You Can be Great If You Really Want To

We all have times when we are at work and get very stressed out because of what someone might have said or that we now have more work than before. Whatever the situation is that is causing the stress it is important to learn good Stress Management skills. If we want to be thought of as an ideal employee and advance in our career we need to get our stress under control.

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Stress is one of the leading causes of strokes and heart attacks and at the workplace we encounter very stressful situations all the time but handling the situation is most important to dealing with these stresses. Having some stress can help us to be more motivated but too much stress can overwhelm us and actually make us less productive.

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If you are in a situation where you are being overloaded with the amount of work you are being asked to do then maybe you should talk with your supervisor and see about reducing the load or breaking it up so you don’t get everything at once. If the stress is coming form another worker you need to not let the situation get worse by doing nothing. You should confront the person and do whatever it takes to resolve the issue so that you can be productive and not fear going to work everyday.

It is also important to understand that if you are under a lot of stress at work that it will carry over into your personal life as well. It can cause you to have stress with your wife and kids and even in severe cases destroy a marriage.

Just remember that you want to Manage your Stress at work so that you can have a great career.

A company or business undergoing workplace change is going through a stressful event. Good stress management practice should be in place in order to help affected employees go though a less stressful and agonizing transition. Sad and unfortunate it may be, people still would need to be prepared to face such stressful events with their wits still intact.

For managers, going through an organizational change can be quite a stressful task in itself. But it is up to those high up in the department to bring the bad news of change to the front lines. This requires effective communication. And it pays to let the employees know and be kept updated. Although sometimes management thinks that news of an impending organizational change that would affect the whole company would remain only within their earshot, news of such usually ends up going down the line and reach employees.

When news of such changes in the organization are received by employees of the company through informal channels, the response to them is usually negative. By the time the management decides to break the news, the stress and unanswered concerns may have already spread. The problem with getting news of an organizational change through informal sources is that employees may not have the means to have all their concerns answered and are therefore left to make up their own conclusions.

In order to avoid spreading such unwanted stress to the whole organization about to undergo organizational change, it is up to the management to provide the news themselves before the employees themselves get hold of it through other sources. This will help avoid building up stress and conflicts among the organization already about to undergo a stressful experience. Communicating such news takes prompt action.

One way to spread the news of an organizational change is to try and involve the employees. Management alone may not be able to do the job effectively. It may require the help of some people from the front lines. Managers should try to involve supervisors and team leaders in order to help spread the news of the change and to provide the reasons why the change may be the best for the company. Doing so would help the organization as a whole get the whole picture and avoid employees from making up their own conclusions over the matter, creating a confused and agitated situation.

But good stress management does not stop at just spreading the news of organizational change about to happen. It is also important to know how the employees may react to this. There might be a need to interview the employees in order for management to know what the employees truly feel about the situation.

Effective change can only be achieved if the organization goes through a smooth transition. And a smooth change involves ensuring that the affected employees go through a less stressful experience by addressing issues that include their fears, needs and concerns. True, there might be quite a number who might oppose the idea.

And that is where management may have the challenge of convincing affected employees and trying to address their concerns sincerely to avoid the buildup of a stressful situation that can easily get out of hand.

You know, even though I studied leadership development for over a decade, I never made the connection between love and leadership in the organizational setting. I mean, I knew what both terms meant in an intellectual sense. I even knew how leadership presented itself in a practical sense. But, this term called love was something that I had little facility with in an organizational setting. Therefore, I was unable to make the connection that without utilizing love, there can be no true leadership on the part of organizational leaders. I know that right now some of you may be confused by what I just said. But stop and think for a moment.

For employees, I know that many of you have supervisors or managers that are called leaders or occupy leadership positions. But I ask you, which ones would you go the extra mile for? And which ones would you give the bare minimum? Now, what qualities within those managers helped you make that determination? I would argue that the amount of love a given manager shows his/her employees on a daily basis helps employees decide whether or not to go the extra mile.

Now, when I talk about love, I am not referring to anything romantic. What I am actually referring to is a manager’s willingness to give of his/herself to his/her employees, facilitated by a genuine concern for their well being as whole and complete human beings. Examples of this in the workplace include:
a manager taking extra time to listen to an employee’s concerns (whether business or personal)
or a supervisory stopping an employee from doing a task because it is unsafe even though the employee was ready and willing to do it

Sadly, operating out of love in the workplace is not the rule in many American companies. The reason for this is that often times, managers are so pressured to meet objectives that they operate in survival mode, seeing and treating employees as tools rather than whole and complete human beings. This type of behavior totally contradicts operating in a loving manner, which sees and treats all employees as whole and complete human beings first and foremost. You see, when a manager operates in survival mode, he/she tends to horde resources, keep information to his/herself, and do what ever is necessary to remain viable and appease the organizational executive staff, while often times alienating his/her employees.

Love does not operate in survival mode. Love in an organizational setting is based on the notion of fostering the human spirit. A human being is a multifaceted and complex entity. Human beings have desires, dreams, goals, feelings, and beliefs. This being the case, the typical employee cannot be simply seen and treated as a tool by his/her manager. Utilizing love in the workplace allows for a manager to address the complexities of an employee, increasing the likelihood that he/she will be more at ease, content, and willing to go the extra mile when necessary. But, how can a manager show love to his/her employees in the workplace?

Just think about that manager that took the extra time to listen to his/her employee’s concerns (work related or not). An old business adage states that “time is money.” Well, for that extra minute or two this particular manager showed love by effectively communicating with his/her employee about a given issue. By using love, a manager’s goal is to bring out and connect with the humanity of his/her employees. Interactions facilitated with love will more than likely improve the interpersonal relationships between managers and employees. It’s interpersonal interactions such as these that develop a manager’s leadership and improve his/her ability to meet objectives over the long term.

Now, if you are a manager that wants to be a true leader, ask yourself the following questions:

Are my employees helping me or hindering me when it comes to meeting my objectives?
Could my management style be negatively impacting my interpersonal relationships with my employees?
Do I operate out of love with my employees? If not, why?
What could I start doing that would show my employees that I genuinely care about their well being and value them as whole and complete human beings?

Managers, if you are ready to become true leaders, answering these questions will get you started. So, go to work. By the way, utilizing love in the workplace is not relegated to managers. I began with them because management tends to set the corporate culture. Therefore, if they successfully incorporate love into the culture it should take root and spread throughout the entire organization.