As companies and as managers, we have a very important job: to think beyond the next quarter.
We are not merely shareholders of our companies; we need to issue and implement a vision that will last and endure. I have worked in many companies over the years, and seeing my colleagues leave with burnout is a tragedy. It truly is.
It’s just as tragic as an injury on a construction site. Just like a construction worker might sustain a physical injury, a person in an office can sustain mental injuries. We need to learn to recognize the signs before it’s too late, and we need to act.
Our goal must not be to squeeze out as much as possible. Some people in mental health suggest that our goal should be to turn our employees into our future leaders. We know that the optimal output happens when a person is in a state of flow, yet we often overwhelm our colleagues with stress. Stress leads to reduced neuroplasticity and decreases learning and performance over time. It also results in more mistakes. People who are stressed spend more time doing unnecessary things. There are emails you don’t really want me to send; they might seem productive in the short term, but they mostly create more waste.
Over time, it’s become clear to me that companies need to function more like cooperatives, giving employees joint stakeholdership and treating colleagues like friends. Jack Ma said we need to focus on building “love quotients.” It was his belief that if we treat our employees with love, they will treat us—and the company—with love in return.
The modern workplace has to be a space for lifelong learning and advancement, not just in a hierarchy but also horizontally. IT employees, for example, need time for creativity and innovation, not just for maintenance and operations. If a company fails to plan for and nurture talent, it will perish. People should feel excited at the end of the day, not exhausted. People are not machines. We need to ensure we understand how our colleagues are feeling. They must feel comfortable sharing what’s going on inside them, and we need to actively prevent them from long-term stress.
“Right, that sounds great in theory, but in practice, I have no other choice.”
If you’re a manager, you might read this pragmatically and think, “That all sounds great in theory, but how do we implement it in practice?” As a manager, I can be confronted with stressful goals, difficult customers, urgent demands, and tight deadlines. I want to give my employees the space to succeed and thrive, but sometimes it feels like there’s no time. We need to act now. We can’t afford to miss this delivery. We have to strike while we can.
If you find yourself thinking these thoughts, recognize long-term and future trends. Zoom out and think bigger. Do you believe you’ll feel the same in a week, a month, three months, or six months? If everything is always urgent, then nothing is truly urgent. A problem is urgent only if it is a relatively higher priority than your usual priorities. You need to learn to think with greater nuance and avoid black-and-white thinking. Your company always has work to do, but you must differentiate between immediate concerns and long-term trends.
Stressed employees need more love and support
It’s acceptable if your employees have a heavier workload one month, as long as they have a lighter one another month. You need to plan and organize your work—and your workforce—around these trends. Humans are built to endure short-term stress, especially if they are nurtured in loving and supportive environments. But remember, when your colleagues are under stress, that’s when they are most at risk. The time to show love and support is usually when it’s most difficult to do so.
Managers who can think long-term and distinguish between low-priority and high-priority tasks—who understand seasonal priorities and seasonal trends—will produce more than companies that treat every day as equally urgent, equally important, and equally stressful. Surprisingly, you can get more out of a human being if you try to squeeze them less.
Perhaps the best starting point is to ask your colleagues what genuinely motivates them. What excites them about their work? What do they actually enjoy? What do they like to do? Do your best to build their tasks around those interests. Find out how they like to work and help them create ideal working conditions—an ideal workplace perfectly suited to their needs.
Personally, I realized my output would be much higher if I had my own office—if I could paint and decorate it the way I want and have a window to look out of. I work best when I have time to focus in a distraction-free environment. But I also need art, poetry, music, and beauty. I guess I’m not a machine either.
