Counseling is an area of management that is not usually mentioned or get the attention it deserves – but is an activity that is done regularly. As a leader, be prepared to wear your counselor hat, because when your employees are facing problems, they will come to you for guidance and direction. More and more organization are implementing programs and training geared towards maintaining mental health, mindfulness and overall wellbeing. With this in mind, leaders must equip themselves with the requisite knowledge to effectively execute these objectives for the benefit of the team they lead – as well as for their personal wellbeing.
Today we will focus on five areas that requires counseling on a regular basis.
- Personal and domestic problems
- Managing grief
- Conflict among team members
- Poor performance
- Low morale
Personal and domestic problems
Many employees are not maintaining a good work life balance – as they seek to escape home situations by burying themselves into work activities. Their aim is to drown out the problems they are facing at home by working long and odd hours. Your duty is to pick upon certain indicators without being nosy. If they trust you, they will usually open up and share things that are affecting them negatively. Be careful not to give unsolicited advice – sometimes all the staff need is for someone that they trust to listen. If the situation is spilling over into their job, then this is something that you will need to address tactfully. If this issue is beyond your scope and competences – the team member should be referred to the appropriate wellness staff or HR – so that they can get the help they need.
Managing grief
The crippling effects of death and sickness is not something you will hear about often in leadership huddles, meetings, circles or discussions. It is a real thing that will touch our lives in one way or another. Your team is made of people who will eventually get sick from time to time and in some cases, death rears its ugly head. Therefore, at some point during your time as a leader, you will have to deal with the death or sickness of a staff member – or their love ones. Diagnoses such as cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease etc., are conditions that can really upstage their lives and in turn affect how they focus and function at work.
In these moments, leaders are expected to listen, be reasonable, kind, caring and empathetic. In addition to these, managers are really involved in counseling and motivating these staff members. This can be a very emotional and physically draining exercise to be involved in. However, it is your duty to support your staff during the good and the bad times – as this will demonstrates how much you really care about their wellbeing.
Conflict among team members
There are some people who just don’t work well with others and this can impact your team chemistry in the wrong way. Leaders are therefore required to unearth the things that underpins this type of behavior. The results are sometimes not within your scope to address, or in a manner that would keep them on the team. Sometimes the best thing you can do for an employee is to help them get another job that matches their skillset and interest. These employees can be viewed as difficult because they are misunderstood. You should figure this out and help motivate and counsel the staff in a way they would highlight their good qualities and not merely trying to transfer the problem to another manager.
Poor Performance
Low performers require a lot of time and attention to get them on par with the standards of the job. Many of these staff members are doing their outmost best – but they just keep coming up short. This can be depressing, since they cannot seem to get it right. Getting these staff on track requires a lot of motivation, training and counseling. This is going to require a lot of time and effort, so be prepared to spend a lot of time coaching and counseling these staff in your bid to set them up for success.
Low morale
They are several factors that can be attributed to staff members who are experiencing low morale. These includes lack of feedback from management, infrequent praise or recognition for things they do well, poor communication leading to confusion and errors, micromanaging, low engagement, lack of training and trust to name a few. Low morale is a symptom of a deeper issue – that if is not managed carefully, will spread throughout the team which will be harder to curtail than if it was just a few individuals.
Conclusion
To be successful in your role as leader – you have to navigate so many activities on any given day, that you would not fully appreciate or understand – unless you are actually occupying that role. One function that is not normally associated with leaders – is being a counselor. We know that counseling is a separate profession – and that these professionals go through rigorous training in order to be licensed to practice. Despite this fact, counselors are not necessarily the first person to be contacted whenever employees are having problems at work or in their personal lives. Often times that person is their manager.
Therefore, seasoned leaders will tell you that counseling is a never-ending process as long as you are leading people. However, you become better at doing it overtime and are able to get the staff the help they need when they need it. Whether this is done by you or you are able to point them to a qualified professional for help and assistance in managing their issues. So, get use to wearing your counseling hat, because it is required as part of your leadership toolkit.
How effective are you at counseling your staff? I would love to hear some of the strategies you employ to get this done correctly.
