How can better communication reduce workplace anxiety?

Anxiety is a common problem for many business professionals, especially when they feel like they are not getting timely feedback from their coworkers, boss, or employees. This anxiety can be heightened when a company is not meeting financial goals or after organizational changes like downsizing or restructuring.

Common Sources of Workplace Anxiety.

Senior leaders I work with frequently communicate frustration because their employees do not seem to understand what is important and fail to prioritize and execute the things that would provide the most value to the employees and the company. They harbor anxiety around having difficult conversations about performance and what will happen if employees decide to quit and leave them understaffed.

Conversely, employees I work with frequently feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to focus their attention. Often they think there is a disconnect between the work they are being asked to do, their professional goals, and the company's mission. Occasionally I also hear insecurity around not having the knowledge and skills to do a job and a fear of communicating that insecurity because of the perceived risk of vulnerability.

In both cases, fear and insecurity get in the way of candor. The uncertainty around being honest about needs, expectations, and wants gets in the way of communication and collaboration that would improve business performance and reduce anxiety.

Poor Communication is the Problem

In a world where employees and bosses communicate through emails, texts, messaging apps, group meetings, and one-on-ones, lack of communication is not the root of the problem.

Overcommunication and micro-managing do more to create anxiety in the workplace than nearly any other force. If you want to reduce anxiety and improve effectiveness, it is crucial to identify ways to improve the economy of communication by having less but more effective communication.

How would you describe the level of communication at your workplace?

• Perfect
• Under-communication
• Over-communication

7 Tips for Reducing Workplace Anxiety

Initiate regular check-ins. Having quality one-on-one discussions can go a long way to improving communication. Establishing a regular schedule for discussing current priorities and checking in on needs, expectations, and wants can strengthen relationships and reduce uncertainty.

Using a shared document to capture wins, obstacles, options, and commitments is a great way to ensure both parties are aligned coming out of the meeting.

Be honest and respectful. The people you work with have multiple responsibilities, competing priorities, personal lives, and their own anxieties that they are dealing with. Strive to be clear, direct, and considerate in your communication. Focus on being candid about problems, but also do your best to collaborate on solutions. The better you are at helping the people you work with, the more value they will see in you. When you are kind and helpful to others, they are more likely to mirror those behaviors back to you.

Listen actively. Pay attention to words, tone, and body language. This is especially important if you are on a remote team. Ask questions to clarify and confirm your understanding. If you feel that things are not going well, be direct and ask. Assumptions can be dangerous. Always seek facts.

At the end of conversations, summarize what was discussed to help avoid miscommunication. This is a great way to demonstrate that you care about getting things right and are invested in pursuing alignment.

Be brief. Everyone has limited time and energy. Be considerate of how you use the time that people give you. Before you meet with people, take a moment to determine your purpose in the meeting. Writing down key points or goals for the conversation can be helpful.

Demonstrate gratitude. You will not always receive the information you want to hear during conversations. When you encounter a different perspective or difficult feedback, show gratitude to the person for being candid. Then use the information to learn and grow. Anything that is not of value to you ,disregard it. It is better to be aware of other people's thoughts and perspectives than to be mis or uninformed.

Ask for support when needed. Be vulnerable and communicate what you need to be successful. Hiding problems is never a good long-term solution. When issues are not surfaced, they tend to fester and become more challenging to solve. Identify and communicate issues early, and seek assistance finding solutions.

Seek solutions, not blame. Multiple people are typically involved whenever things do not go as planned at work. Quickly identify why things did not go as planned and identify ways that performance can be improved in the future. There is more to be gained from solving a problem than avoiding being blamed. The heroes of stories are not the ones that make excuses but the ones with the courage to name and take action against a problem.

Putting tips into action

Communication is vital for any successful working relationship. Following these tips can improve communication and trust within your organization.

