Quick and Easy Stress Busters

By: Ruth St. Pierre

Do you have enough stress in your life? Too much to do and not enough time to do it? Pressures at work? Pressures related to the holidays? In less time than it took you to read these opening lines, you probably started a mental list of your personal stressors. Some people, when asked about stress in their lives, find it easier to list the few things that AREN’T stressful at the moment!The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has estimated that American business loses over $17 billion annually because of stress-related health problems or time off. If you want to counteract the negative effects of stress in your life, read on. This is the first of two articles about taking control of your stress. In this article, you will find stress busters to begin using immediately. My next article will include long-term solutions which you can incorporate into a healthier, more productive year.Here are four easy, no-cost stress busters to keep you going when you cannot stop to smell the roses.

SHORT TERM STRESS BUSTERS to use anywhere, anytime:

1.  BREATHE

The more stressed we become; the more likely we are to take shallow breaths. Make it a habit to check your breathing when you are feeling stressed. This exercise is especially good if you are getting stressed about dealing with a difficult person.Inhale through your nose, imagining that you need to fill both lungs and abdomen with air. If you place your hands on your abdomen, you should be able to feel it expand. Exhale slowly through your mouth to release tension. If you are on the telephone, consider using the mute button! Repeat three to four times. Caution:  stop if you feel light-headed.

2.  MOVE

Stress builds and muscles tighten. So what do we do? We keep right on sitting at our desk working. The best option is to get up and move around. Climb some stairs, go talk to your colleague instead of sending an email, walk to lunch instead of eating at your desk.

Try the neck stretch. Rolling your head in a circle actually stresses you more than it relaxes. Gently bend your head to the right until you feel a light pressure on your neck muscles, then slowly bend your head to the left until you feel the slight pressure. Slowly return your head to center, then bend forward and backward in the same way. Repeat two or three times for maximum relaxation.

3.  ACCUPRESSURE

There are two pressure points on your wrist which, when firm pressure is applied, can help you return to a calmer state. Apply firm (not hard) pressure with a straight forefinger as you breathe out. Release the pressure as you inhale. Repeat the process several times.

• Pressure Point #1: In the center of your inside wrist, in a straight line up from your middle finger, about two thumb widths from the bottom of your palm. You will find a natural groove, just behind your wrist bone.

• Pressure Point #2: On the outside wrist, centered on your middle finger, about two thumb widths above the crease in your wrist. You will feel the slight indentation.

4. ASK YOURSELF 

The following questions and then make decisions accordingly. 

• Do I have to do this or could someone else do it? For example: If you always make Christmas dinner, ask everyone to bring a dish!

• Take large copying projects to a copy shop. The value of your time spent on more important things is greater than the cost of the copying.

• Does it need to be done at all? This is a good question if we have been doing the same things for a long time. Perhaps there is no longer a need to do them. Example:  Every year we buy a fresh Christmas tree. That means extra work before, during, and after the holidays.

• What is the worst thing that would happen if I didn’t do this? If the consequences are minimal or more about how you would feel about not doing this, then it’s time to rethink or reduce your own expectations. Example:  “What would everyone think if I didn’t spearhead the annual Christmas party?” Probably that you deserve a break!

Watch for the next article about long-term stress reducers for more quick, easy tips to bust that stress when it hits. Better yet, consider scheduling a one-day Stress Buster and Time Management seminar for your organization. I would love to help you and your employees get more done with less stress!  Call toll free 877-385-5515.

By: Ruth St. Pierre

© 2015 Alliance Training and Consulting, Inc.

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Emotional Management

By: Pennie Murray

Emotions are powerful forces influencing our everyday behavior. Yet until recently, emotions have not received the attention they deserve. The first step in regulating and managing emotions is learning to identify and label them as they occur. This ability often requires not only the ability to observe one’s emotional responses in situations but also to describe with a sense of accuracy the context in which the emotions occur. Hence, learning to identify an emotional response is aided enormously if one can recognize, describe, and understand the major attributes that constitute each emotion and then use these attributes to create a more effective result. However, for most of us this is not an easy task. But by becoming one with our emotional experiences, we can learn the relationship between our thoughts, feelings, and reactions in order to manage them better.

It starts by understanding how the struggle to meet emotional demands affects you?

