It’s a sunny Friday morning, so you may be perplexed when your colleague seems irritated and is short with you when asked a simple question. While your initial response may be to take offense to their rudeness, I encourage to you step back and realize everyone carries burdens we know nothing about. Showing empathy vs. annoyance in situations such as these can make a world of difference for your colleague’s emotional state and your ongoing relationship with them, as well as for your company’s overall success.

As we celebrated Mental Health month in May, it is a good time to reflect on our understanding of our own mental/emotional state as well as that of others. In the example above, possibly the colleague had just received a scary medical diagnosis, perhaps their child is struggling with bullying in school, or maybe they are stressed over their financial situation. We never know what someone else may be going through and by showing kindness and empathy even in situations we might not understand will go a long way. This is a critical piece of a successful company culture.

As a leader in your company, you can take the lead by offering various initiatives to help employees balance their personal and work lives, thereby lessening the stress levels of some situations. Some practical and reasonably cost-efficient programs include:

• Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs): Offering confidential mental health services can be a lifeline for employees.
• Flexible Work Arrangements: Understand the importance of work-life balance and how flexible scheduling and remote work options can alleviate stress and consider adopting a flexible work policy.
• Mental Health Days: Consider allowing employees to take paid or unpaid mental health days without penalty.
• Training Managers to Recognize Signs of Strain: Provide managers with the tools to identify when employees are struggling and how to offer support.

To that last point, companies with managers who lead with empathy will experience higher productivity, stronger working relationships, higher employee loyalty, as well as lower absenteeism and turnover. These companies consist of leaders who maintain reasonable expectations for their employees and demonstrate interest in their well-being. While performance expectations should challenge employees, managers who keep the bar in a realistic place for them will experience higher overall productivity.

Additionally, remember that open communication is always the key to success. Frequent informal conversations in addition to scheduled one-on-one meetings will give employees a forum to voice their concerns or difficulties. From there, solutions can be formulated to hopefully relieve some of their stress and productivity obstacles. But almost more important, is the fact that these interactions will help the employees feel validated and respected. What might be considered a seemly simple conversation can have an amazing effect. By ensuring employees understand their company cares about them, you have hit pure gold. From there, only positive results will follow.

While often top management focuses on the “bottom line”, they need to understand that leading with a culture of empathy, understanding and communication will have a direct impact on the bottom line. Additionally, leading by this example will facilitate a culture where employees can grow their skills in a safe environment.

Case in point, consider a situation where an employee is making multiple errors while processing payroll. Responses to this situation could include disciplinary action, which may lead to more mistakes as their stress level is elevated or jumping to dismissing the employee resulting in costly turnover and retraining. Instead, try starting with an informal conversation asking, simply, “What’s going on?”. They may respond, for example, that processing payroll in their cubicle is allowing for distractions since the department is noisy. Discuss possible solutions such as moving them to a room with a door to process payroll, thereby mitigating these distractions. This simple process will most likely result in the mistakes disappearing, the employees stress level being alleviated and the manager/employee relationship being strengthened.

This may be a simple example, and acknowledging there are many times in workplace environments this casual approach may not work, I encourage you to stop and consider your reaction to a situation before jumping to conclusions. Whether you’re acting in a manager role or simply as co-worker, having a genuine conversation will go a long way.

While this approach may seem like “fluff” when in the thick of deadlines, productivity issues, or other stressful situations, it has been proven to result in positive outcomes. It may take a lot to stop, take the emotions out of the situation, and refocus our reactions, but the effort is truly worth it. Try it, you’ll see.

Written By: Kim Hardtke, HR Generalist, Emery HR