Now it's time to put them into practice. Start by choosing one tip you that will help you to reduce your anxiety. Then, plan how you will implement it in the next week. For example, you can

• Start holding one-on-one meetings

• Communicate an obstacle that you need help with

• Request training on a new technology that has been challenging for you to use

Whatever action you choose to take, make sure you follow through with it and observe the results. You will be surprised by how much better you feel once you improve communication with the people you work with.

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Thank you for reading this blog

Dorian Cunion is an Executive Coach and Business Consultant with Your Path Coaching and Consulting. He is a former retail executive with over 20 years of experience in the retail industry.

He is a Co-Active coach who focuses on helping professionals, and small business owners overcome insecurities, knowledge gaps, and uncertainty. He does this by helping clients to tap into their values, recognize their strengths, and develop actionable strategies for growth.

Have you been trying to improve your career or business on your own but are not seeing success as fast as you desire?

Book a free discovery call to discuss your goals and how I can help you accelerate.

Talk with Dorian

Have Feedback? Send me a note at Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

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5 Tips to Help Managers Improve Employee Motivation

The key to effectively running a profitable business is motivating employees to perform their roles at a high level. For your employees to perform at their best, they must be intrinsically motivated. Intrinsic motivation comes from understanding who they are, who they want to be, and how their current role can help them close the gap. Finding intrinsic motivation is a deeply personal process. Still, it can be assisted by taking the time to understand your employees' goals and help them see how their goals can be accomplished within your organization. By helping employees identify how their work connects to your company vision, you can create higher levels of commitment and personal accountability.

Higher levels of commitment and accountability will lead to employees working harder to accomplish company objectives because they understand how their success is linked to yours. Former MLB Coach Yoga Berra once said, "If you know where you're going, it's a lot easier to get there." This is as true in business as it is in baseball. When you help your employees develop a clear vision of where your company is going and the benefit they will receive from excelling at their role, you create an environment where employees want to thrive because they know they will win, as the company wins.

Be Clear on the Company's Mission and Vision.

The first step is ensuring employees understand your business's vision and mission. This understanding needs to be clear, aspirational, and values-based. You might feel that vision and mission statements as empty words that do not provide much value to the day-to-day operations of a business. This could not be further from the truth. Vision Statements offer employees a picture of what a company wants to be. At the same time, a mission statement details why the work that is being done is essential. When you provide your employees with the what and the why of the company's existence, they can better find purpose in their work within the company.

Employees' commitment and motivation are highest when their passion and purpose align with the company's needs. By consistently communicating the company's vision and mission statement, you can help employees understand how central both are to everything the company does. This lays the foundation for the employee to connect the dots between their role and the company's overall success.

Gain Commitment.

Once you have helped employees understand the company's vision and mission, your next job is to gain employees' commitment to their role within the organization. Gaining employees' commitment transfers the burden of accountability from you to the employee. When employees are committed to doing a job, they are more likely to show initiative, seek help, and require less follow-up from you. Gaining commitment is essential because commitment is the foundation for accountability. Accountability is an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions. If you establish a safe and candid work environment with your employees, they will only commit to things they believe they can accomplish. By soliciting commitments from your employees, you gain awareness of the employee's belief in their ability to complete a task and their word to put their best effort into achieving it.

Secure Resources.

After gaining commitment, you should seek to understand what resources employees need to complete the task. If the employees are going to complete the task for the first time, the help they need might be coaching or training. You should work with the employees to identify the resources required to complete the job. Aligning the amount of time, money, materials, technology, people, or other resources upfront can prevent future frustration, conflict, and delays. By identifying and securing the resources necessary to complete the task upfront, you can better position the employee for success.

Monitor Performance.

You and your employees must establish a routine for discussing employee satisfaction and performance. By defining periodic moments to pause and review actions and results, both parties have certainty that they will be able to discuss

• How is the employee performing compared to expectations?

• How does the employee's current work align with their personal goals?

• What additional training or support does the employee need?

