A Sign of the Times

   

Many of us are well aware of situations or circumstances that cause us stress.  In the moment we can recognize the signs of emotional response to the stress we are suddenly experiencing.  Are we as good at recognizing stress over the long term?  What about stress that slowly creeps in?  The kind of stress that seems small but accumulates over time and before you know it, we are blowing our tops.  We have all experienced this stress at some time or another in our lives.  It isn't as easily recognized or noticeable in our lives until it accumulates and become too much.  

There are still ways of catching this stress before it becomes too much.  We need to be much more intentional about recognizing it before it becomes overwhelming. 

The following is a list of signs and symptoms of stress, personal and work related stress:

• weight change
• changes in hygiene
• posture
• trembling or shaking
• increased smoking or coffee drinking
• change in energy (highly energized, or lethargic)
• skin pallor or blushing
• breathlessness
• inarticulate speech
• sighing
• changes in health
• nail biting
• tearfulness
• frowning or overly serious
• tone of voice
• alcohol or drug abuse

Signs and symptoms of stress at work:

• being late for work
• absenteeism
• longer lunch breaks
• clock watching
• leaving early
• changes in productivity
• performance issues
• frequent mistakes or accidents
• poor memory
• difficulty making decisions
• impaired judgment
• lack of personal care
• loss of temper, mood swings, over-reactions
• withdrawal socially or isolating self
• poor time management and inability to meet deadlines
• low morale / commitment to the employer
• conflict in workplace relationships
• low efficiency

   Do any of these sound familiar? When you reflect on the particularly stressful times in your life, which of these were prevalent?  We can't always rely on the obvious emotional responses to stress.  Not everything that causes us stress is immediate, sometimes it happens over a prolonged period of time.  However, if we pay attention to our physiological responses we can still recognize and respond accordingly.  If any of these signs and symptoms stand out to you chances are they are the best indicators of sneaky stress in your life.  Evaluate these areas often and note any changes that you notice.  Once you have started regularly monitoring your emotional, psychological, as well as your physiological patterns, you will be able to recognize the signs of stress earlier and deal with it in a more effective way.

No Parking Zone

The reality television show Parking Wars is an interesting way to learn about human reaction in crisis, frustration and about how people accept (or don't accept) responsibility.
One evening I decided to pop into the show briefly and observed a young woman state that she had received seven parking tickets after parking in the same No Parking Zone several times.  These seven tickets totaled $281.00 plus the fee to impound the car, as a result of the seven unpaid tickets.  The fee to park in the underground parking lot across the road would have been $7.50 per day.  What I found most interesting was her dialogue with the Impound Officer and her friend about whose responsibility and problem this actually was. Somehow this young woman had convinced herself that it was the Ticket Officer's problem.  She was full of excuses, blame and even personal put downs about the Ticket Officer.
This same scenario plays out in workplaces all the time.  Someone makes a mistake or a bad choice, and rather than own it and accept responsibility, fingers start pointing and blame and excuses fuel the dialogue.
There are clear benefits of owning your choices, actions and decisions:

• It demonstrates integrity
• Owning up shows you are not perfect
• Relationships are maintained instead of becoming strained
• You can change the behavior for next time or to improve the situation
• Owning your actions reduces chance of the same mistake(s) occurring again
• There is learning and growth

The benefits of owning your choice and actions far outweigh blame, excuses and putting the responsibility onto others.  Workplace environments that faster respect, acceptance, and trust provide the "safety zone" for team members to effectively handle mistakes and own their actions.

Sometimes the Way We Look at the Problem, IS The Problem

Another way to think about stress is through the outcomes you
experience in your life. For example, the quality of your relationships, your
satisfaction with a job, your current level of health and stress, and your
financial situation are all a result of how you have responded to situations,
events, and circumstances that have come up in your life.

You might be thinking: “There are lots of things that come up in life that
I have absolutely no control over.” And you are absolutely right! There are
many situations that go on in the workplace that you cannot control or
influence. In fact, there are events that arise in life that are completely out
of your control. It is important is to spend your energy, skills and time
focusing on what is within your ability to control or at least influence.

