How to force yourself to go to work and live to see the end of the work week, holiday weekend, vacation? How to relieve constant stress and turn dull workdays into a life full of meaning and emotions? Chris Barez-Brown, the founder of the staffing agency Upping Yor Elvis, gives sensible recommendations to everyone who wants to break out of the vicious circle of the daily gray routine and learn how to manage their working mood.
Stress Prevention
One of the most important conditions for a stable psychological situation in any workforce is the prioritization of company policy. In teams where the long-obsolete slogan “result at all costs” has been canceled, and there has been a reorientation to the capabilities and needs of the employee, more coordinated and calm work is observed in an environment of mutual assistance of colleagues.
Thus, centralized programs aimed at minimizing stress at the workplace increase employee productivity and have a positive effect on the atmosphere in the enterprise as a whole.
The technique of "talk and relieve stress"
In fact, in everyday life, each of us uses this technique constantly. When a person experiences strong emotions, stress, as a rule, he needs to talk to a loved one. Many during strong excitement involuntarily quickly walk from corner to corner.
A similar tool can be successfully used among colleagues. Discussing any questions face to face during a short walk with a colleague allows people to work out the problems of the subconscious. According to beta testing of a group of subjects tested by scientists from the University of Bristol, rhythmic walking, accompanied by sincere conversation for only 20 minutes, significantly increases the level of creativity and reduces the degree of stress among employees.
The energy of the employee - in a peaceful direction
K. Barez-Brown considers one of the most effective tools to counteract work stress to be a technique that teaches people to analyze and control their own emotions and vital energy.
A person manifests his energy in several states - physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. In this case, the energy acquires a negative or positive charge, depending on the individual situation. Having an idea of how each of these energies affects a person’s state, we can make the work process more productive and comfortable.
The ability to properly spend and direct the vector of their capabilities
A simple example will help to understand the work of this technique in action: the ability to isolate and concentrate on the small but important matters that make up a working day allows you to formulate a clear end goal for the day. Having completed all the items from the list of planned tasks, we experience a feeling of satisfaction, the energy of which charges us with a positive and gives a sense of self-confidence for the next working day. Accurate case planning minimizes the likelihood of force majeure and helps withstand stress.
Rethink Feedback System
The modern organization of the workflow has a number of established rituals that can also provoke stressful situations. These include, first of all, job interviews, and subsequently a variety of monthly and quarterly meetings, reports and evaluations.In addition, the noise of office equipment in the background, working e-mails and continuous mobile phone calls, the need for frequent switching from one task to another creates an atmosphere of constant tension and pressure on the psyche.
Although many of them are designed to accelerate communications and, as a result, the workflow, it’s worth considering how to relieve this crushing regime of automatism.
For example, you can revise the frequency of organizing scheduled meetings, meetings, reports, and reviews — practice shows that most of the time spent on them could be used more efficiently in the workplace.
Is there a "debriefing"?
However, in each team people with various labor potentials and ability to cope with stress work. Therefore, the category of especially responsible employees seeking to move up the career ladder may require feedback every day. Such employees should be encouraged - they serve as a good example to the whole team. Do not contrast more successful employees with less successful ones. Every day, summing up and analyzing, you need to find the positive moments and the achieved heights of each person, and work out the moments that can be done better in the future. Constructive analysis helps create team spirit in the working group and get rid of unnecessary anxiety and stress. As a result, the degree of responsibility of each team member for the result increases, and signs of professional growth are observed among all employees.
Up your elvis
First of all, you need to figure out who Elvis is and how to raise him. This association was born out of a statement by Paul David Houston, vocalist for U2. He was engaged in charity work, trying to ease the burden of external debts of third world countries, and often visited the offices of reputable companies with the same unchanging phrase: “So who is Elvis here?” - which can be interpreted approximately as “Who is the brain and energy center, around whom everything revolves here, and who makes all things happen? ”
This definition is the best suited to describe the working condition when a person can captivate and literally ignite a team with the help of his energy. This gift may be natural. However, using special working methods, it can be created.
The first step for cultivating such an energy core of the team is to enable employees to independently evaluate and control their potential, without thinking about what others think about it. When workers try to prove their irreplaceability with all their might, being in a state of permanent fear of dismissal, the company runs the risk of significantly slowing down the production process. In such a group, the spirit of collectivism and mutual assistance is completely absent; here everyone is “for himself”. In addition, a depressed person is not able to generate fresh ideas and solutions - on this basic rule, our team deduced the principle of “Raising your Elvis”.
The team, consisting of friendly, creative and liberated employees, perceives each new task and problem as a kind of fascinating and exciting quest, and not something from which you need to try to hide quietly behind an office ficus, shifting responsibility to colleagues.
In an energetic and close-knit team, among other significant advantages, stressful situations are minimized - employees try to extinguish them together in the bud.
A manager who appreciates and understands the influence of the energy potential of workers on the final result of work and knows how to start and stimulate these processes in a team, achieves maximum productivity from subordinates.