Communication is key
According to a LinkedIn Pulse article, you need to sit down with the employee and talk to them frankly about the issue. Sometimes it may be hard for them to discuss such matters, especially ones of a personal nature, so there is no need to go into detail. Focus only on relevant information.
Core of the problem
Identify what triggers the stress and its original cause. Is it something at work or in the employee's personal life? Can you do anything about it or not? All this information is key to finding a successful solution.
Plan for the near future
Based on your definition of the problem and its causes, agree with the employee on how you can immediately help them. Find out what the employee would regard as an ideal solution, and be open to all the options they might suggest.
Ease some of the burden
No matter whether the stress is rooted at work or in the employee's personal life, it is clear, given that you detected the signals, that the stress is impacting the given team member's work performance. So you need to reduce their workload. Discuss whether they want to take a break, or delegate part of their agenda to someone else, or make the work of the employee easier in any other way.
Enjoyable work
One of the ways to make work easier for the employee is to eliminate, in the short term, tasks that stress them out, and enable them to focus on tasks they enjoy.
Long-term solution
All the points described above are focused more on a short-term solution of acute stress. But your goal should be finding a long-term, sustainable solution, which will prevent such a situation reoccurring in the future. You must therefore agree with the employee on how the system will be set up for the future.
-mm-