Guiding Leadership: The Value of a Manager Assist Program (MAP)

Being a manager can come with many fantastic opportunities, but can also come with its fair share of challenges. You might know about EAP as an option for staff, but managers and supervisors can receive support too.

If you are a manager or have worked in people leadership you might have come across a range of challenging situations, from tricky feedback conversations to managing conflicts. You likely wear many hats, some days supporting staff with their work tasks and providing direction on output, and other days providing emotional support and coaching for staff facing difficult situations

To manage all of this, you likely have a variety of support avenues available. However, sometimes you might find yourself searching for additional avenues to discuss your concerns confidentially, separate from those who may be involved or who you work with day to day. The MAP is a valued support mechanism for people leaders, providing a confidential line of support.    

What is MAP? 

The Manager Assist Program (MAP) is designed to provide managers and supervisors with advice and guidance for a range of challenging situations and decisions that affect your employees. The sessions provide free and confidential support for people-related issues such as:

• Employee mental health
• Workplace conflict
• Performance management
• Employee complaints
• Organisational change
• Leadership skills
• Coaching
• Resilience
• Wellbeing initiatives
• Work-life balance
• Fitness for work issues
• Psychosocial risk management
• Workers’ compensation

In MAP sessions, our experienced Registered Psychologists will seek to understand your concerns and collaborate with you to determine the right solutions. The advice is completely confidential and will be tailored to your situation.  We asked one of our expert Psychologists how the MAP sessions can be used to best support you in addressing your concerns.

What Could My Session Look Like?

A typical MAP session will start with your Psychologist getting an understanding of your work, before learning about the situation and events that have brought you to the session. We will discuss different courses of action to help address your specific concerns. By the end of your session, you will come away with a tangible action plan to guide your next steps in resolving the challenges you are facing.

To give you an idea of what your session could look like, here are some common reasons managers reach out to us.

1. Managing High Workloads  

   Around this time of year, it is not uncommon for teams to be experiencing stress or fatigue due to consistent workloads throughout the year. Some teams may also have additional pressures to complete projects before the holidays. Accessing MAP can help you to identify specific challenges related to workload, fatigue, or burnout that you may have identified for your teams. It can help you to determine what you can do to best support your team coming up to busier periods, and prepare strategies for reducing the impacts of high workload going forward.  

2. Supporting Staff Mental Health  

   Managers are expected to provide reasonable support for staff who may be experiencing mental health challenges. Using MAP can help you better understand and identify early warning signs that staff may be struggling, and help you understand your role as a manager in supporting staff through challenging times. We can also guide you through your responsibilities as a manager and help you to set reasonable boundaries to prioritise your own wellbeing while supporting staff. You may also wish to brainstorm some strategies or reasonable adjustments that could be made for staff that are specific to their role, responsibilities, and industry.

3. Managing Team Conflict   

   Interpersonal friction within a team can disrupt productivity and morale. MAP provides a confidential space to unpack the dynamics of a specific conflict. A session can help you develop a structured approach to facilitate a constructive conversation between team members, establish clear behavioural expectations, and restore a collaborative working environment.

4. Managing Staff Performance 

   A core responsibility for managers is providing feedback. Sometimes you might be faced with situations where performance management is being considered. This can be a difficult conversation and may create discomfort in anticipating how staff will react. MAP can guide you through the best way to provide feedback to your staff and highlight any considerations in having the conversation. You might also use the session to strategise about areas of performance that require improvement and how you can support the staff member to improve. The session can also guide you in thinking about how to support yourself through the process.

5. Addressing Psychosocial Hazards   

   Understanding and managing psychosocial risks, such as low role clarity, high job demands, or poor support, is a key part of your Work Health and Safety duties. In a MAP session, you can discuss how to identify these hazards within your team and develop practical, sustainable control measures. We can help you build strategies to promote a work environment that supports psychological health and safety, in line with your organisational responsibilities.

How to Seek Support?

To seek support through MAP, you can book online or contact Altius directly to explore related services that can support you in your capacity as a manager at 1300 307 912.