including Fortune 500® — companies use ATS TimeWork OnDemand to control payroll costs, minimize compliance risk, and improve productivity.
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