I discovered many years ago when I was a Correctional Officer that
sometimes the way people view a situation or event is actually the problem.
When you can change how you look at the event or view it through a
different lenses, sometimes the issue doesn’t seem so bad.

“Why is it that people always put their energy into the things that drives
them crazy…stuff that is completely out of their control?” asked a client
during a team building consultation.
“Tell me more about that. What do you mean?” I asked Joe, the team
lead. Joe had been with his company for 15 years, and according to him
he “had seen it all, and done it all.”

“Well, I have noticed that our staff meetings often go off on a different
tangent. It seems innocent at first but then I see the team’s energy
focusing on what they can’t change, such as company policy, the available
budget, and the current economic climate in the world. People get pretty
hot under the collar and it can be tough to bring them back to the rea
l world…our business.”

“Great question Joe, one that would be useful to explore when we meet
with the team. What’s your take on it, though?” I asked. Joe really
seemed to have his finger on the pulse of his team and had a vested
interest in building a resilient and inspired team.

Thinking for a few minutes, Joe responded, “Maybe when people focus
on what they can’t control they can assign blame, or look to who ‘should’
be responsible, instead of what they can actually influence or fix
themselves.”

“Interesting. So I wonder what gets in the way of the team having
THAT discussion.”

These two questions were soon a facilitated discussion that led to an
incredible team building process. The questions were: Why do team
members put energy into what is not within their direct control and?
And what is it that we can actually control or influence, and could we
explore putting our energy there instead? As the team explored looking

through a different set of eyes, they discovered that when they focused
only on the negative or what seemed broken the situation was far worse
than it was in reality. When the team focused on what was in their
control, they looked at that same event very differently, and focused
on solutions!


Excerpt from Charmaine Hammond’s Bounce Forward Book.

To read more about this topic, follow the blog, or you can order a copy of
Bounce Forward (the book or the soon to be released audio book) by
emailing chris.alcock@hammondgroup.biz for your signed copy.

Adequate Team Effort

The other evening Tabitha Takes Over came on the television.  What caught my attention about this episode was the business owner's expression of exhaustion and lack of passion.  It drew me to the TV to listen.  The owner of the salon looked exhausted, worn down and defeated.  It was clear she had given up on her business.  It was also clear that her team had given up on the business as well, and, they had also given up on her.  As Tabitha went about her masterful Takeover process she expressed shock at the degree of complacency that had developed in this business and the team.  Not only had the team given up but they had adopted the mindset of settling for low to no standards on cleanliness, reputation (their own included), and customer service.
What disturbed me the most was what happened at the renovation and on the subsequent "reveal day".  During the renovations the team collaborated to do a spring cleaning on the salon.  When Tabitha pointed out the filth in the salon and at their workstations each staff member blamed someone else on the team and the owner.  No one took ownership or responsibility for their work area and said things like, "Not my job!" and, "Why should I have to help clean this place?".  WOW!  Then, after Tabitha's team remodeled the business and gave it an extreme makeover inside and out, aside from the owner, there was not one smile.  They walked through their newly renovated, spotless and modernized salon with no enthusiasm.  They appeared to completely lack interest in all the effort and upgrades that were completed, in part, for their benefit.  Immediately the team members began making comments about everything they did not like.  "I think there are too many colours" and "I wouldn't have picked this type of chair" or "They should have chosen new toys for the waiting area, kids won't like these" were the only things they could find to say.
To bring the team back to a more healthy level of performance, and to stop the complacency, the following steps were implemented to help raise energy and passion:

• A policy manual and procedural expectations were set and documented.  Staff were advised that these must be adhered to.
• The team was held accountable to the new standards.
• The owner was also held accountable to uphold the standards.
• Training and coaching were made available to the team.
• The owner was more present and spent more time in the business

If your team is struggling and has become complacent, revisit the tips that Tabitha offers.  Ensure people know their roles and the roles of others.  Ensure that issues are addressed and dealt with immediately.  Don't allow them to build and grow complacent with them.

Balanced for Focus

Self-care on a daily basis is essential to being able to cope with change, especially in the work place.

