Introduction to Psychological Safety Australia
A mental health crisis is hurting Australian workplaces. Claims for psychological injuries cost the economy A$12.2 to A$39.9 billion each year. Toxic workplace cultures are a big cause. So are lack of role clarity, poor manager support, and inadequate recognition. They lead to more stress and burnout. This demands immediate intervention in psychological safety Australia.Australian governments now treat psychological risks with the same seriousness as physical ones.
Managers play a pivotal role in fostering employee engagement and psychological safety. They account for 70% of the variance in employee engagement. Investing in management capabilities and training in meaningful conversational skills is critical.
We spend a crazy amount at work. About 81,390 hours crazy which we think is a conservative number. Gallup’s 2023 report says 47% of employees in Australia and New Zealand have daily stress. And, 69% of full-time employees feel burned out sometimes.
As a manager, your role extends beyond overseeing tasks and projects. You play a significant role in the well-being of your team.
Therefore addressing stress and burnout is vital for the success of your team. It’s key for your employees’ health. It’s also key for keeping productivity up and fostering a positive workplace culture.
In this blog, we will learn how managers can make a difference to combat stress & burnout by having meaningful conversations. Our guide is on “Psychological Safety Australia“. It outlines how managers can create a supportive work environment. We’ll go through what this means and how to implement them. Let’s start with some basic definitions.
Understanding Stress and Burnout: Why Psychological Safety is important.
You might not know, but stress and burnout are two different things.
Stress is a natural response to tough situations. It causes feelings of tension, anxiety, and pressure. It can stem from various sources, including workload, tight deadlines, and interpersonal conflicts.
Burnout is a state of emotional, physical, and mental exhaustion. It’s generally caused by prolonged and excessive stress. It often results in a decrease in motivation, performance, and overall job satisfaction.
Now both of these are caused by some common causes that exist in the workplace. Common causes include unrealistic expectations, a lack of support, poor communication, high demands, and a lack of control over tasks.
Factors that contribute to burnout include excessive workloads, lack of control, and insufficient recognition. No matter how common the causes are, their impact on employees can be severe.
The Impact of Stress and Burnout on Employees
Too much stress can make you sick more easily. It can give you problems like a racing heart, high blood pressure, or a weakened immune system.
Physical and Mental Health tampers too. Employees experiencing stress and burnout may suffer from anxiety, depression, and cognitive impairments. In short, feeling stressed out all the time can make it hard to focus, remember things, and make good choices.
Effect on Productivity and Performance: When everyone’s stressed and burned out, nobody gets much done leading to a decrease in productivity. They also cause more absences and higher turnover. Ultimately all this can impact your organisation’s bottom line.
Before we get to the part of managers, we need to know how to recognise these signs of stress and burnout. The long-term effects of unmanaged stress and burnout can be devastating to both employees and organisations.
Recognizing the Signs of Stress and Burnout
As a good manager, you need to read the signs. Signs show if your employee is very stressed or burned out. Recognizing the symptoms of burnout early can help prevent long-term damage to an employee’s health and productivity. Here’s how to spot it:
Early Warning Signs: Managers should be vigilant for signs such as increased absenteeism, frequent lateness, and declining performance.
Is someone who used to be reliable suddenly missing work a lot or always running late?
Behavioural Changes: Behavioural Changes can indicate stress or burnout. They include irritability, withdrawal from colleagues, and a drop in work quality.
Is someone’s work just not as good as it used to be? Maybe they’re missing deadlines or their work just seems sloppy.
Physical symptoms of stress and burnout can include headaches, muscle tension, and gastrointestinal issues. Emotional symptoms like apathy, hopelessness, and a lack of enthusiasm for work are critical signs of burnout.
Recognizing burnout symptoms early is key to preventing long-term damage to an employee’s health and productivity. If someone seems like they just don’t care about their job anymore, that’s a big red flag.
How Managers can make a difference at the individual level?
Managers play a crucial role in combating stress & burnout in the workplace. Effective burnout prevention strategies in Australia include promoting work-life balance and providing access to mental health resources.
Here are some simple ways to do it:
Creating a Supportive Work Environment: A positive work environment where employees feel valued and supported can significantly reduce stress levels. PS We have a blog on How to Foster a Strength-Based Culture When Leading Teams in Australia in 4 STEPS. Check that out after this one!
Encouraging Work-Life Balance: Managers should promote a healthy balance between work and personal life to prevent burnout. Check out this post on how our founder Khanh Vu leverages her strengths to own her Physical well-being.
Promoting Open Communication: Encouraging open and honest communication helps identify issues early and fosters a sense of community and support.
Communication plays a crucial role in everything we do, feel and behave.
Let’s explore this further.
To promote open communication, it starts with you as the Manager leading the way. Having regular one-on-one meetings can help managers stay informed about their team’s well-being, and provide opportunities for feedback and recognition.
We all want to feel appreciated for our hard work and accomplishments. A kind word or gesture goes a long way, keeps morale high, and reduces burnout.
How do we turn these into meaningful conversations that show you care?
Meaningful conversations are the cornerstone of effective management and employee engagement. They go beyond surface-level exchanges, fostering a deeper connection and understanding between managers and employees.
A meaningful conversation involves active listening, empathy, and genuine interest in the employee’s thoughts and feelings.
Here are the top 5 characteristics of what we think makes meaningful conversations,
why we think it’s important, and how you can implement it to:
- Improve your communication style,
- Reduce stress and burnout and
- Increase engagement.
1. Recognition for Recent Work:
- Importance: Acknowledging employees’ efforts and achievements boosts morale and motivation. Employees who feel emotionally drained are less likely to be engaged and productive at work. Recognition fosters a sense of value and appreciation, reinforcing positive behaviours and encouraging continued effort.
