How leaders can support their teams during COVID-19 and other ongoing stressors
UCSF • 2020
Leaders across the world have been struggling with how to adjust to the “new normal” of COVID-19 and the impact on their workforce. In addition to rising COVID-19 cases, leaders have seen their employees cope with other stressors including the consequences of systemic racism, the impact of climate change, as well as exhaustion and burnout.
The U.S. election and its aftermath have the potential to be disruptive and exacerbate stress among our workforce. Our diverse healthcare workforce may have a range of intense emotional reactions. In the face of these ongoing challenges, compassionate leadership is increasingly important. Leaders can take simple yet powerful actions during this time to create more explicitly caring work cultures. Workers across universities and health care systems are eager and ready to engage in efforts to improve the culture and work environment.
As a leader, it may be difficult to know what support your staff needs because we are in such uncharted territory. Staff might also feel hesitant to reach out for help—especially in health care, where there is a culture of being self-reliant and a perceived stigma against accessing support for emotional needs. Studies have shown that staff who feel supported by their leaders are more productive and resilient to stress.
Below are some ideas that you may find helpful during this stressful time. You may also wish to review the video from UCSF: Fostering Resilience During COVID-19 for Your Staff: Pearls for Managers and Leaders.
Check-ins during standing meetings
One of the best strategies for building institutional resilience is to use pre-existing meetings and infrastructure rather than building anew. Given the divisive political climate, we suggest planning ahead and knowing that people may be stressed and may need to talk during your standing meeting. These meetings you hold are actually a great opportunity to build staff supports and resilience. The first step is knowing what is stressful for your team. We recommend following some of the steps outlined below.
Create space to understand the sources of stress: Carve out 5–10 minutes in your agenda at the beginning or end of every meeting to understand sources of stressors (both at home and at work).
"This is an incredibly challenging time. Our work is really stressful and you might be experiencing new stressors at home, too. I want to understand what's been difficult so we can figure out what resources might help."
Assure your staff that you hear them: Simply reflecting, "I hear that you are worried about _____ (e.g., getting sick, civic unrest). That makes total sense."
Work to develop approaches to address concerns: Managers should be open and non-defensive to critiques of how they or the university are adding to stress, and try to address these quickly or by the next meeting.
Inform them of available resources
Provide breaks
Frequent short breaks in the workday can help promote well-being. Many people are reporting “Zoom fatigue” as back to back virtual activities do not have the natural breaks and transitions that we normally have when working in-person. Consider reducing hour-long meetings to 50 minutes and encourage staff to stand and stretch or connect with colleagues informally in the last 10 minutes. Work-time mental breaks are discussed in more detail in this webinar on psychological first aid for health care workers.
Recognize stress and provide support
As a leader, you recognize that staff have limits. They are under incredible stress at work and at home, and simply acknowledging this stress is validating. Staff should be encouraged to care for themselves and get good sleep, drink water, and exercise. You may also think about having individual check-ins with staff whose behavior has changed so you can review these support resources with them. See more resources below to get the support you need.
Encourage informal group meetings
Virtual coffee breaks, lunch meetings, happy hours, and Slack groups are ways many groups have found helpful to maintain a sense of connection to the team and the organization and to access peer support. Use your best judgment as a manager to consider which of these informal opportunities might work for your team, and whether your presence is needed or might inhibit free communication.
Offer gratitude
Simple and genuine expressions of gratitude toward staff is very important. Leaders should recognize and thank individuals and teams for the work they are doing during regular weekly meetings. Gratitude helps most when we state specific descriptions of what they did and the impact it had.
Recognize differences among your employees
Several studies have identified particularly vulnerable populations to psychological impacts from COVID-19. These include front-line providers, women, nurses, people with children at home, and people early in their career. These groups may benefit from individualized attention to their needs.
Support yourself
Being a leader during the COVID-19 crisis is very stressful. It is important that you get the support you need as well. Remember to help yourself first. If you are able to maintain your own well-being, your team will benefit.
Recommendations specific to the 2020 U.S. election
It is best to recognize that there may be a diversity of political preferences on your team, and workers may be concerned that if their opinions differ from yours as the manager, the work relationship may be impacted.
If staff want to discuss the election or politics, focus on the values of the organization and how people may feel the election might impact these values, instead of talking about the political candidates. State explicitly that all views are welcome, and yet political discussions in the workplace are potentially divisive and not helpful to your shared mission. Discourage discussions of the politics themselves and focus on fears relevant to work. There will likely be political discussions anyway, so you should be prepared to intervene.
As a leader, you have managed many difficult conversations. We can simultaneously stand up for the right to have a minority or unpopular opinion, while making sure everyone is respected. In general, focus on the importance of listening and understanding, rather than persuading or defending. It is ok to set limits by explicitly saying that you are willing to have the group discuss a range of opinions as long as they are expressed respectfully. It is also important to let your team know that people can express how particular opinions make them feel.
If the discussion does become contentious or the conversation seems uncivil, you may need to intervene. Explicitly tell the group that the discussion does not seem productive. Leaders may be placed in the role of "referee" and may need to call out statements or actions that are out of bounds, not because of the point of view but rather because of how it is expressed.
Statements that are generalizations about groups, are negative and personal about another employee, or are dismissive of the experiences and emotions of individuals, are all problematic and should be identified as such explicitly. Employees should be reminded that comments that are discriminatory or create a hostile work environment are unacceptable and may trigger disciplinary action. It is completely acceptable to halt political discussion if these become divisive or disrespectful. You might need to say, for example, “We need to take a break from discussing politics right now, as I think it’s causing problems. If you want to re-engage outside of work in a productive conversation, that’s great, but we have to find ways to work together.”
This article was created by members of the UCSF Cope and Cope Columbia teams who are faculty members in the UCSF Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Columbia University Department of Psychiatry, respectively.
References
Antares Foundation. Managing Stress in Humanitarian Aid workers: Guidelines for Good Practice. March 2012.
Galea S, et al. The Mental Health Consequences of COVID-19 and Physical Distancing: The Need for Prevention and Early Intervention. JAMA Internal Medicine. Published on-line April 10, 2020.
Gustavsson, ME et al. Moral Distress among Disaster Responders: What is it? Prehospital and Disaster Medicine 35(2):212-219, 2020
Kisel S, et al. Occurrence, prevention, and management of the psychological effects of emerging virus outbreaks on health care workers; rapid review and meta-analysis. BMJ 2020; 369:m1642.
Lai J et al. Factors Associated with Mental Health Outcomes Among Health Care Workers Exposed to Coronavirus Disease 2019. JAMA Network Open. 2020;3(3): e203976.
Rossi R, et al. Mental Health Outcomes Among Frontline and Second-Line Health Care Workers During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Pandemic in Italy. JAMA Network Open. 2020;3(5):e2010185
Shanafelt, T, et al. Understanding and Addressing Sources of Anxiety Among Health Care Professionals During the COVID-19 Pandemic. JAMA. Published online 4/7/20.
Mellins CA, Mayer LES, Glasofer DR, Devlin MJ, Albano AM, Nash SS, Engle E, Cullen C, Ng WYK, Allmann AE, Fitelson EM, Vieira A, Remien RH, Malone P, Wainberg ML, Baptista-Neto L. Supporting the well-being of health care providers during the COVID-19 pandemic: The Cope Columbia response. Gen Hosp Psychiatry. 2020 Sep 9;67:62-69. doi: 10.1016/j.genhosppsych.2020.08.013. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 33059217; PMCID: PMC7480793.