There are strategies that we can do every day to ensure that we have the energy and the resources to cope with what comes our way. The first one is ensuring that we are eating healthily. The busier people are in the work place, the more apt they are to ignore their lunch breaks, ignore their coffee breaks, and avoid taking time outside to get fresh air. It is very important to ensure you are eating well. Many work places are now ensuring they have water coolers and healthy snacks available for employees at work. If you are a team leader, model the importance of getting away from your desk to take a break and to be eating healthy throughout the day.

A second strategy to ensuring we are practicing self care on a daily basis is proper exercise. One company I worked with actually had summer teams that would play soccer out in the parking lot at lunch, and in the winter, they played street hockey. This was a wonderful way of not just breaking up the day, but reenergizing and staying fit (and building the team). Others have walking groups at lunch time or host an instructed yoga class during one of the breaks or lunchtime. Some even bring in a massage therapist once monthly.

Physical exercise is so important because during stressful times, when we experience the “fight or flight” reaction, our adrenaline is really high. The increased exercise and activity helps to burn off this adrenaline build up. When we are regularly engaged in fitness, it lowers our general stress level. When we are active, we have more energy and mental clarity. Mental clarity is not only important for coping with the stress, but it is important for maintaining healthy work relationships and making strong, sound, appropriate decisions. When we are feeling under the weather, under a lot of stress, and under exercised, often our thoughts become clouded and we feel sluggish. When we ramp up the exercise, we ramp up our energy level. Of course, with that mental clarity, we are focusing better and making decisions that are much more appropriate to the situation.

We need to drink more water and be hydrated, and no, coffee does not count as water. It is a stimulant. A lot of people say, “Well you know coffee is made with water.” Sorry to be the bearer of bad news… the doctor advised that coffee does not classify as a hydrating liquid. Often, when people are under stress, or there is a crisis happening in the work place, people immediately go and fill up their mug with more coffee, or grab a pop from the vending machine. The problem is that both are stimulants. We are trying to calm ourselves down but what we are putting into our body is a stimulant that is increasing the adrenaline.

Not only can these tips help deal with stress better but they can also help you keep focused and become more productive. My Executive Concierge recently learned that having more time is not necessarily what helps you get things done. Admittedly, the situation she found herself in was nothing she had designed but, it did prove to be a great experiment in the end. Due to a surgery she found herself unable to move around a lot for a few weeks. She shared with me that initially she thought this would be a great time to get caught up on some personal goals she had been looking forward to finishing. What actually happened was that, as more time passed the less focus she had and the less that got done. She attributes this directly to the long period of inactivity. As more time went by where she was unable to be active and go out to socialize, engaging her mind and her body, the less focus and energy she had to complete extra tasks and meet her productivity goals. She also confided that, despite the extra rest she has had, she felt more stressed at the end thinking about all those things she had wanted to get done but didn't during her recovery time.

In conflict and in life we need to have the right balance in order to reduce stress, deal effectively with conflict and be productive people. Don't forget to look after yourself!

Ghosts of the Past

It's unfortunate but everyone of us has probably experienced the "conversation of the past" in our workplace. This conversation is usually brought up more than once and revolves around a change that occurred well in the past. Perhaps you weren't even with the organization when this change occurred but there just seems to be a person that cannot stop bringing it up. They continue to bring up any issues they perceive resulted from that change and how those issues continue to make them unhappy. What do you do?

First, I would put some limits on how many times this conversation will be repeated. You can accomplish this through feedback, being very specific about what you have seen, heard and observed. Make note of the impact of these things and what you would like to see instead. The past can't be undone, however, one can make changes for the future.

Second, it might also be very important to query why these past issues continue to be raised and explore how the person can move beyond the issues. This would be important information for the person as well. Find out if there are any opportunities to provide coaching to the employee to help him/her move forward. You may also consider a referral to your EFAP benefit provider, if you have that support in your organization.

The two key elements to remember when trying to move through the past is to limit and explore. Limit the influence of the past on the present and explore options in helping the organization cope with changes and Bounce Forward!