- How to Implement: Regularly highlight specific contributions and successes. Use team meetings, one-on-ones, or written notes to express gratitude and acknowledge hard work.
2. Collaboration and Relationships:
Importance: Strong working relationships and effective collaboration are key to a cohesive and productive team. Building trust and mutual respect among team members enhances cooperation and innovation.
- Read about The Increasing Importance of a Best Friend at Work.
- How to Implement: Encourage teamwork through collaborative projects and open communication. Create opportunities for team bonding and relationship-building activities.
3. Current Goals and Priorities:
- Importance: Clarity on current goals and priorities ensures everyone is aligned and working towards common objectives. It helps employees understand how their work contributes to the bigger picture.
- How to Implement: Regularly discuss and update goals during team meetings and one-on-one conversations. Ensure employees have a clear understanding of their roles and how they fit into the team’s objectives.
4. Appropriate Conversation Length:
- Importance: The length of a conversation should be adequate to cover important topics without feeling rushed, allowing for meaningful dialogue and mutual understanding.
- How to Implement: Schedule regular check-ins of 15-30 minutes to discuss progress, challenges, and feedback. Ensure conversations are long enough to be thorough but concise enough to respect time.
5. Focus on Strengths and What They Do Well:
- Importance: Emphasizing strengths and what employees do well builds confidence and encourages a growth mindset. It helps employees leverage their natural talents to achieve their best performance.
- How to Implement: Identify and discuss individual strengths during feedback sessions. Use assessments that focus on strengths. Encourage employees to use their strengths in their daily tasks.
Click here to discover your and the team’s strengths by taking the Clifton Strengths Assessment (under $100 AUD per person)
In short, when managers focus on intentionally having these meaningful conversations with their employees, they build a culture of trust and support, leaving employees to feel valued, heard, and seen. A great start to building a high-thriving and high-performing team – essential for mitigating stress and burnout in the workplace.
Leveraging Strengths to Combat Stress & Burnout
The urgent need for psychological safety during stress and burnout is undeniable. One of the best ways managers can fight this ‘mental health” pandemic is to focus on what people do best: use employees’ strengths.
They should help them build strong – strengths-based partnerships to cut burnout and boost engagement. Promoting a healthy work-life balance is key to reducing stress and preventing burnout among employees. Implementing psychological safety strategies in the workplace helps build trust and encourages open communication among employees.
Ensuring employees have adequate time to rest is crucial for preventing burnout and maintaining productivity. Regular physical activity is an effective way to reduce stress and improve mental health.
Placing individuals in roles that play to their strengths is a positive move that guarantees success. It’s a win for the employees and a win for the manager. Managers should use the same insights to see if they have the talent and skills or the desire to coach their team. Learn how to foster a strength-based culture in your team.
Equipping managers with data-driven insights can drive positive change within the team. Reassessing employee engagement every 6-12 months using tools like Gallup’s Q12 (we will have more content on this soon!) ensures managers are equipped to foster a thriving culture.
Benefits of Employee Engagement:
Engaged employees are happy and thriving in both work and life. When compared to actively disengaged employees, engaged employees are:
- 37% less likely to be diagnosed with depression.
- 65% less likely to report experiencing disrespect.
- 75% less likely to observe unethical behaviour.
- 84% less likely to report experiencing bullying and harassment.
Conclusion
As a manager, your role in combating stress and burnout should be your number 1 priority. We all know that a healthy, happy, and engaged team will give the business what it wants. It will give growth and result in more money. It’s in the HOW this gets done that will either be a hit or a total flop in engagement scores.
Strong manager support in Australia is essential for fostering a workplace culture where employees feel valued and engaged. Read our blog on How to Foster Strength-Based Culture in 4 steps!
You as the the manager – hold the key to this success.
How will you choose to lead your team, today?
At Satori Connect, we understand the challenges managers face. We will be launching soon, Our Kintsugi Leadership Program which is a 6-month program, that leverages strengths to accelerate managers’ skills for meaningful conversations, increasing engagement and serving as a remedy for burnout. Let us help you build a roadmap towards a thriving organisation through the superpowers of leveraging strengths.
So, are you ready to Strengthsify Your Team?
We have a special offer for you!
To express your interest to get the early bird offer to our 6 Months Kintsugi Leadership Program, put your name & copy paste this text:
“Early Bird Offer to Kintsugi Leadership Program”
in the message section of the contact form linked above.
FAQs
What are the common causes of workplace stress?
Common causes of workplace stress include high workloads, tight deadlines, unrealistic expectations, lack of support, poor communication, focus on weaknesses and job insecurity.
How can managers identify burnout in their team?
Managers can identify burnout by looking for signs such as decreased performance, increased absenteeism, emotional exhaustion, and withdrawal from work activities.
How can leaders in Australia use meaningful conversations to enhance psychological safety?
Leaders can enhance psychological safety by regularly engaging in meaningful conversations that recognise employees’ efforts, encourage collaboration, clarify goals, and focus on strengths. These conversations build trust and show employees that their contributions are valued.
How can managers promote a healthy work-life balance?
Managers can promote a healthy work-life balance by encouraging regular breaks, offering flexible work schedules, and supporting employees’ personal interests and hobbies.
What resources are available for employees dealing with stress and burnout?
Resources for employees dealing with stress and burnout include Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), counselling and therapy services, and stress management workshops. A proactive approach to managing stress involves regular check-ins and providing resources for mental health.
Sign up for our amazing strength-based services catered towards increasing your team’s performance.