• If any changes need to be made to current roles or responsibilities?

• Ways to improve communication, partnership, and collaboration between employees and other stakeholders associated with the company.

During these meetings, you and the employee should review previous commitments to ensure that both parties follow through on the previously communicated actions. If either party fails to meet prior commitments, a resolution should be found to adjust expectations or provide additional resources or support.

2-Way Feedback.

During the progress check-ins, you and the employee should have the opportunity to provide each other with feedback. Check-in meetings should be more than you communicating expectations and providing feedback. Employees should have time to voice concerns or give feedback on work conditions, goals, organizational culture, and management practices. Encouraging employees to be candid about their wants and needs can help to strengthen relationships and remove leadership blind spots. By providing a space for employees to voice their thoughts and concerns, you can better understand what might be getting in the way of their productivity. With this information, you can better support employees in finding solutions that help them and the company perform at higher levels.

Summary

Employees join companies to satisfy their wants and needs. You can help employees identify how their wants and needs can be fulfilled through work. This will create higher levels of loyalty and commitment. Committed employees will do everything within their power to support the success of an organization. To improve your employees' productivity and effectiveness, start by understanding why they're working for you. Then, help them see how their commitment to bringing the company's vision and mission to life will bring them closer to achieving their goals.

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Thank you for reading this blog

Dorian Cunion is an Executive Business Coach with Your Path Coaching and Consulting. He is a former retail executive with over 20 years of experience in the retail industry. He is a Co-Active coach who focuses on helping professionals and small business owners overcome insecurities, knowledge gaps, and lack of direction. He does this by helping clients tap into their values, recognize their strengths, and develop actionable strategies for growth.

Have you been trying to improve your career or business on your own but are not seeing success as fast as you desire?

Book a free discovery call where we can discuss your goals and how I can help you accelerate.

Talk with Dorian

Have Feedback? Send me a note at

Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

For daily tips on leadership and professional development, follow me:

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Improve your Team Culture with this 15-minute routine.

Improving team culture is a challenge that is universal to all leaders. At their roots, teams work best with a shared purpose, good communication, and collaboration. Like a rowing team, everyone must have a cadence for working together and rowing in the same direction. One of the primary roles of a leader is to bring talented people together, create that cadence, provide guidance, and help them to achieve more together than they could apart. Implementing Recognition, Obstacle, and Win (ROW) meetings can help leaders achieve these goals. ROW meetings improve communication, encourage recognition and bring visibility to obstacles in a time-efficient and effective way.

ROW meetings are about developing a cadence for communicating the good and bad things happening in a business. These meetings are typically 15 to 20 minutes long. Each participant comes to the meeting prepared with a 2-minute recap of their week. The summary should include recognizing one person for doing a great job, one obstacle they needed help with, and one team win they wanted to celebrate. Since each participant only has 2 minutes, it forces them to be brief and only focus on the highlights. These recaps should mirror the trailer for a movie. The goal is to provide enough information for people to know what is happening in the person's area of responsibility. If anyone attending the meeting is interested in learning more, they can follow up after the meeting with questions or suggestions.

Recognition of Employees

One of the hallmarks of a good culture is recognition. Adam Grant and Francesa Gino's research has shown that expressions of gratitude can help build employees' self-efficacy and social worth, motivating them to engage in prosocial behavior. Thanking employees for a job well done is one of the best ways to improve a team's culture. Employees go to work every day, doing their job, and many never hear a thank you from their peers or boss. Organizational culture improves when leaders maintain a process for slowing down, considering the contributions made by those ad them, and expressing gratitude.

A supplemental benefit of this routine is how it supports people in getting to know each other. During group meetings, there is a tendency for some extroverts to dominate conversations and for everyone else to listen. The imbalance of communication can create group thinking and blind spots within a team. The two-minute target for each participant ensures that everyone has an equal opportunity to communicate. More value is generated during the meeting because there is a greater diversity of thought and inclusion of everyone's ideas.

