Prioritizing Self-Care of Your Team

By Mikhael Cometa, M.A., Leadership Consultant + Associate at Coffee on Leadership

Managing a team during a pandemic has been difficult. At the start of the pandemic, my team had to make quick and sudden changes to their work experience in an instant. This took a toll on my team’s mental and emotional health, and their overall wellbeing. Where morale and productivity are at an all time low, supervisors need to be attentive to the mental and emotional health of their employees more than ever. 

 As leaders, our success is dependent on the success of our team’s performance. For our team to be successful in their roles, they need to be well. And our team cannot operate at their peak performance if they're burning out. We must create a culture and an environment that prioritizes the holistic wellbeing (mental health, emotional health, physical health, etc.) of everyone, including ourselves as leaders.

To create a culture that prioritizes the holistic wellbeing of your team during the pandemic is simple, really, but it requires intentionality.

Pay Attention to Burnout

My team was on the verge of burnout. Towards the end of 2020, I was sensing exhaustion and a lack of motivation with my team. As I was noticing my team move towards burnout, I knew something needed to change, and for change to occur, I had to pay attention and be curious to the current reality of my team. 

 As leaders, it’s our responsibility to identify burnout in our team, and do our best to prevent burnout. Pay attention to potential signs of burnout: 

-Are they lacking motivation? 

-Are they disengaged or distracted?

-Do they appear to be exhausted? 

-Are they lacking passion in their work?

-Are they cynical?

Offer Weekly Check-Ins Dedicated to Your Staff Team

I have dedicated a consistent space for weekly check-ins with my team. You should too, if you aren’t already. The purpose isn’t to talk about work responsibilities or to-do lists. Instead, the purpose of this time is to gauge the well-being of your teams - their holistic health. By asking intentional questions during this check-in, your team is given permission to share how they're actually doing. 

 Helpful questions could include:

-How are you ACTUALLY doing? 

-What’s going well? What challenges are you experiencing?

-Where are you experiencing burnout with your role? 

-What challenges are you experiencing working from home?

- How are your stress levels?

Your role as a supervisor in these check-ins is to validate and affirm your employees’ experience. There’s no need to get defensive or explain. Listen. Empathy goes a long way. 

Is a staff member doing genuinely well? Celebrate that. Is a staff member feeling exhausted? Acknowledge their exhaustion. Your validation creates trust. And you’re demonstrating that you value their wellbeing beyond their work responsibilities.

Create a Culture that Prioritizes Self-Care

At the start of 2021, I knew something needed to change with my team as they were still moving towards burnout. So to kick off the new year, I required them (as a part of their jobs) to take 2-hours of their work week to practice self-care - napping or Netflix doesn’t count. 

** It’s okay if you can’t do that in your industry - some jobs might not allow for that,  but there are other ways you can prioritize self-care in other creative ways.

Create a culture that prioritizes your team’s self-care. 

• Plan a staff training on self-care. 

• Begin the training sharing your vision on self-care-- share why it’s important they give attention to taking care of their mind and body. 

• Use this training to ask your team: 

  • What does self-care mean to you?

  • How do you practice self-care currently? 

  • What are your barriers to practicing self-care? 

• After answering these questions, develop a self-care plan with your team. Each team member shares the specific ways they plan to practice self-care outside of week (read 20 minutes, run 1-mile a day, etc.)  

• Share healthy practices your team can incorporate into their workday. For example:

  • Take a 5-minute break every hour.

  • Step outside for a 10-minute walk.

  • Meditate at the beginning and end of work week.

  • Don’t respond to emails after hour work hours

Solidify individual self-care plans by having each team commit to specific self-care activities. Let them know that you will follow up with them the following week. That follow-up is as simple as asking: 

• Did you practice self-care and follow your self-care plan?

• How has practicing self-care changed your day/week/month? 

• What’s feeling different? What’s feeling the same?

A weekly/bi-weekly check-in provides accountability. It also demonstrates to your team that you are committed to their wellbeing and in this journey with them. 

A culture that prioritizes wellness might offer a sense of relief in the chaos, unknown, and anxiety that comes with the pandemic. This doesn’t develop overnight (or after a seminar on self-care). It develops through consistency and compassion.  And what I’ve noticed with my team is that we’ve slowly crept back from that fine line of burnout.