A close friend who has a well flourishing business suddenly started feeling sick, fatigued and low. Having visited the best of doctors and undergone several tests there was no sign of any improvement. Rather his condition kept worsening as each day passed and it impacted his business.   One fine evening while we were trying to analyze the reasons behind his situation it struck our minds may be he needs a break.

He immediately agreed and requested his wife to help him by extending her support to this business.  The very first day of her attending the business she took over his banking activities, managing the employees and stocks.  She used to be present for nearly half a day.  Within couple of days his health started showing signs of improvement.

We sat and started analyzing the factors which contributed to the improvement of his health.  Our conclusions were:

Delegation of authority:  The moment his wife started taking interest all authorities were taken over by her.  Organizing the layout of goods in the store was prioritized.  Day book, cash entries, stock registers were introduced.  This resulted in systematic and organized way of working.  Thus leading to less of confusion and regulating the work as well as the cash/transactions.  Things started falling in place, efficiencies of the staff increased as they all knew the stock, location and other details of the goods.  This led to controlled organized working, saving on time and improving productivity.

Trust on employees:  She bestowed here trust on the employees and gave them space to perform. Performance of the employees improved and their morale got boosted.  Earlier there was no control over the stocks and transactions which often led to misunderstandings.  The employees always were at the receiving end if anything went amiss irrespective of whether they were at fault or not.  The element of suspicion was impacting the working environment and cordial relations.  Many a time one or the other employee was either asked to leave or left on his own.  This resulted in demoralizing the others.  If you lay trust on your employees/colleagues you will make things easy for yourself and others.  All will cherish working collectively, fearlessly and with trust.

Faith: She laid a lot of faith in the employees and was confident that they would deliver.  Hence she fixed achievable targets and the employees did start achieving them. Before her arrival on the scene there were only one or two employees on whom there was marginal faith. Often tempers were high and blame game existed.  No ownership existed among the employees.  Once employees are made responsible and the ownership is entrusted to them there will always be a marked improvement in the performance levels.

Stress: Constant bickering, targets not being met, uncontrolled business activity, lack of trust, no faith all led to chaos which ultimately led to avoidable work pressure – both in the employees and the owner of the business. Such situations created in building of stress levels with each passing day. All steps initiated by his wife started bringing in normalcy in the working of the store.  Heath of my friend gradually started improving and he became completely distressed over a period of time. Avoid situations which lead to chaotic work environment and enjoy a work environment devoid of stress.

Performance: As the levels of Trust and Faith kept increasing Stress levels started reducing leading to Business showing upward growth.   In order to get improvement in levels of performance have trust and faith in your employees, reduce the stress levels.

All the above are not limiting factors to a congenial working environment and employee satisfaction. Apart from these work culture, monetary factors and all inclusive employee welfare also play a very important key role in any business. Most important but not the least is the humane approach towards your subordinates and colleagues.

When there is lack of trust, employees are not properly rewarded for their work, they are underpaid or the work culture is hostile there is high probability of pilferage of goods, under performance and wastage of time taking place.

In today’s times when technology has advanced and there are umpteen number of knowledge enhancement avenues one should take advantage of using them for the betterment of the organization as well as one’s own growth and that of the employees/colleagues.  All this costs nothing as compared to the gains which get accrued out of this investment. Many organizations are lay least stress on investment of their human resources.

Human Resource professionals have to play a key role in the strategic growth of any organization.  Managements often undermine the importance of these people rather than using them as an asset for bring about an impetus in the development and utilization of its Human resources.

Our conclusion was that unless you trust your employees/colleagues, delegate authority, have faith in their abilities you will unnecessarily add to your avoidable stress.  Any stress will only result in employee /colleague morale being lowered, loss to business and you suffer health wise.

To enjoy good health, peace of mind and a tension free congenial work environment learn how to delegate responsibilities/authority, have faith in the abilities of your employees/colleagues and have trust in them without losing control over the monitoring.