A generation of millennials or a generation of stressed workers — part 2

Last week we talked about how we are getting transformed into a generation of stressful leaders and workers. Thanks for accepting the post and showing an overwhelming response to it.

I also promised that we will be sharing how you as a manager/ leader can rid of those stress factors. And, make it fun for your team to work. So, here I am with some of the tips that I implement to make work environment stress-free for my team. I am sure they will benefit you and your team as well.

Here it goes -

1) Prioritizing activities

Prioritization is the best way to keep your sanity intact. This is why they say keep what is worth keeping and with the breath of kindness blow the rest away.

The first mantra I’d like to share with everyone here is to prioritize your work life. If required, start using online tools that can help you set priorities for your tasks. Something like a project management software can be of great help here. At ProofHub, our entire team relies of the tool to centralize our tasks, communication, files & documents and everything else. And it helps us to remain on top of things without having to face an added stress of managing things.

2) Creative freedom

A major reason behind employee stress is because of job dissatisfaction. And most of the times, the reason behind this dissatisfaction is fact that they don’t get creative freedom.

When employees feel overpowered by the management, they are not motivated enough to innovate. They get imbibed in a vicious circle, where they are doing things just for the heck of it. After a certain time period this satisfaction turns into disappointment, stress and leads to the employee looking for better opportunities. This is where the role of a manager becomes important. As a manager it is your responsibility to create a work environment where employees have the creative freedom. They don’t hesitate to share ideas, and feel free to innovate.

3) Give them some ‘me-time’

Imbalance in work and personal life is a major contributor in work stress. And there are plenty of researches and numbers to support this fact.

I’d like to ask you a question here. When was the last time you left for home on time? Can’t remember. Right? See that’s where the problem lies. All these facts are interrelated. When you don’t prioritize work, you are left with so much to do is less time. This means you have to extend your working hours. As a result you don’t have enough to manage your personal life. But we all need some realization time to figure out what we are doing in life and how can we move ahead. That’s why giving some Me-time becomes so important.

4) Inspire them to learn

Any by learning I’m not talking about getting them enrolled in an extended learning course. Why do this when there’s so much to learn from each other?

You can inspire team members to learn from each other. For instance, motivate them to voluntarily help someone in their work, maybe a junior or an intern. Or, ask them to get involved in a project, other than what they are working on currently. This will not only rejuvenate their creative juices, but at the same time instill confidence in them that they are evolving as a professional.

I’ve covered some basics here, which I am sure every employee manager and leader can implement in their work-culture to make their life less-stressed. To sum up this post I’d like to say that your focus should not be to do different things rather on doing things differently. Because the fundamentals always remain the same. And that’s how we innovate.

‘Become focused on getting things done. Stop using email to manage work and switch to ProofHub.

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Vartika Kashyap is a seasoned marketing professional who is an expert in digital marketing and entrepreneurship. She’s been featured among LinkedIn’s Top Voices for the year 2016. She currently runs the marketing team at ProofHub — a project management software for teams of all sizes. Connect with Vartika on LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter.

Also follow our company page @ProofHub to get the recent updates about our tool, published articles, motivational quotes & presentations.

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If you liked reading this post, you are surely going to love this as well-

• A generation of millennials or a generation of stressed workers? — part 1
• A manager’s troubles while handling long distance relationships
• Do you want to reclaim the lost control over your life?

Originally published at LinkedIn.