A leader’s guide on dealing with employee insecurities

5 min readAug 8, 2017

“Am I the next in line to get scraped off from the team?”

“What if they don’t like what I do?”

“Do they need me?”

These are some common questions that pop in the mind of employees. How do I know it? Well, being the founder of ProofHub I’ve been fortunate enough to work with hundreds of people over the years.

“Want to build a more productive team? Start using ProofHub .”

And, working with them has given me an opportunity to learn about the mental worries that burden an employee. Plus, having worked as a designer for a few years in my career has helped me get an up close and personal look at what it feels when the manager gives a dreaded look when the client does not approve the design.

I can say it with confidence that ‘I understand the insecurities that an employee faces in his everyday life’.

And, to me it’s ok to have insecurities. Because I look at insecurities as a positive sign. It means that the employee is aware that he has certain standards of expectations to live up to. So, the person does not just run off the mill. However, there is a fine line between using insecurities as your strength and making them your biggest enemies.

As a leader here at ProofHub, I make sure that the latter does not happen. How I do it? Here’s a peep into what all I do to deal with employee insecurities -

Lay a foundation of trust

Trust — this small word holds great value in both our personal as well as professional life. A relationship cannot survive without trust — it’s as simple as that. And, the relationship between an employee and a company is no different.

When employees don’t have faith in the leader for whom they are working, they are bound to feel insecure. This is why the number one step to kill employee insecurities is to build a culture of trust. How can you do it? It’s simple — be approachable. When employees know they can come and discuss with you about the stuff that’s bothering them, it will automatically make them feel more secure.

Let them know what’s going on

It is well-known that people are not really open to any change especially when it comes to the way they work. But in order to move from good to better and from better to best, you ought to bring change.

However, more often than not change brings with it a storm of rumors that can devastate the confidence of your employees. This is when insecurities arise. In order to ensure that no such situation arises within the team, it is advisable to always talk in open about the changes you intend to bring. Educate the teams about the positive impact the change is going to have on their performance and on the business overall.

Make them feel at home; and secure

They say people leave bosses and not companies. You don’t have to be that boss. As the leader of the herd it is your responsibility to ensure that employee feels safe — especially when it comes to performance related issues.

Anyone can make mistakes, but feeling insecure because one of the clients rejected your design sample is a clear sign of work culture where employees don’t feel safe. As a leader, this is when you need to step in have some candid conversations with them on how this is not the end of the world. Inspire them to strive for betterment the next time. Let them know that a single failure won’t be the criterion to judge their performance.

When you grow, they grow

When the focus of your employees is shifted towards growth and opportunities, negative things like job insecurity will stand no chance to distract them.

This is where your role as a leader becomes so important. You need to be the one taking initiative and coming up performance boosting plans that inspire employees to go beyond the regular. This could include arranging for bounties, performance incentives and other such stuff. And, growth does not always have to pertain to something related to money.

Even a small pat on the back or announcing the best performers of the week/month in front of the entire team can shift the focus of team members towards giving more than their hundred percent, rather than having job insecurities.

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Sandeep Kashyap is the Founder of ProofHub — a leading project management and collaboration software. A passionate leader, Sandeep is always on the lookout for innovative ideas about filling the communication gap between groups, teams and companies. He is also a featured writer on LinkedIn and a contributing author at YourStory. You can connect with him on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

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