As an organization it seems impossible to eliminate stress at work, however, this does not mean that the organization or you as a Leader should not be involved in managing stress of yourself and your team members.
Stress management in the workplace is critical and the benefits it brings to the organization is immense.
Before we dive deep into stress management techniques or stress management strategies, it is important we understand what causes stress at work. Here are just some of the reasons that may cause work related stress:
- Poor organizational Culture
- Prolonged and Excessive workload
- Lack of job security
- Lack of strong management
- Lack of clear communication
- Lack of transparency
- Workplace harassment
Should you consider any of the above as issues within your organization, now is the right time to start finding different ways to alleviate stress at work.
Here are some of the benefits of Managing Stress at work:
Stress can have a lot of detrimental consequences at work, so it is time to focus on the benefits of a minimal-stress environment. As they say, look after your team members and they will look after your business! By reducing workplace stress levels, organizations can boost their employees ‘ productivity, reduce employee turnover, and minimize the number of days their team takes off from work. Employees who are less stressed will be happier with their work, will be better equipped to deal with daily challenges and will be more likely to reach their full potential. With the benefits of addressing the issue plain to see, now is the ideal time to address workplace stress levels and give your employees a coping strategy they can rely on.
Here are the top 3 Stress management techniques that you and your team members can be apply in your day to day work life.
- Understanding Stress Triggers: An important part of stress management is understanding the forms and causes of stress — short-term and long-term, internal and external. Starting with recognizing the sources of stress and developing strategies for managing them, effective stress management. One way to do this is to list the circumstances, worries or obstacles that will cause your response to stress.
- Use Cognitive Re-framing to reduce stress: Re-framing is a way to change the way you look at an issue or area and, ultimately, improve your perception. It can turn a stressful event into either a major trauma or an obstacle that one can overcome bravely. And, a traumatic incident can be seen as an experience of learning.
- Use basic techniques of planning, problem solving and decision making: Identify and use simple day to day techniques to improve planning of tasks, events, day, week or month to help utilize time effectively. Problem solving and decision-making skills require one to be able to define complex problems, prioritize problems, understand your role in the problem, look at potential causes of problems, identifying alternate approaches to resolve problems and decision-making skills.
It may take some creativity to find the best stress relief techniques. Many techniques can also be put into practice.
Yet continuing to search for the resources that will help you manage the inevitable ups and downs of life in a healthy way is vital. It is important for your overall well-being to maintain stress at a manageable level.