Stress cannot be avoided. How we deal with “it” can greatly influence how “it” affects us. Emotional stress is predictable and always has the same effect on ourselves, others, and the environment. For example, when emotional stress persists too long, it causes a reaction. At first, our body will resist the emotional imbalance. We may continue to resist successfully unless the stress continues for too long, too hard, or too often. At some point, our ability to resist will reach a stage of exhaustion and the results are almost always sabotaging, disruptive, or destructive. It is not the emotional stress itself that causes damage, but your ability or inability to successfully cope with it. The three major factors that determine the degree of emotional stress we will experience with any given situation are lack of predictability, lack of control, and lack of outlets for frustration. At Alliance, we realize that the best and most optimal plan for managing emotional stress is prevention—through understanding emotional stress and then creating acceptable coping skills.

• 76.6% of Americans are faced with the daily effects of emotional-stress

• Pressures of Expectations:  41.18%

• Frustrations:  39.32%

• Conflicts:  19.50%

Emotionally Balanced Professionals Make More Effective Decisions and Choices

The constant question in today’s workplace is if it is possible to improve the social and emotional competence of adult workers.  Research in training and development, sports psychology, and behavior change suggests that it is possible, but the typical approach used in present day training programs usually fail to accomplish this intended goal. Social and emotional learning is different from cognitive and technical learning, and it requires a different approach.

From the time we enter kindergarten, our educational systems focus on honing our cognitive or technical skills. Virtually no emphasis is placed on the education of managing the inner conflicts and unbalanced emotions we experience every day. As "emotional intelligence" becomes more widely used and understood, educators are realizing that cognitive ability is not the sole critical determinant of our aptitude to flourish in today's society. Proficiency in emotional management, conflict resolution, communication and interpersonal skills is essential to develop inner self-security and become able to effectively deal with the pressures and obstacles that will inevitably arise in our lives. It is for this reason, Alliance follows another learning curve.

By:  Pennie Murray

© 2015 Alliance Training and Consulting, Inc.

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How’s Your Bench?

Have you prepared your top performers to be the leaders of tomorrow?

By:  Jason Grooms

When you look at your company, you see leaders that can get things done and really motivate the people around them. Supervisors, forepersons, managers, and executives all have a major impact on your company. But what if those leaders suddenly left? What happens when those stars go out? Do you have qualified employees that could fill the gap? Is your bench deep enough to play on and win the game? Have you prepared your top performers to be the leaders of tomorrow? One of the measures of healthy organizations is how comfortable they feel replacing key leadership positions with their own employees.

Unfortunately, most of us only look at the people standing right in front of us, and when something happens, we make a mad scramble to survive. Leadership development should not be restricted to existing leaders. Having a healthy population of future leaders in the organization can be the biggest insurance for success. You need to ask, “What about tomorrow?”

You could fill the spot with a new hire, but the difference in cost between promoting leaders from within and trying to find an external candidate can be amazingly high and comes with a lot of hidden problems, especially in these tough economic times. At the same time, hiring someone from outside of the organization does have benefits. It can offer new ideas and new perspectives on old issues, and it creates a healthy influx of productive energy, but should that be your first option? Here are some drawbacks to making outside hiring your number one option:

Recruiting Cost

Finding a qualified, knowledgeable leader takes time and money. Recruiting, interviewing and testing, even if done in house, comes at a high price. The cost of recruiting a new hire and training them can reach multiples of the employee’s annual salary. Recruiting internally cuts down on the cost and shows your employees that you value their skills at least as well as those of outsiders.

Lapse in Performance

A new candidate takes a number of weeks to learn the culture and work flow of a new organization. During that time, the individual is in a period of negative production. If the person does not work out in the position, the cost of training and replacement can be as much as 3 times the annual salary of the position. By the time employers learn that the employee might not work out, it’s past the probation period and damage is already done.

Cultural Adjustment

All companies have a unique set of values, character and culture. A new candidate comes from a completely different culture and may or may not fit into yours  Interviews and resumes will not show the adaptability of leaders, even if they come from the same line of business. A conflict of values can quickly become a drain on company resources and takes a long time to remedy. The end result is most often a demoralized work group.

So if hiring leaders externally is cost prohibitive, how do you get out of that cycle? What can you do to develop your most promising performers? You need to ask yourself, “Are there individuals internally that could do the same thing by being moved or promoted?  If the answer is no, then you need to start developing. Now!The most effective way to create your leaders of the future is a professionally developed training plan; but if you are not ready for that step and you need to make some moves quickly, here are a few tips to start the process:

Start a Mentoring Program

Identify your top performers, identify your top leaders, and get them together. A once-a-week meeting to discuss what the leader does and how he or she is dealing with issues that arise can expose your employees to what being a leader means - and give them an incentive to apply it to their own positions. It will also encourage them to take the initiative for self-development.

