If you had to guess how many of your employees were working towards a promotion to become a leader or a manager, what percent would you guess?
75%?
50%?
Well you might be surprised to learn that those are optimistic numbers. It turns out, only 34% of workers aspire for leadership positions and only 7% desire a senior or c-level position.
This nationwide CareerBuilder survey included a representative sample of 3,625 full-time workers in government and the private sector across salary levels, industries, and company sizes.
So why are our managers so stressed?
The business environment is constantly changing and thanks to advances in technology, it’s changing faster than we are able to wrap our heads around. This means our roles at work are constantly changing too. Just as we get comfortable with one task we are given five more new ones.
And a Randstad study cited increased stress as the top reason for avoiding management responsibility. So why aren’t your employees working to climb the corporate ladder? Some say they are happy where they are while others say they don’t want to sacrifice their work-life balance.
This change, while oftentimes necessary to keep your business afloat, is difficult for employees, but can be especially hard on middle managers and leaders because they are the ones disseminating the news of changes taking place – even changes they don’t necessarily agree with but need to enforce.
Reinforcing your managers with the tools to view change as a positive or an opportunity for growth is a crucial skill for a successful organization. If you want your change initiative to succeed, your people need to be on board, and if you want your people to be on board, your managers need to be optimistic about the change.
TRACOM’s Adaptive Mindset for Resiliency program teaches people how to adjust how they perceive “stressful” situations like change. While our natural tendencies might be to fear or reject change, we can rewire our brains to be more open and accepting, and dare I say excited for change.
Change is hard in any situation, regardless if it is at work or in our personal lives. But often times there was a reason the change was needed, and when it is properly inaugurated, aka when the people involved in the change are on board, the change is for the better.
Solutions
Give your managers a leg up on getting their team on board for change. Resiliency training can help your leaders manage stressful situations. Resiliency training might just be the secret weapon your company needs for a more prosperous work environment where managers are less stressed and employees actually want to be promoted. When we are able to view the stresses in our lives – like change – as positives rather than negatives, “stress” in our lives is actually a sign of a prosperous life.
To learn more about change and resiliency click here.
