Healthy Leadership: How to Avoid Adding Stress to Your Team
As an executive, you carry a significant responsibility—not just for the company’s bottom line, but for the well-being of your team. However, in the drive to “help,” you might unintentionally create stress, strain, and frustration. To be an effective leader, it’s crucial to take care of your own wellness first. A healthy leader makes better decisions, listens more carefully, and fosters a positive, thriving team culture.
Here’s how you can maintain your own wellness to ensure you’re leading effectively without adding unnecessary stress to your team.
1. Recognize the Signs: Are You Helping or Controlling?
When a leader is feeling overwhelmed, exhausted, or under pressure, it’s easy to slip into micromanagement mode. You might feel the urge to establish rigid guidelines, enforce strict rules, or “fix” everything for your team. While this may seem like you’re bringing order to chaos, it often backfires, causing confusion and stress.
A healthy leader recognizes when they’re trying to control too much. Step back and ask yourself: Am I providing solutions that empower my team, or am I adding undue pressure because I’m feeling overwhelmed or that I “have” to take action?
2. Prioritize Your Own Wellness
A leader who is burnt out or stressed will likely project that stress onto their team. Take care of your physical, mental, and emotional health to ensure you’re in the right frame of mind to lead effectively. When you prioritize your own wellness, you’re less likely to make reactive decisions that add strain to others.
What this looks like:
- Regular self-care: Set aside time for exercise, meditation, or other stress-relieving activities that allow you to recharge.
- Healthy boundaries: Avoid overloading yourself with too many tasks or responsibilities. Delegate when necessary.
- Emotional regulation: Practice techniques like mindfulness or journaling to manage stress before it impacts your leadership.
3. Embrace Vulnerability: You Don’t Have to Have All the Answers
One common pitfall for leaders is the belief that they need to have all the answers. This can lead to creating unnecessary rules or guidelines out of fear that your leadership will appear weak if you don’t step in. A healthy leader knows it’s okay to admit uncertainty and involve their team in the problem-solving process.
What this looks like:
- Ask for input: Let your team know you’re open to their suggestions and ideas for tackling challenges.
- Be transparent: If you’re unsure about the best course of action, share your thoughts with your team. Transparency builds trust and reduces the pressure to have it all figured out.
- Cultivate a culture of collaboration: When employees feel heard and valued, they’re more likely to offer solutions that are effective and reduce stress.
4. Lead with Empathy
A healthy leader leads with empathy, which requires understanding the emotional and mental state of your team. When you’re healthy and grounded, you’re better equipped to recognize when your well-meaning actions might be adding unnecessary pressure.
Empathy allows you to listen actively and truly understand what your team needs—rather than assuming you know the best solution from your perspective.
What this looks like:
- Regular check-ins: Not just about work tasks, but about how your team members are feeling.
- Non-judgmental listening: Give space for your team to express frustrations or concerns without immediately jumping to “fix” things.
- Adaptability: Be willing to change or loosen guidelines when they aren’t serving the team, showing that you trust their feedback.
5. Focus on Long-Term Well-Being, Not Just Short-Term Fixes
When you’re not taking care of your own wellness, it’s easy to focus on quick, short-term solutions. You might implement strict rules or guidelines that seem to solve immediate problems but create long-term issues for your team’s morale and well-being.
A healthy leader balances short-term needs with long-term team sustainability. This means looking beyond quick fixes and fostering an environment where the team feels supported, trusted, and empowered to take ownership of their work.
What this looks like:
- Strategic decision-making: Ask yourself if a rule or process change will help your team thrive in the long run.
- Empowering leadership: Focus on creating structures that give your team autonomy and flexibility rather than rigid constraints.
- Wellness as a priority: Make sure you’re not just pushing for productivity at the cost of your team’s wellness—and your own.
Final Thoughts: As an executive, your well-being directly impacts your leadership. When you take care of yourself—physically, emotionally, and mentally—you lead with clarity, empathy, and purpose. This, in turn, ensures that you’re not unintentionally adding stress or strain to your team. Healthy leadership is about empowering others, not controlling them, and that begins with prioritizing your own wellness.
