Be a Source Of Knowledge

Remote workers won’t have the opportunity to be involved in spontaneous conversations or team lunches, but there are other things you can do to help them settle:

• provide info with new job critical stuff: team member introductions (personal bios, photos, advice for new employees), HR training links, task checklists, long-term goals, and more.
• assign mentors to new hires, who schedule regular video check-ins, make themselves available on Slack and make new employees feel welcome.

Remote workers need a dedicated, quiet space to do their work, so it’s important to set some guidelines:

• encourage workers to join coworking spaces;
• encourage workers to set a dedicated insolated space at home for work, with suitable furniture;
• fast reliable internet access;

They can still work from a coffee shop every once in a while, but they need a good default setup. 

To reduce stress in the workplace and increase focus and clarity, encourage your team members to do some physical activity. Physical activity such as yoga and running is also a good way for staff to learn how to pace themselves at work.

You can also set some reminders every two hours for your team members to stand up, stretch and rest their eyes by looking out of the window.

Allow your team members flexibility by not monitoring them often, if their work is completed by specific deadlines. Remember that salary is not everything.

Letting go of rigid work schedules or allowing them to work from home when possible goes a long way to reduce stress in the workplace.

1. Dip in energy levels: It happens when the team is not enthusiastic and is only taking reactive actions and going through the motion, exposing the mental pressure they are in.
2. Work quality is taking a dip: It happens if you see incomplete or sloppy work, along with decreased productivity.
3. Frayed emotions: If workers are terse and curt with their colleagues in their personal interaction and written correspondence.
4. Other unexpected irregularities: There may be some that move inside their mental ‘cave’ and others who become overtly extrovert.

If there are signs of team overwhelm, the manager needs to first see if the work can be shared with others, or if any deadline can be extended, providing some relief to the workers. A replanning of upcoming projects to lessen the intensity of upcoming work can also be worked on.

In many cases it is just a matter of giving the workers a day off to recoup.

Instead of being a dictator and employees followers, a true servant leader serves the employees as well.

A leader makes sure each team member has the resources and support necessary to learn and grow.

The servant leader concept emphasizes the importance of working for the benefit of the community at large.

This type of leader sees the bigger picture and creates products that improve the quality of life for customers. 

Managing your own expectations about where you see yourself, your team and your company can have a dramatic impact on mitigating much of your stress.

Developing realistic deadlines, strategic plans and budgets can ease much of the stress we feel as we strive to grow. Accept where you are in the process and the limitations of yourself and your team, and slowly build from there.

Stop often and take stock of your physical, mental and emotional health, as they all play a role in how well you handle stress. Be sure you are taking care of yourself in each of these areas before you dedicate all your time to the business.

Communication is essential and comes first when setting expectations with your team.

Have a plan in place from the start to ensure your team understands what you are expecting from them.

For example, should they report every task they complete? Is there a set amount of time in which they should be able to reply to emails?

Your team will work as a unit if every member is aware of their own responsibilities and the importance of their work in the organization.

This can be accomplished by creating a document that describes their role in the company in detail.

The foundation of a good culture is clearly stating the purpose - why something is (or isn't) taking place.

While it is important to share the importance of a project, we should not forget to identify the part is can play in our team's personal development. So, for each project, establish the main goal of the team and identify what everyone hopes to get out of the project.

Clearly defining roles & responsibilities can help foster good communication. Then people can know exactly what they are accountable for and what not. They will also be able to identify whom to ask their questions when they appear.

Strong morning and nighttime routines increase your productivity levels, ability to focus, and improve your overall mental and physical health. Your routines can include a healthy meal, exercise, reading, meditation, enjoying time with your family and friends.

However you build your routines, they should be full of activities that bring you joy and fulfillment. Self-care is essential to dealing with job burnout.

It’s a syndrome that results from an extreme accumulation of improperly managed workplace stress that can lead to physical, mental, and social consequences.

• Instead of looking for solutions, we waste time checking communication tools.
• We don't talk about our expectations.
• Communication bleeds into our out-of-work time, instead of leaving it at work.

It doesn’t mean just telling people to share their thoughts, but actually doing it yourself and setting clear rules and guidelines about how to share.

It isn’t just about how you share information but also what gets shared. 

• Take an honest look at how you communicate. Are you thorough, clear, and factual in how you convey yourself? How consistent are you in how you communicate?
• Look at how clear you make your expectations—and how open you are to understanding what others expect of you.
• Assess how do you handle “crucial conversations” that can be emotionally or politically charged.

To be effective in information gathering, you need to let go of assumptions and be aware enough to recognize when you’re jumping to conclusions, making judgments, or using labels.

Asking curious, open-ended questions encourages dialogue instead of dictating what other people should do or think, And the best communicators listen more than they speak.