Sharing of Obstacles

Each participant will share one obstacle they needed help solving. Initially, leaders might be uncomfortable voicing challenges if it is different from the norm within the organization. It is common for employees to be private about the barriers preventing their success until they have done everything possible to solve the issue independently. The hesitation to share challenges creates unneeded pressure within organizations and can slow down the removal of obstacles. By individuals being vulnerable in the group setting, other participants that have prior experience with similar obstacles can assist the person in need. In addition, when there is a commonality in challenges, participants can partner together to find solutions.

Obstacles are like weeds that prevent organizations from reaching their full potential. Employees within organizations do their best to pull weeds. Often the process is long and complex because employees need more tools, resources, and power to address complex issues. Managers are essential in getting employees the tools they need to overcome barriers. The ROW meetings provided a cadence for managers to check in with employees. As they inquire about challenges, they can provide tips and guidance for addressing opportunities. If they cannot solve the problem at their level, the manager can bring it to the meeting and seek advice and support from the team.

Celebrating Wins

The final segment of the recap is a review of wins for the week. Celebrating successes is essential for locking in learning. In Whitney Johnson's book Smart Growth, she evangelizes celebration's role in cementing lessons learned and strengthening relationships. Leaders work hard to drive results. Time must be allocated for them to feel the joy of their team's accomplishment. Sharing of wins provides examples of excellence for the broader group. It also creates opportunities for individuals to be more aware of success outside their direct business, which can both motivate and inspire others to greatness.

Talking about team wins during group meetings helps the team focus on the big picture. Most organizations operate in silos. For information to be shared, it has to flow up one silo to the leader and then back down another silo. The multiple communication points can be slow and weaken the benefit of the message. Often this results in team members focusing too much on their silo and not dedicating time or energy to thinking about what is vital for the overall organization. Good teammates care more about winning the game than their individual performance. By celebrating the wins generated across the different teams, the collective group can take pride in the overall organization's progress.

Insights

Weekly meetings can be an excellent way for a leader to do a temperature check with the team. When things are going well, meetings will be super positive, high energy, and upbeat. The organization will feel healthy, similar to a person with a 98 degrees temperature. When the obstacles are growing or when stress rises, the meeting will have a completely different feel. There will be more negativity. People will struggle more with finding and talking about wins. And the group will spend more time discussing obstacles. When this occurs, it will feel like the organization has a fever. Just as you would take an aspirin and get some rest at the first signs of a fever, it will be necessary for the leader to take steps to bring the team's temperature down collectively. The best way to address the tension is to recalibrate goals and verify that project timelines are realistic.

Summary

The ROW meeting approach can effectively establish a culture of recognition, positivity, and accountability within the team. It will ensure that every member of the team speaks during each meeting. It encouraged them to spend 66% of their time talking about positive events in the last week and only 33% of the time on obstacles. It challenges them to prioritize, summarize and be direct with their communications. Recaps will be 2 minutes, so there is not much fluff. Speakers must communicate what is essential and pass the spotlight to the next person.

The call will be engaging because multiple voices will be heard, and the topic of conversation will be focused on the remarkable things that are happening in the business. Team members will find it refreshing to get obstacles brought to the table, and the group will feel a greater sense of cohesion as they discuss ways to solve problems after the calls. Implementing this 15-minute-a-week routine can do a lot to improve the culture of an organization. The practices leaders establish say a lot about who they are and what is essential. Leaders who build routines around recognizing team members, capturing obstacles, and celebrating wins build a strong foundation of trust within their organization. The very trust needed to build a strong culture.

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Dorian Cunion is an Executive Business Coach with your Path Coaching and Consulting. He specializes in coaching services for managers, executives, and small business owners.

For tips on leadership and professional development, follow me:

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If you are interested in working with me as a coach, contact me at

• Email: dcunion@yourpathexecutivesolutions.com

• Phone: 804-220-5771

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