Sean Glaze explains how leaders can reduce team stress through better email habits. Instead of vague messages like "Come see me" or "We need to talk," include a greeting, what you want to discuss, and why it matters.
So how do you reduce stress on your team while improving communication? Well, a lot of this has to do with the email subject lines that you're sending. One of the most anxious moments I ever had as a young teacher are when I got an email from my principal and it very simply said, "Come see me." Now you can imagine as a young teacher all the things that I was imagining and everything I was getting anxious about and all the stress that I built up through the day waiting on my planning period where I could finally make that walk up to the principal's office to find out what was wrong. And so I would encourage you as an effective leader to, instead of sending messages like, "Come see me," or, "We need to talk," one of the most powerful things you can do to reduce stress on your team and to improve communication and morale is to give them a high what and why. Hi, make sure that you're greeting them. Give them a brief explanation about what you need to see them about and why that's going to be important. Hi, what, and why is far better than come see me. I'm Sean Glaze. That's what effective leaders do.
