Recession Related Fear and Anxiety: 8 Ways to Help Employees Cope

If you've noticed employees behaving oddly these days, it's probably not your imagination. Morrie Shechtman says their timidity and/or squabbling is based in fear... and explains how to help them productively deal with it.

America may or may not be in a recession. Opinions vary. But ask any leader and he or she will tell you that something is going on. Employees are terrified. They're afraid of their companies failing, of being downsized, of losing their homes and everything they've worked so long and hard to achieve. What's more, they feel like failures. Few are hitting their targets (even after multiple downward re-settings) and they're constantly reminded of it in meetings where they're confronted with embarrassing numbers or given patronizing and hollow pep talks.

If you suspect this fear and shame might be coming through in your employees' day-to-day behavior, Morrie Shechtman says you're probably right.

"One of two types of behaviors is sweeping through the workplace," says Shechtman, a change management consultant and author of Fifth Wave Leadership: The Internal Frontier (Facts on Demand Press, 2003, ISBN: 188915038X). "In one scenario, workers are quietly withdrawing to wherever they can hide out-their offices, breakrooms, behind computers-seeking safety from any kind of interaction or inquiry. They're placating, obsequious, almost painfully polite.

"On the other hand, the amount of childish squabbling and pointless conflict has escalated to baffling proportions," he adds. "In many companies I've worked with the culture has all the feel of a middle school lunchroom instead of a dynamic place of business. Employees exhibit petty behavior and spread rumors. Triangulation is the rule of the day."

So what's going on? Shechtman says we're seeing the results of an unacknowledged "employee underground" movement. Believe it or not, this behavior has its roots in our "cave man" days.

"Our earliest responses to fear are two-fold," notes Shechtman. "First, we go quiet and hope no one notices us. Second, we lash out and try to hurt others. Both are in the service of trying to stay safe. Of course-and this is the irony-neither response is conducive to the focus, creativity, and plain-old hard work it's going to take to pull a company through the recession."

If you lead a modern-day team of cowering prey animals or aggressive predators-or, as may well be the case, some of both-what can you do to help them deal with their fear and get more productive? Shechtman offers the following strategies:

First, don't try to cajole people out of their anxiety. It won't work. "Stop using thinking and brainstorming to talk people out of their feelings," advises Shechtman. "Nobody's going to think their way through this floundering economy, and workers are not going to be logically disabused of their fears or their feelings of failure."

Get real. Start openly talking about reality, urges Shechtman, from the top of the organization down to the bottom. "It's far better to take the It's fear; it's here; get used to it approach than to pretend you're all on a butterfly hunt," he says. "Tell employees, 'Yes, the economy stinks. It isn't going to get better soon, it will exact a price from everybody, and it compromises many aspects of our lives.' This reduces anxiety and allows people to refocus on productive work."

After you address fear, bring up the other F-word. (Failure.) Shechtman suggests you start talking (especially with your key people) about what it means to fail. Does it mean they're worthless and of no value? Does it wipe out everything one does well? Or does it signify a missed opportunity and a lesson (albeit painful) learned? "It is crucial, in this discussion, to get on the table the feelings of having disappointed others and of being disappointed in others," he says. "This clears a lot of air."

Don't assume all conflict is bad. Employees disagreeing, even disagreeing vehemently, is not the problem, says Shechtman. Conflict is actually healthy for a company. After all, there can be no growth without challenge, and no challenge without conflict. It's when employees argue pointlessly, over non-productive issues, and with an edge of hysteria that they're acting out of fear. Address the cause and the symptom will resolve itself. Whatever you do, don't discourage employees from speaking their minds.

"It's actually the opposite end of the spectrum-employees who hide in their offices and avoid all confrontation-that you should worry about," points out Shechtman. "Effective teams are made up of people who care enough about each other to generate conflict and confront the tough issues. If everyone agrees with their teammates without question, what usually happens is the whole team marches down the rosy path to self-destruction."

Encourage and reward people, especially salespeople, who act in counterintuitive ways. "For example, what we at Fifth Wave Leadership are seeing, in numerous sales forces, is a plethora of low-risk sales behaviors," says Shechtman. "Salespeople are doing everything short of pleading and begging and end up completely emotionally disengaged. Their fears of rejection have reached their zenith and they're desperate and frozen. The only way out of this is to challenge the prospect like never before. Tight money doesn't move without emotion.

