Put on a Happy Face: How Your Mood Can Impact Your Work Team

Does Your Irritability Create Workplace Stress? Probably!

As many small business owners know, you can want sleep, you can want free time, and you can want to be successful.

But you can usually only pick two.

Being a small business owner is the chance to turn your dreams into reality. However, it doesn’t happen without a lot of work (or without some sleepless nights). According to Bank of America’s Small Business Owner Report, owning a small business causes “twice the stress of maintaining a healthy relationship with one’s spouse and more than four times the stress of managing one’s personal finances.” Still, it’s not just you that’s impacted by the stress of being a small business owner.

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Stress, Like the Flu, Can Spread!

Emotions are contagious. Thanks to the “stress contagion effect” your mood can jump directly from you to your work team just like the common cold. In fact, feeling happy and being in a positive environment at work can increase employee productivity up to 20% — a big impact for any small business.

Managing stress (especially in workplace stress management) is essential. If you walk in the door frustrated that an employee called in sick or your sales for the week are down, there’s a strong chance your team will experience that same stress. Over time, that can equal higher employee turnover, insomnia, and serious health issues for both you and your employees.

Taking care of you for your team’s sake

You can’t just take away the stress of being a small business owner. But you can do some things to keep it from influencing your mood and your team. How? Start with the employee you know best: yourself.

  • Identify stressors. Does a bad commute sour your mood before you even walk in the door? Stay away from road rage by listening to a podcast, carpooling, or taking public transit.
  • Set firmer boundaries between work and home. As a small business owner, it’s easy to feel always on call. Give yourself some room to breathe by setting “power down hours” for personal time.
  • Separate legitimate stress from self-imposed expectations. Do you need to hustle more, or do you just feel like you should be hustling harder? You may be putting unnecessary stress on yourself to keep up when what works for one business owner doesn’t always work for another.
  • Sleep right. The easiest way to reduce stress? Sleep more. Slowing down may be the last thing you want to do, but remember, creating healthy habits for you can create a healthier team.

It’s easier said than done, and yes, sometimes, you’ll have to fake your way through. But by building healthier strategies that keep your personal mood in check, your team will be more productive and more invested in your business. You may even start to experience some positive effects too. After all, positive-thinking entrepreneurs are “more likely to persuade a customer to try a new product.” Stay optimistic, walk into work with a better mood, and you may end up with your glass (and your bank account) looking more than half-full.

Start your free 14-day trial of When I Work! Click here to start scheduling your employees today.

Sources:

http://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/stress/2013/sleep.aspx

https://www.business.com/articles/the-power-of-positive-thinking-in-business/

http://fortune.com/2015/10/29/happy-productivity-work/

http://time.com/9912/10-things-your-commute-does-to-your-body/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/01/survey-says-small-busines_n_1552856.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/07/16/the-reasons-bad-bosses-are-so-bad-and-scary-things-it-means-for-our-health/?utm_term=.99582ceb9439

 

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