EAP Networker

Meeting Tight Deadlines: Minimizing Employee Stress

Volume 14 No. 3 Information of Interest to Managers, Supervisors and Human Resources Professionals provided by
any studies suggest that meeting deadlines causes more stress for workers than any other single factor. Managers and supervisors can feel this pressure even more severely.

Coaching your employees to meet deadlines is both a skill and an art. You must, of course, outline the work and delegate tasks appropriately. But motivating workers to face a challenge takes creativity, focus and a calm resolve.

Tackle the most stubborn parts of a project first. Say to your employees, Lets figure out the equipment, research and resources that will be difficult to get in place. Doing the hard parts first will help you meet your deadline. This prep work creates the flow and gets everybodys energies in sync. Encourage employees to alert you to problems early. Tell them, I want to know if you hit a stumbling block or brick wall. Certain employees may try to hide important problemsperhaps acting out anger about having to work overtime. Sniff out anyone whos not coming through early on.

stress

Be honest with your own boss. If you will need certain resources to make sure you can meet your deadline, tell your boss. Never promise what you know your department cannot deliver. Help employees pace themselves. Employees usually know how to manage their stress levels and where they can focus best. For example, some may work best from home a couple of days each week. Others may wish to work late. Protect employees from energy drains. Employees save energy when they can focus on the tasks at hand. Your goal is to help workers avoid interruptions and plan how they will obtain focused time and a relaxed working space, if possible. Encourage rest breaks. Its easy to forget that working harder, without rest, is counter-productive. As 6 p.m. comes and goes every night during an overtime marathon, remind employees to stand up, move about and get their blood flowing. Make sure everyone understands everyone elses role. Interface these roles on an assignment sheet. Draw a clear picture of what you need on paper. Write down expectations, outline them or draw them on paper. Ask employees to fill in the details. Do your best, and forget worry. When you stay calm and do your best, youre more receptive to ideas and better able to fine-tune your approach or find last-minute advisors.

General tips
As you push others to the finish line, keep communications open. Tell employees, Im open to hearing your suggestions. To save time, do this via email or any method that doesnt require a meeting. Ideally, you can go to your own boss for ideas when the heat is on. Furthermore, have mentors in place in case you reach a crossroads or crisis. When a tight deadline first enters the picture, make sure your employees can honor the work thats already on their plates. Dont just postpone it. Ask employees to deal strategically with every client who will be affected by any delays. Some may not require an explanation, but make sure employees let the others know whats going on.

productivity

When a deadline looms

Avoid forcing outcomes. Plan well to make sure you can meet your departments deadline. Be realistic. You may need to hire temps or outsource specific tasks. Or, you might need to call certain clients and negotiate an extended deadline.

Nonverbal Communication

ody language is often portrayed as a window into a persons true thoughts. Many books and magazines offer advice on how to translate the gestures, facial expressions and posture of others. For example, one author explains that if a person casually rubs her eye with one finger, it means she feels unsure about what youre saying. Another author points out that crossed legs signal disagreement. Actually, interpreting nonverbal communication isnt that simple, some experts say. Consider the whole messageincluding nonverbal, verbal and environmental cueswhen communicating with others.

LeBaron teaches up to 150 MBA students every year about human interactions. As part of his classwork, LeBaron videotapes students group meetings and later asks them to analyze their vocal and visible behaviors. The process helps demonstrate how all of the elements in a situation affect communication. Increasing awareness of those interactions is important for people in leadership positions, negotiators, mediators, salespeople, and even those who want to improve their personal relationships.

gestures

The role of nonverbal communication

Nonverbal communication includes facial expression, tones of voice, eye contact, gestures, touch, spatial arrangements and expressive movement, among others, according to researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Clinical psychologist and author Clare Albright notes the importance of paying attention to others nonverbal signals. Albright offers additional tips for increasing your awareness of nonverbal communication: Tune in to your audience. Dont forget to look for signs that indicate other peoples interest levels, and change your behavior if you need to. Stop and ask people what their nonverbal behavior means if youre not sure. Make an effort to notice the effects your words have on others. Express gratitude when your audience seems responsive. Most importantly, make an effort to orient your body toward other people in appropriate ways when you speak, LeBaron says. An effective leader, for example, points his face, eyes and body in the direction of the people hes talking to. On the other hand, an ineffective leader may turn his back or focus on something else, like shuffling papers.

Dont rely on body language alone

The media has mythologized body language, notes Curtis LeBaron, PhD, a professor at Brigham Young Universitys Marriott School of Business, who specializes in organizational communication. That is unfortunate, irresponsible and very misleading, LeBaron says. Many publications just offer crude interpretations, he explains. What any one hand gesture means has a lot to do with what the person is saying, what other people have said and done previously and whats going on in that situation.

environment

Relying on nonverbal communication to read minds can cause serious misinterpretations. In any situation, people should consider: their own nonverbal behaviors (LeBaron prefers the term visible behaviors) as well as other participants nonverbal behaviors the content of the conversation and the impact of their words on participants the setting in which the communication takes place the material resources available

Verbal communication
Of course, talk plays an essential role in communication. Rapport building is important in conversations, LeBaron says. We have ways of showing people were on the same page. LeBaron emphasizes that responses play just as big of a role as the initial comment.