"That said, when a salesperson takes a risk, praise her," urges Shechtman. "If the risk yields results, reward her. Not only will you encourage her to repeat her success, you'll encourage her coworkers to follow her lead."

Live by the theory of abundance, not the theory of scarcity-and teach employees to do the same. The theory of scarcity holds that there are very limited resources out there to meet your needs and you must therefore accept any opportunity that comes your way. The theory of abundance says that there are infinite resources available to you, and you can pick and choose opportunities that mesh with your values and that ultimately benefit you. Believe it or not, you learned one of these mindsets before you were five years old-and it is still driving the decisions you make in your life and career!

"You might say, well, business is scarce right now and that's true up to a point," reflects Shechtman. "But if you start making decisions from a place of desperation-taking on clients that are bad for you, for instance, or cutting your prices out of fear-you'll ultimately cut your own throat. Look at it this way: People still need your product or service and they have to buy it from somebody. Why not you? Focus on being the best at what you do and move forward confidently and you'll not only keep your customers, you'll probably gain new ones."

Do a "recession review" of employee skill sets. Focus on the skills of your key leaders and ask them (and yourself) the following question: Of the skills that have made you successful thus far, which fit the current economic climate and which do not? "An extremely successful sales manager we have worked with has hit the wall in the last six months, along with the salespeople who work for him," says Shechtman. "His results have been mediocre and getting worse. A portion of this is clearly the economy; but he is well aware that a big chunk is him.

"He is very smart, very articulate, very 'professional,' and an astute tactician and problem solver," he adds. "All of this has produced great results until now. He is also emotionally distant, hard to read, and deflects any attempt to really engage him with humor. What he has had to develop is a new skill base involving self-disclosure, transparency, and vulnerability. There's nothing inherently wrong with his historical skill base-it's simply not enough anymore."

Help employees to find their familiars. So why is the sales manager in the previous tip so closed off? And why are the salespeople mentioned earlier on so afraid to take risks? Shechtman says it's for the same reason anyone behaves in self-destructive (and business-destructive) ways: It's their familiar. Simply put, a familiar is a feeling state we return to again and again. It is an emotional pattern that holds tremendous power over our choices, our relationships, and our careers. Rooted in our families and our upbringing, the familiar is a feeling that we unconsciously reproduce, sometimes to our benefit, but often to our detriment.

"You can help your employees tremendously by learning about familiars and encouraging your employees to identify and subsequently diminish their own," says Shechtman. "You can be sure that when things get really stressful-like right about now-your employees' familiars are asserting themselves in a big way. If enough of those familiars run counter to the skill sets it takes to make it in tough economic times, well, you've got a big challenge to overcome."

Painful as the current economy may be, in some ways it's the proverbial blessing in disguise, says Shechtman. Why? Because it drags employee weaknesses out into the light, where they can be confronted and conquered.

"Having been through a number of recessions, what I've learned is that good times and high profits not only hide many sins, but also disguise a profound and damaging lack of personal and professional growth," says Shechtman. "It sometimes takes a challenging economy to show us that 80 to 90 percent of what has made us successful is also the cap on our future growth. Remove that cap and the sky's the limit, no matter what the economy looks like."

About the Author:

Morrie Shechtman is an international change management consultant whose ideas have shaped public debate in this country. He has taught at distinguished universities throughout the United States, has worked as a therapist and counselor, and now runs a successful management consulting company, Fifth Wave Leadership. He has consulted with top executives in Fortune 500 companies and has lectured internationally on personal transformation and productivity.

Morrie's first book, Working Without a Net: How to Survive and Thrive in Today's High Risk Business World (1994), is widely used as a reference in corporate America. It is utilized as a textbook by a number of universities and is used by many government agencies in management development training.

Morrie is also co-author of Love in the Present Tense: How to Have a High Intimacy, Low Maintenance Marriage (Bull Publishing Company, 2004, ISBN: 092352181X, $16.95), which he wrote with his wife and business partner, Arleah Shechtman.

About the Book:
Fifth Wave Leadership: The Internal Frontier (Facts on Demand Press, 2003, ISBN: 188915038X, $19.95) is available at bookstores nationwide, major online booksellers, or directly from the publisher by calling (800) 929-3811.

For more information on Fifth Wave Leadership and the theories behind it, visit FifthWaveLeadership.com.

   _   _