your team in identifying how work can be completed more effectively within a reasonable time frame and show an interest in out of work activities to demonstrate that you value the life they have outside work.

If people have quality time to spend with families and friends so they can recharge their batteries you will benefit from an energetic and healthy workforce.

2) Make a clear distinction between being a busy fool and being productive
When people spend their working hours being highly focused and productive rather than just being busy it is possible to get through vast quantities of work. Just observe over the next few days just how much time your team spend being ‘busy’. How much time is actually spent in general chat, looking at emails or the internet? How efficient and essential are your meetings? Consider whether the right people are doing the right jobs. I find very often that highly paid individuals are busy doing activities which should be undertaken by less experienced and expensive staff.

Many people who feel overwhelmed by stress identify the cause of their difficulty as overwork. The reality is often more far complicated.

Create criteria for success by making sure you have a clear understanding of what you expect your team members to do within their role generally and on each individual project.

Ensure that the success criteria by which you will judge performance is clear and understood by all. Make sure there are measures in place. When people know what is required of each individual and of the team it is far easier to plan, monitor progress and celebrate success. Ask yourself "What is it we are trying to achieve? How will we know when it has been achieved?”

3) Ensure your employees have the right skills and training
Stress is often generated when people are asked to undertake work for which they feel unprepared and lacking in the necessary skills and experience. Sometimes this is the reality at other times it is their perception. In reality it doesn't matter if the rift is real or imagined the stress is just the same. The skill of a good manager is to get the level of challenge just right. Enough challenge to avoid boredom which can be incredibly stressful, but ensuring that everyone has the necessary training and support to ensure that they are not floundering.

Matching the right people for the job apportioning roles appropriately throughout the team takes time and thought; it is really worth the effort. Consider that it might take you or a member of your team three days to do something another would take two hours to do. Be clear about the difference in investing time on a skill which will be useful and save the person time in the long run and when it is far more effective to buy in expertise for technical things or for things done as a one off or infrequently.

Stress is often caused because a person is either too well equipped for the role and without any challenge they become bored and disillusioned, equally someone who is constantly out of their depth will be stressed because of the fear of failure. Are your team members placed appropriately?

4) Provide adequate infrastructure and resources
It is important that your workers have the necessary resources to get on with the job in hand.
Huge amounts of stress can be created when people are under pressure to deliver but the IT infrastructure is inadequate or there is no technical support available.

Resources include time, money, equipment and a support system that allows them to fulfil their role. Anticipating needs and planning effectively to ensure that the right resources are in place can significantly reduce stress for all concerned.

5) Ensure you give the necessary levels of authority and accountability
Effective delegation where there are clear lines of delegated authority enables everyone to get on with the job. Managers should be on hand to provide support, monitor and give constructive feedback. It frees managers up for strategic thinking and gives less experienced staff the opportunity to grow.

Failure to get this right causes great levels of stress to managers and team members alike. Does everyone know to whom they are accountable? Are they sure how often and how they need to report progress or difficulties? How do they know to whom they should report and in what circumstances?
If the goal posts keep changing and decisions keep being overturned it can create havoc.

6) Involving the team in planning and development creates ownership
People generally respond well to a challenge if they are involved in creating or it is something they find exciting. Where those involved believe what they do genuinely matters and they feel they have some ownership and control over their situation, there is a positive payback even when working extremely hard.

7) Avoid unnecessary frustration and stress
We like to think of ourselves as well down the evolutionary path yet many of our responses hark back to a time when sabre-toothed tigers roamed the Earth. When a caveman – or woman –was threatened by danger their body reacted with a fight or flight reaction.

When we perceive a threat or undergo an emotional or physical trauma our body releases adrenaline designed to confront it or help us run away. The impact of the hormone can last long after the perceived threat has gone.