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Building and Mantaining a Strong Team

ven the most competent employees cant accomplish everything single-handedly. As a manager, you rely on other people to contribute key pieces to every project. Your ability to build and maintain strong teams can make or break those projects. Before you embark on the next big assignment, try some strategies for turning your staff into a highly effective team.

enough self-confidence to respect other team members. Give each person an area in which to excel. Stay on the lookout for distractions and unproductive tangents. You must work hard to keep the project from going astray. Be alert for personality clashes and people with consistently negative attitudes. Dont let those issues affect the team. Hold frequent group meetings and encourage informal interactions between group members. Regular get-togethers help build solidarity, illuminate possible problems and reinforce goals. Your team members shouldnt need nametags to recognize one another. Why not celebrate successes with a pizza party or brainstorm over coffee? Little efforts can make a big difference.

Build a strong team

Even if youre working on a complex project, think small. Gather the smallest possible number of people to get the work done. Large, loosely organized teams inevitably experience problems with communication and personality clashes. With that advice in mind, start building your winning team: Clearly articulate your goals and visions for the future. Pick team members who believe in the cause. Select team members who will work well together. Team members need to trust the motives of their colleagues; ongoing conflicts can derail a project. Take note of the skill sets each potential team member will bring to the project. Diversity and creativity are essential ingredients for a strong team. Find people with complementary talents, including technical and functional expertise, interpersonal skills and problem-solving and decision-making abilities.

performance

Facilitate communication between group members. When people dont talk to each other, work gets duplicated, frustrations rise and projects can easily grind to a halt. Empower your team members. When appropriate, allow responsible employees to make major decisions that will affect the team, or even take part in hiring new team members. Assign tasks for groups of two team members to finish together so that everyone can make a contribution and feel a sense of accomplishment. Create an environment in which team members can practice and make mistakes. Undue pressure can quickly create a negative work environment, affect moods and steadily decrease productivity. Talk to team members to make sure that they feel comfortable in their everyday work environment and understand that it is OK to ask questions and make mistakes.

Maintain a strong team

You may face obstacles in building a strong team, but maintaining the teams effectiveness may prove an even bigger challenge in the end. Long-term assignments and tight deadlines can certainly test the true strength of a team. As the team leader, you can take steps to keep everyone on track:

morale

Remind people of your goals and highlight accomplishmentsoften. Keeping people happy helps ensure you wont be alone in your mission. Others will take the flag and charge. Feed team members egos. Each person must have

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Nonverbal Communication; continued from page 2

Its important to remember that all participants contribute to the meaning of a conversation. Be aware of what you say and how you react to what others say. Take the example of a supervisor who wants to fire a problem employee. Problems are never individual, LeBaron says, theyre interactive. Both the comments of the employee and the responses of the supervisor have contributed to the situation. If a solutions going to happen, its got to happen together, LeBaron says.

Building and Maintaining; continued from page 3

Manage conflict
Even teams that work like a well-oiled machine break down every once in a while. But conflicts dont have to ruin a project. Try hard to anticipate problems, and when they do arise remember to: Attack the problem, not people. Do your best to ensure that team members follow the same principle when handling problems.

Environment
The environment and resources available in any situation also affect communication. The material environments we inhabit constrain our interactions or provide resources and support for our interactions. If youre having trouble getting a point across or coming to an agreement with other people on an important issue, consider your environment. Physical structures can influence behavior. For instance, a team sitting in a small room at a long rectangular table might have more trouble seeing each other and talking as a group than a team sitting in a large room at a round table. But LeBaron also notes that our ability to use material resources depends on our skills with nonverbal and verbal communication. He cites a study he conducted among architects, in which he found that those who used their hands to explain spatial arrangements to their clients and paid attention to clients body movements were better able to draw successful plans.

teamwork

Focus on what can be done, rather than what cant be changed. It is a waste of time to dwell on mistakes of the past. Encourage people to accept ownership for their role in the situation, but avoid handing out punishments. Condescending attitudes can lead to resentment. Start honest dialogue, but discourage blaming. Hold a debriefing meeting for the whole team to discuss lessons learned and how to avoid similar situations in the future. Its inevitable, teamwork always poses challenges, no matter how much you try to avoid them. However, with forethought and preparation, you can use those challenges to help create a successful product.

observe

Read the total message

To avoid misunderstandings and keep conversations on track, pay attention to both the content and conditions of any conversation. That includes physical, emotional and behavioral signals, according to the authors of Crucial Conversations: Tools for Talking When the Stakes are High. Visible behaviors are extremely important, LeBaron says, But they become meaningful and interpretable through coordination with talk, and through their situational occurrence within a social and material setting.

EAP Networker
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Amy Daugherty

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Judi Light Hopson Kristin Knight

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