How Do You Address Stress?

The “Stress Free Workplace” is an Oxymoron

There very few stress-free jobs or organizations today. That’s not always a bad thing.  Stress is not something that should be avoided at all times.  Stress can serve some very positive purposes. But when it reaches a level where job performance and health suffer, it’s time to take a closer look.

What is Stress Management?

Let’s assume that you can either control or influence the level of stress for both yourself and your followers.

So if we want to manage stress, why not revisit the words of management guru Peter Drucker? “You can’t MANAGE what you don’t MEASURE.” OK but there’s a challenge here. Unlike sales, profits or turnover, workplace stress is intangible.  There are obstacles to measuring Intangibles.  Let’s take a closer look at…

Stress Measurement

How do you measure and manage stress?  Look no further than the website: Measure Your Stress.com.  According to ManageYourStress.com, there are seven key sources for workplace stress.  As a leader, you need to tune in to both the clues and potential problems that effect:

1. Your personal health and job performance
2. The health and performance of your team, work group or organization.

Here are the Top Seven Workplace Stress Source Categories based on the research developed by TTi Success Insights and published on MeasureYourStress.com.  How many of these apply to you?  To your team members?

1 – Demand

Being over-challenged in your job

2 – Balance between Efforts and Rewards

Working hard with little recognition or reward leads to feeling disconnected, unmotivated and even angry.

3 – Control

Feeling Powerless as a result of high responsibility and low authority

4 – Organizational Change

Restructuring to new policies and procedures – impacts individuals differently. For some, it brings apprehension, insecurity and confusion

5 – Manager / Supervisor

Reasonable directives should be expected. But when demands reach the unreasonable level, stress rises.

6 – Social Support

Being part of an un-cohesive team or working with a manager who fails to clearly communicate expectations.

7- Job Security

Fear of job loss is highly stressful.  So is being promoted either too slowly or too quickly.

 What’s are Root Causes of Your Team’s Stress?

This animated parable presents a workplace stress related problem and a solution.

Now You Can Measure Your Stress Levels

I have a 12 year affiliation with the creators of both the video and the MeasureYourStress.com website. I’ve used tools from TTI Success Insights to create ongoing breakthroughs for my coaching clients.

With a brief on-line survey, we are able to create an insightful, personalized 14 page, Stress Quotient Report. The report rates your level of stress from each of the 7 categories above.

Also, the Team Stress Report mentioned in the video is a compilation of individual reports.  That information serves to discover and address common sources of stress within a team.

Report Samples

Feel free to view these samples.

• Stress Quotient reports for individuals

• Group Stress Quotient Report