“I know our industry is going through it. To reassure my teams that they’ll be okay, I’ve been deliberately and visibly celebrating their successes,” Eric, the head of a 300+ person department at a technology company, told me last year. “But it’s not working.”
While Eric’s organization had no plans to do layoffs, several key competitors had recently made sizable cuts. Eric wanted to help his people feel less anxious as stress-inducing headlines continued to dominate the news. He was particularly concerned about the results of a recent employee engagement survey, which indicated that his teams were far less comfortable asking questions or admitting mistakes than they had been in the past.
After looking at the survey results, reviewing the success stories he was sharing, and speaking with a few of his reports, it became clear that Eric’s efforts were inadvertently making people even more uneasy. “The sudden emphasis on accomplishment makes me nervous that we’re shifting to an extremely high-performance culture in which you’ll get cut if you make a single mistake,” one employee told me. Another said, “Some days I feel like I’m the only one whose project isn’t going perfectly.”
By telling stories that focused only on wins and achievements, Eric had unintentionally created an environment in which people assumed everything should always go smoothly, and so they felt ashamed or overwhelmed when their efforts didn’t immediately lead to success.
When tensions run high, this kind of miscommunication is far more likely to occur. And tensions are likely high: In a recent global survey, 44% of employees reported they had experienced a lot of stress the previous day. To avoid creating unnecessary anxiety during uncertainty, leaders need to be especially thoughtful about how they communicate with their teams. Here are five common errors even the most well-intentioned leaders make — and what to do instead.
1. They showcase only success.
In the face of uncertainty, it can be tempting to try to make your team feel better by touting their achievements. But, as the story above illustrates, if you focus only on impressive outcomes, you send the message that the path to success is always error-free. That means that as people within your organization inevitably hit road bumps, they’re more likely to assume that they’re the only ones experiencing lows — and be less likely to reach out for help.
The next time you recognize your team’s accomplishments or have someone share a success with the larger group, look for ways to frame the story as a modified belonging intervention. Belonging interventions aim to help listeners view challenges as normal and improvable and have been shown to improve achievement and persistence.
Focus on the success, but make sure to also answer the following questions:
- What difficulties came up along the way?
- What solutions did you try? Which ones worked, and which ones didn’t?
- What broadly applicable lessons did you learn?
Note that you should include these points without undermining anyone’s expertise. For example, you might say, “Complex projects never go completely according to plan. I’m proud of how this team was able to regroup and figure out a new path forward when our initial results weren’t where we wanted them to be.”
2. They skip the non-update update.
A 2023 Gallup survey showed that U.S. employees are feeling increasingly left out of the loop by their managers. Sharing a concrete update when priorities continue to shift can feel daunting. You may think, “If there’s nothing I can confidently say yet, why say anything?” But silence speaks volumes, especially when the future feels up in the air.
As a leader, you have more information than your reports, which means that members of your team are likely to interpret your lack of communication as evidence that bad news is brewing.
To get ahead of unnecessary anxiety spirals, be transparent, even if that means just letting your team know that you don’t have any news to share. For example, you might try something like, “I haven’t heard back on how our goals might change in the second half of the year. I’m hoping to have an update for you next week, but I wanted to let you know where we are right now.”
A good rule of thumb: If you feel comfortable with how often you’re communicating with your team, chances are you’re not communicating enough. Make it a habit to regularly ask yourself, “What have I not said?” And then evaluate which parts of your answer may be useful to tell your team.
3. They focus too much on the future.
Amid uncertainty, leaders can become so consumed with figuring out what needs to happen next that they fail to look back and recognize all that their team has accomplished. While research shows that praise is a powerful motivator, only a third of U.S. employees say they recently received recognition for their efforts.
To ensure you’re explicitly acknowledging great work, set aside time in each of your 1:1s to discuss what went particularly well over the past week. You can also establish a monthly or quarterly recognition ritual by using 10 minutes of your regular team meeting to have the group discuss:
- What did we learn over the past few weeks?
- What’s going well that we should keep doing?
- What important progress did we make?
Reflecting on what the team is doing well reminds the group that they’re capable and that their efforts are not going to waste.
4. They try to hide the hard.
In one of my recent workshops, Rachel, a manager, shared that her boss never acknowledges the stress that accompanies change. “I feel like she’s hiding her emotions, which makes me nervous,” Rachel told me. “I wish she would trust me enough to be a little more honest with me.”
Leaders have to walk a fine line between being open about challenges while remaining optimistic about the future. Pretending like nothing is wrong can leave your team feeling isolated, but oversharing or getting mired in misery doesn’t benefit anyone either. In fact, research shows that chronic venting, when you rehash the same problems without trying to understand or solve them, makes you and the people listening to you feel worse.
Try sharing what you’re feeling without becoming emotionally leaky and then providing a path forward. For example, you can say something like, “I know there’s been a lot of change recently, and it’s been stressful for me, too. That said, I’m fully confident in our team’s ability to rally around our new objectives. We’ll get through this harder period.”
You can also share stories of emotionally intense challenges that your team or organization overcame. This can be done verbally — “Remember how nervous we were about getting that project last year over the finish line? I’m so proud of how we handled that, and it gives me great confidence that we can successfully tackle this challenge, too” — or more programmatically — Adobe, for example, put up a wall outside of their cafeteria that displays the many patents employees created to overcome obstacles.
5. They fail to provide context.
When people are nervous about the future, make it a point to explain why you’re scheduling a surprise 1:1 or moving a meeting at the last minute. If you don’t explain your reasoning, your team will immediately assume the worst.
The next time you’re about to send a message to someone on your team, take a few extra moments to emotionally proofread what you wrote. Firing off an email that says “Let’s talk” when you mean “Great job pulling together a first draft, let’s talk through next steps” will unnecessarily crater someone’s mood — and productivity. And if you drop an unexpected meeting on a few of your reports’ calendars to review an upcoming presentation, let them know right away why you’re getting together. Taking the time to assess how your actions and words might be received can prevent you from piling more stress onto your team.
. . .
Uncertainty is stressful and can leave employees feeling afraid and unable to perform at their best. By being careful to avoid the common pitfalls listed above, leaders can reduce unnecessary anxiety and increase their team’s performance. The best and most successful leaders are those who ensure people feel some sense of stability during difficult times.