As you start your day, are you experiencing a calm state of zen? Or are you already getting anxious about all that has to get done?

If you’re feeling stressed, you are in good company. According to Gallup, stress among the world’s workers is at an all-time high. As individuals, we can use some tools to reduce our stress. But there’s a role for managers, too, who should be looking for ways to help their teams lower their stress levels.

Today we’ll hear from clinical professor Carter Cast on how managers can do just that. We’ll also get some insights into how the art of gift giving can offer lessons to marketers.

How to reduce stress at work

Helping your team reduce stress is not just a kind and empathetic move, Cast says. It will also help boost productivity because when stress is properly managed, people can more easily focus on their biggest professional goals.

Cast offered his advice in a recent The Insightful Leader Live webinar. Here are a few of his suggestions:

“Batch” your day: One source of stress is the constant ping of an inbox or the need to attend endless meetings, both of which impede focus on the bigger picture. Cast advises teams to try organizing their days into discrete segments for correspondence, meetings, and strategic thought. That way, people won’t be stuck in a cycle of constant interruptions. The key to this kind of schedule-keeping is to be realistic about it. “Batch your day, and create time buffers,” Cast says. “If you think the meeting is going to take an hour, slot in 90 minutes.”

Put yourself out there: As a manager, it’s important to create a space where people feel comfortable expressing their feelings—especially feelings of stress and frustration. The alternative is an environment where emotions spiral and grow unchecked. One way to do this is to show people it’s okay to be vulnerable by putting your own feelings on the line first. “Design a culture in which talking about mental health is less stigmatized,” Cast says. For example, if you see a therapist for your own mental health, and you feel comfortable mentioning it, consider putting that out there.

Model healthy behavior: You can encourage healthy habits by checking your own behaviors, too. For one, don’t model or reward unduly long workweeks or all-nighters—adults who get at least seven hours of sleep at night report lower rates of stress. And, in Cast’s experience, employees are simply incapable of working effectively for more than 55 hours per week over a sustained period of time.

You can read a full recap of Cast’s webinar here.

Lessons for marketers from the art of gift giving

Marketers often spend too much time thinking about what they would want in a product or service and not enough time thinking about the customer, explains clinical assistant professor Gina Fong in an article in Harvard Business Review.

To change this mindset, Fong suggests relying on best practices from another activity that involves putting someone else’s needs before our own: gift giving.

Here’s one example:

Avoid generic gifts: While cash or a gift card may be useful gifts, they are also generic and don’t offer any true connection between the gift giver and receiver, Fong says. So when possible, it is ideal to offer the receiver something a bit more bespoke. The same goes in the business world. Take, for example, the hotel that sends a bottle of champagne to the couple celebrating their anniversary. “If you don’t drink or you’re not fans of champagne, this gesture falls flat. A more thoughtful gesture would be for the front desk to offer a few options, e.g., a coupon for a discount spa service or a free dessert at the hotel restaurant.”

You can read Fong’s full HBR article here.

See you next week!

Emily Stone,
Senior editor, Kellogg Insight