In the end, they stress out other people because they don't know how to handle things well. Team leaders, supervisors, and middle managers cause most of the stress at work for people who work in the operational and functional parts of the organisation.
There are a lot of ways that managers can cause stress, but here are some of the most common ones.
Not being trained well enough. Middle managers take on a lot of stress because they haven't been trained to be good managers. Even though everyone agrees that training and development for managers are important, more than 80% of managers in organisations today have had no more than 5 days of training. It's easy to think that this statistic is skewed because older managers aren't as good as younger ones, but that's not the case. Most younger managers haven't been given any more. It's no wonder that most managers don't know how to run their businesses well. Because of this, the manager acts in ways that are inherently wrong and, as a result, are likely to cause stress in those who are affected by them.
Putting operational plans into action. The stressed-out manager won't know the corporate-level goals and strategies, won't implement local operational plans with an eye toward the higher-level goals, won't include key people and teams in the planning process, won't weigh risks against desired outcomes, won't build in enough flexibility in the plans, won't make sure that people and teams have the training and resources they need, and won't monitor and adjust. Will the plans come together? No. Will there be more stress? Yes.
Promoting New Ideas. Good managers encourage creativity and new ideas by: promoting a culture of continuous improvement; encouraging individuals and teams to find ways to improve existing processes; responding positively to ideas from individuals and teams; talking about how improvements or new methods could be put into place; promoting agreed-upon changes to senior management; and making sure the people who came up with the changes get credit for them. They don't do any of these things. Because of this, dissatisfaction and anger grow, and both individuals and teams feel like they don't matter. Will there be more stress? Yes.
Taking care of health and safety. The state of the place where people work is a major cause of stress at work. This can include things like temperature, safety, personal space, air quality, cleanliness, access to emergency exits, and so on. Knowing that health and safety should be a top priority, a responsible manager makes sure that: they are aware of their own health and safety responsibilities in their areas of responsibility; the organization's health and safety policy is clearly communicated to all relevant employees; each person is aware of and trained to carry out their own health and safety responsibilities; and systems are in place for identifying, reporting, and correcting health and safety problems. When the manager doesn't take health and safety seriously, conditions get worse and become more dangerous, workers' health is hurt, and accidents happen. Stress levels will go up, and, oddly enough, so will the chances of getting sick or having an accident. This is because stress makes people less confident, more easily distracted, and possibly sick.
Operational Process Management. The main job of middle managers is to run the business processes, or operational processes. The manager who is carrying a lot of stress doesn't do this job well because he or she doesn't change the processes so that they lead to the desired results, doesn't make sure that each part of the process has the resources it needs, doesn't give the people and teams doing the work enough information, doesn't define responsibilities, doesn't set up a monitoring and control system, and doesn't take the right steps to fix the process when it's not working. For the teams and people doing the operational activity, this means they don't have enough information, their goals aren't clear, their roles and responsibilities aren't clear, and there is conflict and frustration. Because of these effects, there will be more stress.
Creating good relationships at work. Managers who are good at their jobs will work hard and constantly to build and keep good relationships with their coworkers and other stakeholders. This requires the manager to: identify colleagues and other stakeholders, such as internal and external suppliers and customers; build good working relationships with relevant people; respect other people's knowledge, skills, roles, and responsibilities; give colleagues and stakeholders the information they need; ask colleagues and stakeholders about their priorities and needs; act ethically toward colleagues and stakeholders; monitor. Do managers with a lot of stress act this way? No. Will the way they act hurt these relationships? Yes.
Managing Change. People often say that the amount and speed of change are to blame for the rise in negative stress at work. This idea hides the real problem, which is that managers aren't good at making or responding to changes. Change can be handled in a way that causes the least amount of trouble, avoids conflict, reduces resistance, and makes most people happy about the change. There are, of course, some big changes that make some people feel bad, like when people have to be laid off. The middle manager can't do anything about these changes or how they affect things. But the manager should take an approach to change that, in most cases, will make it a relatively stress-free experience. This method involves: figuring out how the proposed change will affect people and preparing for it; telling everyone and every team about the changes and why they are happening; making it clear what the goals of the changes are; making sure that changes made at the local level take into account local circumstances as much as possible; making sure everyone knows what their roles and responsibilities are in relation to the changes; and giving people help as they go through the changes. If managers don't take this approach, they will find that change is a battlefield, with resistance and conflict, or at best, a lack of enthusiasm for the change. The goals of making the change won't be met. In the process, stress levels will go up and be hard to bring down.
Managing Professional and Personal Growth. Managers who are good at their jobs understand that personal and professional growth should be ongoing and do it regularly and with enthusiasm. They do this by: making regular plans for the skills, knowledge, and qualifications they will need to keep managing well and move up in their careers; finding ways to get more skills, knowledge, and qualifications; making and carrying out personal and professional development action plans; getting regular feedback on their performance from others; and being proud of what they have accomplished in this area. Managers who aren't good at their jobs don't do any of these things, or if they do something, it's either not enough or not what the organisation needs. They still don't know enough about management, aren't good at key parts of it, and don't know what the best practises are. Because of this, they continue to manage badly. Because of this, the manager's actions still cause stress for other people.
There's no question that most stress at work comes from the managers. Managers are in charge of managing. Managers are in charge of making sure that the workplace is safe, healthy, organised, well-resourced, and meeting the goals that have been set. In order to do this, the manager must keep and improve the levels of motivation, morale, quality standards, performance, and skills of both individuals and teams. Managers who can't do this will cause problems, confusion, discord, disagreement, conflict, disappointment, frustration, anger, more sick days and staff turnover. This means that they will continue to cause stress at work, and the people and teams they manage will continue to feel the bad effects of that stress. The point is made clear. To lower negative stress in the workplace, you need managers who have been trained in management and who do their jobs well and with thought. Yes, there will be times when stress is higher than usual. However, this should be caused by the ups and downs of the organization's activity, not by the actions of a single manager. Stress management will remain a top priority until managers learn how to do their jobs well. People will spend more and more time and energy on ways to deal with stress. Higher rates of employee turnover and absence, as well as the cost of poor performance, will be paid for by the organisation. The real problem, which is what's causing the stress, will still be there.
