These 5 behaviors could be undermining your leadership

When you're feeling overwhelmed at work, focus on the most important thing -- and ask your boss precisely what that is -- and be clear on the help you'll need to accomplish that task (or tasks), writes Karin Hurt. When managing an overwhelmed team, Hurt advises leaders to prioritize tasks for them, seek creative solutions and express appreciation for their hard work.

Put it into practice: When you feel overwhelmed, ask your boss for the help you need, and make sure your direct reports know to ask you that too, Hurt writes. "As a manager, you want to do what you can to prevent the snowball of overwhelm from picking up speed as it rolls downhill."

You can undermine your team and your leadership if you avoid dealing with uncomfortable issues, are constantly angry with your team, or keep reorganizing your team and their tasks, writes Marlene Chism. "Stop moving the chess pieces on the board and instead use your courage to speak to a new possibility," Chism writes.

Put it into practice: Other behaviors that could be weakening your leadership include not asking for your team's opinions and delegating strategic tasks to them that may be beyond their skill or authority, Chism notes. "There's some work that only you can do, which includes interviewing consultants, talking with change agents and getting clear about what outcomes are needed and why."

Improve communication with your team and your boss by giving the most vital information they need first, ask questions to draw out insights and use language that's easy to understand and jargon-free, write Jennifer Sundberg and Pippa Begg, co-CEOs of Board Intelligence. "It also encourages you to own your message, displaying the accountability that is crucial for getting others to back you and your ideas," they write.

Put it into practice: New ideas and innovation always try to bubble up in organizations, but muddy communication can keep them buried write Sundberg and Begg. "[V]ital information needs to be shouted from the rooftop, not hidden in the haystack."

Pano Christou started working at McDonald's at age 16 as an hourly employee and worked his way up first at that chain and then at Pret A Manger where today he leads the company as CEO, and he advises others work hard no matter where they are on their career ladder. "I've watched people that have been so fixated on the next role that they really take their eye off the current job they're doing. My philosophy has always been if you do a great job, people will notice you," Christou says.

Call it a perk of fame, but singer and actor Barbra Streisand did not like how Siri pronounced her name -- putting in a "z" -- so the 81-year-old two-time Oscar winner went straight to the top, contacting Apple CEO Tim Cook to complain. It worked -- Siri's mistake has been corrected -- causing Streisand to quip: "It's Strei-sand, like sand on the beach. How simple can you get?"

It seems that nearly everyone is doing more with less these days -- a surefire way to create a feeling of overwhelm. Karin Hurt's advice is vital to coping with overwhelm -- if not reducing the number of tasks on your plate.

It's always right to ask for help, as well as ask your boss for clarification on which tasks are the most vital. The same goes for your team. You should encourage them to seek assistance and guidance if they feel stressed and overworked.

How do you deal with overwhelm? Share your strategies.

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