Project Share

Let your top leaders identify some projects or portions of projects that they can delegate to your potential leaders. The idea is not only to develop the skills needed to complete the tasks, but it also gives them exposure to greater levels of responsibility and lets you evaluate their talents and skills.

Keep People Moving

If it’s possible for you to shuffle people between departments, offer it. Give people the option to try a new area of the company. Not only will they be learning a new skill set, but their understanding of the entire business will expand, which is a critical aspect of leadership. In the long run, this will reduce your training cost for new leaders.

Get to Know Your Employees

Do you know what your employees’ professional aspirations are? Do you know what they really want to do for the company? Do you even know their capabilities? A simple questionnaire can offer you incredibly valuable information on their past experience, skills, and performance desires. Aside from helping you to identify who might be a future leader, it can also help remedy the problem of the right person in the wrong position.

Build Your Own Library

Invest in some personal development audio or video tapes, DVDs, books, or computer-based training tools. There are lots of titles and topics available. Offer these to your employees for check out. The real performers will take advantage of it. This is a cost effective way to train employees with minimal start up cost and no labor, as the training will take place on their own time. You can also offer “Lunch Box Learning” and show one of the short programs during the lunch hour.

These are just a few of the ways to motivate your top performers into becoming tomorrow’s leaders. The benefit of having well-developed leadership skills in your employees will far outweigh the cost of putting these programs in place. If you do not develop your top performers, they will not be your top performers for long. Soon, you will be stuck with a bench full of liabilities. The question you need to ask yourself isn’t, “What happens if I develop them and they leave?” The question you need to ask is, “What happens if I don’t develop them and they stay?”

By:  Jason Grooms

© 2015 Alliance Training and Consulting, Inc.

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Creating Great Workplace Attitudes

By:  Dale Mask

It goes without saying, the Corona pandemic has impact on everyone's attitude in some way. And, at the same time, childhood, we have been taught that our attitude is a key to our success. But most employees never have training on how to develop a great attitude. No attitude classes are taught in high school, no Attitude 101 is available in college. So how can an employee adjust a poor work attitude? How can a manager turn an employee with a bad attitude into an employee with a good attitude? In either situation, most people do not know the how-to’s for developing a great attitude.

A positive attitude is key to success, learning how to create your own positive attitude is essential.

To complicate the issue further, most people with bad attitudes do not believe they have a bad attitude. They feel that anyone in their same situation would be justified in not liking what is happening and would do exactly what they are doing. So, in their mind, it’s really not a bad attitude, it’s a justifiable dislike of something.   

Now combine a challenging global market with cutbacks, pink slips, and an increased pressure to perform, it is easy to see why workplace attitudes can turn sour. Plus, today’s business and personal economic issues fuel the corporate rumor mill. Some of the rumors might be accurate, but most are false. Never-the-less, rumors cause people to think the worst. The result is low workplace morale and more bad attitudes. For many employers workplace attitudes may be at an all-time low.

Attitude is an inside job.

Managers dealing with a worker with a poor attitude often seek courses on controlling workplace negativity or how to deal with employees with bad attitudes; these courses are about employee coaching and counseling, performance documentation, and termination issues. Gaining the management skills developed in these courses is important. But the attitude adjustment must come from the employee. The manager cannot change it for them.

In today’s workplace, employees are looking for a credible manager who offers information and direction in a manner that can inspire a feeling of confidence with a positive leadership attitude. But for great workplace attitudes, both the managers and employees must develop positive attitude skills:  

Creating great workplace attitudes is not just the manager’s job - it is everyone’s job.

If you will note in the table above, both lists work together. The manager can do their share, but if the employee does not do their part, the work performance and the workplace will suffer. For all of it to work, manages and employees must learn the keys to developing a great work attitude. 

Both managers and employees must:

• Recognize the importance of attitude

• Identify attitude origins and influences

• Apply the principles that lead to positive attitudes

• Take specific actions that will lead to a positive attitude

• Develop individual actions plans to achieve a positive attitude

Training is critical because, for most people, these behaviors do not automatically happen. This is especially true in times of crisis and uncertainty. Seminars and workshops specifically designed to help people develop their own positive attitudes can do wonders for workplace morale and improved performance. Creating great workplace attitudes is not just the manager’s job - it is everyone’s job.

By: Dale Mask

© 2021 Alliance Training and Consulting, Inc.

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