Stress - The 7 C's

Stress - The 7 C's

In time for National Stress Awareness Day, here are the 7 C's behind Stress and what you can do about them.

Stressor No. 1 - Poor COMMUNICATION

•       Poor communication leads to misunderstanding, missed opportunities, bad feeling. 

•       Assertive communication helps deal with these. Learning  good communication skills can help you at work and at home.

Stressor No. 2 - Lack of CAPABILITY

•       If you have not been trained to do a job then is it fair to expect you to do it well?

•       Give yourself the best possible chance to do well by getting the best possible training for the job in hand.

Stressor No. 3 - Too little CAPACITY

·        Not having enough capacity to deal with day-today issues can lead to a sense of overwhelm which can be overpowering and cause you to want to give up or walk away.

·        This may be a case of needing to review your work life balance or getting yourself organised.

·         It may be the case that you need to learn how to say "No."

·        Make sure you review where you are in your life, the things you want to keep and the things you want to walk away from. Now work out a plan to do just that.

Stressor No. 4 - Loss of CONTROL

•       People get stressed about a situation because they feel out of control.

•       Different people react in different ways to loss of control and will use different strategies to  get back to a level of acceptable control for them .

•       Learning how you react to loss of control and the strategies that you use, can help you to understand what you might do differently.

Stressor No. 5 - Dealing with CHANGE

•       Many people don’t like change and get very stressed as a result.

•       The first steps to dealing with change is to accept it is inevitable and then deal with the consequences rather than the fact itself.

•       Learn to embrace change so it doesn’t scare you as much.

Stressor No. 6 - Resolving CONFLICT

For those of us who don’t like conflict, it can be a major source of stress. Learning to deal with it can be a major benefit. There are many ways of dealing with conflict, dependent on your situation. Here are a few:

1.       Don't take the bait.

2.       Consider the underlying causes. Is it obvious why someone is upset?

3.       Pause before you react. This will give you thinking time.

4.       Check your own behaviour. Is it part of the problem?

5.       Listen.

6.       Acknowledge that they may be correct in part of their concern.

7.       Be willing to negotiate if appropriate.

8.       Remain assertive.

9.       Stay in adult.

10.    Look for warning and danger signs.

11.    Check your distances.

12.    Avoid competing.

13.    Think Win/Win.

14.    Be prepared to deal with emotion and anger.

15.    Be aware, be alert.

16.    Know your legal position.

Stressor No. 7 - Dealing with a CRISIS

•       We all have to deal with crisis from time to time, whether it is personal or at work. Knowing how you are likely to react will help you plan on how to deal with things in the future.

•       Crises can hit us at anytime. Illness, a death in the family, divorce, bad debt. Unfortunately they are all too common. And can really knock you for six when they happen.

•       If you are dealing with a crisis, make sure that you have the support mechanisms in place to help you as much as possible,. This might include medical and legal professionals, friends and family, a coach or counsellor.

Want to find out more about how you can manage stress more effectively? Here are some useful links:

De-Stress You- Kindle Version

Useful Guides from Pansophix including:  A Useful Guide to De-Stress You,  A Useful Guide to Resolving Conflict, A Useful Guide to Create a New You - by Berry Winter

For Stress Coaching - http://www.jamberry.co.uk/coaching/coaching_home.html

For a variety of online products - http://www.jamberryonline.co.uk/index.html

14 ways to Keep your Head when All Around are Losing Theirs

Keeping calm when all around you are in a panic. Here are some simple thoughts on how to Stay Calm! Enjoy

Which hat are you wearing?

With all the doom and gloom that has been around, you could be forgiven for wearing your black hat. This looks at all the negatives and what else can go wrong. For many, they seem to be wearing a red hat for anger. Anger with Fat Cats and anger with the politicians. A White hat may keep you aloof and concentrating on the facts and figures, whereas with a Green hat your imagination could run wild. A Blue hat would allow you to summarise everything and tkae a longer term view. Personally I prefer the idea of a Yellow hat. Let's keep things as sunny as possible and find some positives out there!

I used the "Six Thinking Hats" - Edward de Bono

Making Heros

Ways to Make Heroes


We all need a hero from time to time - but we can also make people into heros - here's how!


1. Whether they are officially rewarded or not, say thank you to employees who have achieved their targets.
2. Thank people for their suggestions whether you use them or not. Thank them for their concern.
3. Take your boss to lunch in appreciation for their help on a project or piece of work.
4. Keep an innovation book for good ideas and recognise those that get adopted.
5. Create symbol’s of a teams work or efforts (T-shirts or coffee mugs with motto or logo)
6. Reward those who are not normally in the limelight for doing their job well.
7. Support staff in their continuing professional development. Encourage them to learn.
8. When discussing an idea with your boss that has come from an employee, make sure they get the recognition.
9. Create group level awards to recognise teamwork.
10. Provide a donation in the name of an employee to a charity of their choice
11. Create an ongoing recognition award named after a particularly outstanding employee.
12. Create a company Oscar ceremony to recognise outstanding performance.

Make heros in your team to inspire and motivate.

Wish for more Skills!

Don’t wish for fewer problems. Wish for more skills!

How often do you wish that you had fewer problems? We all do at some point. But supposing we wished for more skills to deal with those problems instead?

A problem is an issue if we don’t have the resources to deal with it. Whilst many issues are not of our own making, nevertheless knowing that you have the resources to deal with whatever is thrown at you can turn a nightmare situation into a manageable challenge.

Personal and management development can ensure that individuals have the skills they need to deal with difficult situations when they arise. Whether it is dealing with people, budgets, projects, or planning, knowing what to do, who to ask or where to find out the answer can make all the difference.

And for businesses, knowing that their staff are flexible, knowledgeable and competent can make the difference between loss and survival or indeed survival and growth!

Don’t wish for change, change what you wish for.

Don’t wish for less challenge, accept the challenge and wish for more wisdom to both understand and overcome the challenge.

Motivation

5 ways to motivate others:


1. Motivating employees starts with motivating yourself. Find out what motivates you and use it.

2. Each person is motivated by different things. The first thing you need to do is to find out what it is that really motivates each of your employees.

3. Few of us have the outstanding qualities of inspirational figures such as Nelson Mandela but we all have an ability to inspire employees in small but meaningful ways. When people are inspired they become more enthusiastic, motivated and engaged which invariably improves their performance

4. Killer whales like fish. Their trainers use it to raise the bar that they jump over – a bit at a time.

5. Learn to let go – you need to trust people to use their own judgment .

Welcome to our new blog!

Welcome to our new blog. This blog aims to provide you with tips and insights into issues around personal and team development. We have contributors from a range of different backgrounds from trainers, coachses, marketing and more. So if you want to know anything about how to get the best from your staff, this is the place to be.

Please do join in our conversations!