Stress - whose responsibility?

Stress can be very invasive and if you are not in tune with early warning signs of stress you can often feel as if it has crept up on you. How you deal with stress is due to historical and habitual responses. Responses differ as a consequence of different cultures, experiences, beliefs and personalities. For example, if in a crisis, a report needs to be produced within a day, you might see this as a challenge or you may become stressed by it. You could be someone who enjoys managing twenty staff or be someone who prefers to work at home alone. Ensuring the right person is in the right job acts as a protection for both the organization and the individual.

When stressed you are likely to react in one or more of the following ways:

·         make more mistakes

·         prefer solitude

·         want to go further and further with the challenges, raising your stress levels ever higher

·         need to be right

·         become over–controlling

·         believe there is something wrong with you

Resilience is a key factor in stress prevention. Resilience is the ability to recover despite periodical setbacks and problems. Highly resilient people know how to bounce back and find a way to have things turn out well.  

Stress can be eased through the ability to make good relationships because then you are likely to believe that you are OK and others are also OK. If you have difficulty in forming relationships you are likely to believe that either, you are not OK and others are better than you, or that you are better than others. Believing that everyone is OK offers a secure base from which to operate. When this happens attachment to your team and to the organization is likely to increase. One outcome of this is that you will be able to appropriately say ‘No’ to things whilst still keeping yourself and others OK.

All organizations need to take account of the organizational culture, leadership styles and the current pressures being faced by leaders and shop floor workers alike.  It is not only the individual who is responsible for their own stress but so too is the organization.  If a manager's leadership style is brusque and aggressive this will inevitably have an effect on the workforce.  Good management entails effective supervision which in turn entails noticing when someone is on overload and doing something about it.  

One of the causes of stress on people is the need to multi–task. Administrators and secretarial staff have to do this a lot – be it writing a report, answering a query when someone comes to their office or answering the phone. Whilst this is an accepted pressure for administrators it does not mean that it is necessarily any easier for them than for others. The western world tends to see multi–tasking as good, hence the comments about women being able to do it well, whereas men are often seen as lacking this ability. Whether or not this is a fallacy it does highlight that fact that multi–tasking is valued. Getting your life in balance probably means doing less multi–tasking and becoming more focused.

For more on managing yourself and others then buy our book: Working Together, Organizational Transactional Analysis and Business Performance, Gower, 2011, also available from Amazon.  You can also attend our Advanced Communication Skills, Level 1, (incorporating the Official Introduction to Transactional Analysis) later this month but you can register for our next one in February, 2012.  Go to our website: http://courses.mountain-associates.co.uk/ta101.html

Key Leadership Functions

A recent article by J. Moore in The Independent was entitled “Why MBAs will have to adapt to survive” (June 23, 2011). In that article Moore quoted Guerra who apparently advised you young people to plan to have multiple careers, expect to be made redundant, and brace themselves for personal and economic crises. This is hardly an inspiring message to those coming into the world of work. We also need to consider what impact this type of world has, and will have, on employers, not just employees? What will they need to do to support their workforce?

One of a leader’s key functions is to enable the development of sense of belonging, without which there will be little trust and more energy will be expended on defensiveness and conflict, which in turn will effect productivity. To develop belonging leaders will need to ensure that they know how to get their message across, communicating clearly and in a way that is accepting of those they work with. Leaders will need to develop strategies that are in line with the organization’s purpose and identity and at the same time take account of the individual.

However, developing a sense of belonging may be difficult when the frame of reference may well be “What’s the point, I may be out of here pretty soon”. Those people who come from this position may well end up lacking connection and therefore trust. Instead we need to find ways to make connection with, and between individuals, and to offer positive recognition for being and doing. We need to start from strengths and be prepared to encourage the workforce to develop and hone their skills so that they are valued within the market place. In addition to all this we will need to develop resiliency and find ways to reinvent ourselves, and we can only do this if we value and like ourselves. If not, when difficulties arise it will be all too easy to get into blaming self and/or others and from here the shift to a positive frame of reference is harder to achieve.

One way to stay positive is to find out what you want, not just at the conscious level, but at the unconscious level. What are you allowed to have, what do you really want, do these two conflict? What do you believe about yourself and others? Is this positive? Does this way of thinking help you? Does it get you what you need, including real and valued relationships? There are many other questions that could go here but this blog is not the place. If you would like to explore your fundamental goals and find ways to develop and maintain your resilience then do get in contact.

Our book Working Together: Organizational Transactional Analysis and Business Performance, is now published by Gower and receiving positive responses. For a sample chapter go to: www.mountain-associates.co.uk. For coaching and in-house training contact ta@mountain-associates.co.uk or call us now on 01455 824475.