Have you ever noticed that no matter how choppy the water is, ducks are always able to glide along the surface calmly and peacefully? What we don’t see, however, is that beneath the surface their little webbed feet are paddling like crazy to stay afloat and keep them headed in the right direction and their waterproof feathers are keeping the spray from soaking in and drowning them.
If we can learn how to channel our inner duck mentality as a strategy to manage stress in the workplace and find ways to stay resilient and propel ourselves forward, it will lead to feeling happier and more fulfilled, both at work and in life.
When you provide your employees with tools and resources to help them avoid, control or channel stress, it can be groundbreaking. In addition to the 5 ways to manage stress in the workplace outlined in this article, you can incorporate proven stress management programs in the workplace from a professional resilience keynote speaker.
5 Ways to Manage Stress in the Workplace
As a leader, it is important to ensure your employees’ well-being, as it will affect their productivity and ultimately, your business. Implementing a stress management program in the workplace and bringing in a reputable leadership keynote speaker is a great way to show your employees how much you value them.
Now, I want to share some powerful tips I’ve learned through my own experiences handling stress at work. These tips will elevate your career, create opportunities for success and help you find time to enjoy life.
As Albert Einstein once stated, “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.”
Let’s break down some ways to uncover those hidden opportunities.
1. Find Out What the Trigger Is
Work stress can disrupt your life as feelings of misery and anxiety linger long after the workday is over. In order to effectively cope with stress, you need to discover what causes it and why it affects you. This knowledge will ultimately lead to transforming stress into success.
The first step is to investigate its origin. When you notice that you are feeling stressed, take a deep breath and ask yourself:
- How do I feel?
- What is my reaction?
- Can this problem be solved? If so, how?
Document your answers in detail, including the situation you were in when the stress began and the people and places that were involved.
2. Evaluate and Optimize Your Workflow
There are days I feel overwhelmed and unsure if I will get through even some of my to-do list. When I begin to feel stressed, I immediately stop working and spend a few minutes getting organized. While this may seem counterproductive, it is absolutely the best use of my time. When you feel as if you can’t accomplish everything, taking a timeout to get organized will ultimately lead to better outcomes and less stress.
Being organized is especially critical as we continue to live through turbulent times, constant changes and never-ending shifts in business due to the pandemic. Focusing on maximizing your time, energy and resources will work wonders towards combating feelings of being overwhelmed or burned out.
One unexpected result of Covid-19 was that managers had to quickly learn how to lead remote teams. This created an entirely new set of issues that didn’t previously exist. In some cases, the lack of face-to-face communication resulted in missed or misunderstood communication and a lack of organized knowledge. The virtual workspace was a necessity, but it also created unnecessary stress.
By learning from a leadership keynote speaker to optimize workflow, you can prevent these time-consuming and stressful situations from impacting your team. A great way to set your remote team up for success is to:
- Clarify goals by evaluating the importance of each task and note tasks that can be delegated or may require additional time to complete.
- Establish a priority list and focus on the “biggest levers” that will be most impactful towards your overall goals.
- Create realistic deadlines so you can hold yourself and your team accountable to meet them.
Spending time to organize workflows is one of the best returns on investment you can make.
3. Practice Daily Resilience
I include tips for resilience in the workplace into almost every speaking engagement I give or article I write because it can be so impactful. Those who have mastered the art of resilience are able to more easily turn stress into success.
You may be thinking, “But I’m not an organized person, so these ideas aren’t for me.”
That’s simply not true. Even the most disorganized person can use simple planning methods for stress management in the workplace. A great way to start is to incorporate a simple daily resilience practice into your routine. This will lay the foundation towards building positive habits that will ultimately lead to more resilience in the workplace and feeling unencumbered by daily stress.
Building resilience is like building muscles. It takes daily practice and dedication, but over time it will feel as natural as breathing. A great way to work towards this is by adding yoga or meditation that includes daily powerful affirmations practices into your morning routine.
When you consciously focus on building resilience, every aspect of your life will become more elevated and you will bounce forward through stressful situations. You will find yourself transforming challenges into opportunities.
4. Take Time to Recharge
Once again, we are faced with the concept of “taking time to save time.” Taking time to recharge when you’re busy may seem impossible, but it is absolutely necessary. When you feel yourself reaching maximum levels of stress at work, it will affect your overall health and well-being and your motivation will quickly become depleted. These feelings will naturally spill over into your home life, leaving you feeling out of balance in all aspects of life.
The great thing is that you can decrease stress by recharging your mind, body and spirit.
No matter how busy you are, it is imperative to take time to recharge and recover. Not only is it critical for your health, but recovery is also essential to your performance and success at work (and in life). In order for it to be effective, you will need to completely step away from everything associated with work. This may mean taking a day off to enjoy your favorite activity, going on vacation or simply spending time at home relaxing and catching up on sleep. Creating opportunities like these are crucial for your long-term well-being and you will be pleasantly surprised at how refreshed and invigorated your mind and body will feel afterward.
Once you have given yourself the gift of recovery, you will feel recharged and ready to tackle any work that comes your way. Tasks that may have felt daunting before will seem manageable thanks to your increased physical and mental energy level. And don’t forget, the practice of recharging and recovering should be repeated whenever work is beginning to feel like it’s too much to handle. Your mind, body and career will be stronger for it.
5. Don’t Overcommit Yourself
There was something really amazing and surprising that emerged out of the shelter-in-place. As a society, we discovered that the world didn’t fall apart if every moment of the day wasn’t scheduled to the max. Before the pandemic, we were constantly on the go, packing in more activities than should fit in a day. When the world completely stopped, it gave us time to reflect on which of those activities were truly important.
This is true for work as well. If you are reaching your limits, it’s perfectly acceptable to say “no” to more work. Taking on additional tasks when you don’t have time to complete them successfully doesn’t benefit you, your team or your company.
When you verbalize your needs, concerns and frustrations about your workload, it can counteract tensions that result from poor communication. If you need help or support, simply ask your manager or co-workers. Your team may not even know you are feeling overwhelmed and, in most instances, they would be happy to shoulder some of the burden.
There are times when you may feel you don’t have control over your work or job duties. Perhaps you may feel like you can’t ask for help, which can lead to high levels of stress or even stress-related illnesses. In these instances, you should consider reaching out to your human resources department and encourage them to build a healthy and happy work environment where the team feels supported and empowered to create positive outcomes through productive work.
When leaders incorporate stress management programs in the workplace and hire a resilience keynote speaker, it will assist employees with handling stress at work.
How Bringing in a Resilience Keynote Speaker Can Help
Work isn’t always fun (or as some would call it, “play”), but it shouldn’t induce high levels of stress. A heavy workload, long hours and tight deadlines can affect well-being and long-term exposure to stress can decrease your mind and body’s performance and productivity.
As a leader, you should create strategies for managing stress in the workplace, such as encouraging stress management activities for employees and bringing in a resilience keynote speaker, who can help discover strategies for managing stress in the workplace.
Additionally, helping employees become more resilient and quickly recover from stressful situations is essential in boosting motivation. For more ideas, contact us by calling +1 877.697.4868 or sending an email to team@adammarkel.com. You can expect a response within 24 hours.
By limiting work stress whenever possible and offering stress management activities for employees, you will create a healthier and happier work environment for your employees, which will drastically increase productivity.