Where stress is detrimental people are often in situations where they feel they have little control, feedback is non-existent or overly negative, failure/humiliation/lack of support results in the person feeling that what they do has little value or they themselves are not valued. Sustained exposure to such negative situations can have serious implications for the health and wellbeing of the individual and ultimately for the organisation as a whole. It also happens in any situation which we find frustrating or different. When the threat is small we may be entirely unaware of the impact on us.

If we are exposed to negative stress over the long term it can impact on our physical health compromising our immune system, causing high blood pressure with the threat of heart attack or stroke, insomnia and fatigue. It has the potential to harm our mental well-being causing problems such as depression.
There are few situations where the caveman response is helpful. In the vast majority of situations a calm, measured, sensitive approach based on clear and rational thinking is not only more effective but far more healthy.

There are three approaches to dealing with challenging situations:

• a) Deal directly with the problem that is causing the stress. This requires identifying the root cause and either changing it or removing it altogether.
• b) Where there is a situation which cannot be changed you need to change the way you react to it and feel about it. This can have a very significant impact on the stress potential of the situation. Changing your response to a situation has the power to remove the negative charge of the situation.
• c) In situations where we have no physical or emotional control over what is happening, the emphasis needs to be focusing on surviving the stress. This should only be a short term solution.

8) Listen actively and be observant
An important part of any manager's role is to take care of staff. Leaders who value their staff and know their strengths and weaknesses are highly attuned to the state of their workforce.

Actively listening to what is said and to what is left unsaid, to tone of voice, choice of words, body language and to the energy of each member of their team can give you an enormous amount of useful information about how your staff are doing. Be aware and mindful of the wellbeing of yourself and your staff.
Picking up potential stress early on and looking for ways to minimise any negative impact needs to become a natural part of a manager's daily routine. But remember that a low level of stress can be motivating if people are empowered to overcome it.

9) The power of anticipation, planning and prioritising
Managers with a knee-jerk reaction to situations creates a stressful working environment. Anticipating future needs and planning to meet them enables your team to work to their strengths and plan effectively themselves.

Prioritise carefully to ensure things are done in a sensible sequence and avoid having to go over things again later.

Plan for both yourself and for your team as individuals, and also as a group. Think about the impact each person or team has on the other.

Make sure you clear about what really needs to be done and what constitutes duplication or ‘jobs worth’ activities? (i.e. we are doing it this way because we have always done it this way).

Ensure that interruptions or other people's priorities, phone calls or emails are given the right levels of precedence. All too often they are given too much priority because they are immediate. They can cause a significant amount of stress as workers find themselves getting less and less done during the day.

Create clear lines of communication between you and your team, and between your team and others both inside and outside your department?

10) Constructive feedback
Acknowledge positive contributions within your team and support development and growth where it is needed in a constructive and supportive way.

Stress is minimised when people feel they are making a valuable contribution to their organisation. Significant job satisfaction is created when their role is recognised and there is public recognition of the part they have played.

"Thank you and well done!" must come from the heart. It serves no purpose to go through the motions.
Give your employees a voice. Encourage your team to share their thoughts with you and the rest of the team. Sharing their information, strategies and ideas can reduce stress and motivate team members. Create an appropriate protocol for people to do so on a regular basis. Remember that the collective skills, talents, creativity and facility to solve problems are far greater than any one person. As a manager consider how best to harness these resources and empower the team as a whole.

 

Finally if you want to create a culture which minimises stress think about how much does your style of leadership impacts on the stress levels of individuals and the team as a whole?

 

 

Do review each task on your to-do list. Consider the objectives and deadline and whether the task is part of a broader role or set of recurring tasks you wish to delegate. Don’t attempt to delegate part of a complete activity, as this will de-motivate an employee and lead to low levels of job satisfaction when successfully executed.

The sheer number and variety of coaches and mentors is truly remarkable. We meet life coaches, happiness coaches, confidence coaches, coaches specialising in dress/appearance, coaches who conduct most of their work by telephone…the list is endless. Their prevalence reflects the fact that an increasing number of organisations are providing coaching services to more and more junior...

Fluid
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