Be a Mentally Healthy Manager
Priska Neely is a Public Radio journalist who I’ve interviewed twice on my podcast because I LOVE how she invests in her management. She works hard to make it mentally healthy for her team and herself. It doesn’t always work- because she’s human, after all- but it’s a consistent practice. She was just named Editor of the Year by the Public Media Journalists Association, nominated by her team.
Priska got her first managerial job right in the beginning of the Pandemic. Her brief: start a newsroom, hire journalists, create great stories. All from a corner of her apartment in a new city. And I think because she is a newer manager, she hadn't developed some of the bad habits us more seasoned managers do.
Priska drew on what had made her feel acclimated in new roles. It comes down to clarity.
I’ve said it before and here it is again: Humans hate uncertainty.
We act out anxiety when we feel things are uncertain.
Right now is an incredibly uncertain time, for a million reasons I don’t need to name here. And so when we show up at work, we are carrying all that uncertainty with us. And perhaps, things that 3 years ago wouldn’t have made us anxious, do now. I think we’re all a bit more fragile-- understandably so.
And so whenever we can provide clarity to each other, our anxiety lessens and we feel better. And work better. Reduce anxiety through clarity.
In our conversation, Priska shares 3 examples of clarity that we usually do not receive, but which are crucial for mentally healthy and successful hybrid work. I’ve distilled them here.
Over-communicate
That’s it. Managers: Check in more than you think you need to. Work stuff, non work stuff.
Check in with positive feedback when you can, something like “That was a great presentation,” or, ”I appreciated your comments in the meeting.”
Celebrate Onboarding and Build Culture Along the Way
There are a lot of new people joining organizations right now. Invest in onboarding new team members!!! Think about it- onboarding is usually all policy and rote.
But it matters more than ever. If you don’t know where the A Drive is, you’re anxious. If you don’t know anything about your colleagues, you’re anxious.
Priska asked herself: “How am I going to make this feel like a team with people I've never met? She front-loaded a welcome package- what she calls the gifts that usually happens when someone leaves a job, including branded tote bags and a food delivery service gift card for that first day.
And then she held “forced bonding- an activity where we would do trivia and there would be a prize and different icebreakers so they can get to know each other.”
She starts the team’s weekly meeting each week with a question: What's the best thing that's happened to you in the last week? Not work related, but so they can learn about each other and what our interests are outside of work. I had a client in the education space who called these SEL (social emotional learning) check ins. Our kids do them in school but they help us too!
Again, it’s about investing in communication and reducing anxiety through clarity.
Hold Check-ins
Part of what makes managers and staff really anxious is that when we're not physically together, we have a harder time knowing what the other expects. How much better do you feel when you have a clear course of action and you know that if you fulfill it, you've done a good job?
Sit down with your team and state what you are expecting from them week to week or month to month. Set goals and create a document together.
Then, talk through how you’re each going to stay accountable to each other and keep communication open. Priska suggests asking questions like:
What I expect from my manager and how I like to be managed, and vice versa
How do you respond to stress?
What's the best way to confront you or give criticism?
How do you like to get feedback?
Priska notes: “These questions are not going to organically come up. You have to really be intentional about it, especially if we're not in the same place. I don't know what you're going through. I need you to tell me because I will do my best to fix it, but I can't fix things if I don't know that it's an issue.”
I find these insights and ideas so helpful. Hope you do too! And I would love to hear your suggestions on how to reduce anxiety through clarity.