Building a business is hard work. Sustaining the organization over time is even more difficult. For leaders on all levels of the corporate ladder, designing workable business plan and implementing strategies can become an overwhelming challenge with long days and sleepless nights along the way. Even the most even-keeled, rational person can become emotionally drained. In these volatile economic times, how can organizations solve this dilemma before there is massive employee burnout?
Here’s what I have learned from my Great Dane, a therapy dog named Beretta. Beretta and I have been visiting hospitals and business organizations over the past three years. His job as a therapy dog is to offer emotional support to individuals -- whether they are patients or hospital staff or employees. Staying positive during troubling times can seem overwhelming, yet with emotional support shown with a wagging tail or friendly nuzzles, Beretta offers a ray of sunshine to those he visits.
Whether patients are worried about how to combat an illness or employees are feeling the stress of an overscheduled workload, Beretta brings a moment of calm that punctuates a feeling of emotional upheaval in these individuals’ lives. Staff members who see this gentle giant on a regular basis look forward to his quiet presence. Emotional support is a type of support that bolsters individuals with a renewed confidence to keep moving forward.
When considering your business culture, it may not be possible to have a canine companion available in the workplace. However, it is possible to develop teams that embrace strategies for offering emotional support to each team member. Even leaders in the C-Suites find it lonely sometimes, administering through challenging times. They, too, need to be reminded that others understand. Mentoring emerging leaders, providing scheduling strategies for blending work/life commitments, and encouraging respectful understanding of team members’ work challenges are all types of emotional support.
Smart leaders find ways to include emotional-support strategies in the building of their workplace culture. They know that there are times when the business will be navigating through difficult circumstances, and there will be a need to have the best output available from all staff members. Celebrate the successes once a tough job is completed. All businesses need to remember the human side of the organization ... even if that reminder sometimes comes from a four-legged freelancer.
