A contract too far. It is always tricky to balance winning contracts and to manage team stress levels.
Always try to stay within the resources of your business. You may push to the limits but be very careful, or you will create an overly stressful work environment. Then, the problems may start, and one of the first casualties could be productivity.
Over-stretching your Resources.
In smaller businesses, it is common to exist within the delicate cash flow balance with very little room for manoeuvre. The temptation, even the obligation, to stretch your resources a little further can be overwhelming. It is too easy to take on that one extra contract that may bring the House of Cards crashing down. Here we discuss some methods for anticipating the potentially serious problems that can occur, together with a few techniques to help manage them.
Anticipating Team stress.
The signs to watch out for are various but always revolve around reading your colleagues and employees’ state of mind. Although this sounds far-fetched to some, we do this all the time, mainly in a social or family setting.
For example, when something concerns your partner, their behaviour changes, quite often in subtle and hard-to-spot ways. However, we pick up almost immediately that something is wrong, or at least not right! Furthermore, the longer we are together, the easier it becomes to spot when the mood changes. We don’t even have to have been together for years for this ability almost to read each other’s thoughts to have begun to develop.
The same process occurs in the work environment; colleagues you see daily have a particular character, each very different. So we naturally learn to read their moods and quirks as we work alongside them. We need to pay attention to these signals; it is almost always straightforward to spot when something is not as it should be.
Things begin to change when the pressure and stress reach a certain level. No two people start to show symptoms simultaneously or in the same way, so it is forgivable to miss the earliest signs. However, always be aware of the changes in the work atmosphere. The first indication that there are problems brewing is always very subtle but may manifest within yourself as an odd, not quite right, feeling. In other words, always pay attention to your feelings and instincts.
The problems invariably begin when you are under so much pressure and stress that you will fail to spot even the most obvious signs of discontent and the general erosion of motivation.
How we deal with stress.
This may sound familiar to many of you. However, I know that, at times, I have been so wrapped up in my problems that I only became aware of these changes very late. In fact, on one occasion several years ago, it took one brave soul to protest about their unhappiness verbally, the person in question was always one of the quietest workers in the office, so the fact that they felt they had to speak up, immediately made me take notice.
How do we deal with a situation where work pressure, in this case, the sheer volume of work, becomes unbearable? Communication and information are the most important methods for controlling potentially dangerous stress levels in the office. Hold regular team meetings, both formal and informal. Keep the meetings as short as possible. Preferably for these situations, try and avoid formal meetings altogether. Let your colleagues know what the priorities are clearly. Coach them regularly with stress management techniques. We will discuss more of these techniques shortly.
Above all, you must try to remain calm and professional even if you feel you are under more pressure than everybody else. Drive for efficiency at all times; it is far too easy to lose precious capacity by allowing time-consuming work to be done with little added value. For these tasks, keep things minimalist; while the pressure is on, good enough is good enough! You can always come back and improve things later.
Remember, there is almost always a way. If the team can remain calm, focused and motivated, then the team as a whole can absorb more pressure. That includes taking the pressure off you; if you have more breathing room, you’ll find it much easier to stand back and analyse the overview.
Stress Management.
What are stress management techniques? There are so many that I won’t detail everything I can think of here, but they are mostly common sense. For example, take a break and ensure your colleagues take breaks regularly; a five-minute walk around the car park talking about anything but work can de-stress the work environment significantly. Surf the Internet occasionally; share the news, jokes, and silly YouTube videos with your colleagues. In short, enjoy life, as there is a lot more to it than work.
Think about why we read a book or watch a movie; we use these to escape reality for a short while. When we stop reading or, the film is done, we often gain a new perspective on our problems. Be they financial, personal or worries about our children. Our minds relax and let us see things from different points of view.
When I lived in Scotland, I loved climbing and walking in the mountains every weekend that I could. Sitting on top of a mountain and watching the sun rise filled me with a calmness that was difficult to find in my daily routine.
Everyone will have their natural techniques for dealing with day-to-day stress; the point is that it doesn’t matter how the pressure is dealt with as long it isn’t allowed to build up to harmful levels.
Final thoughts.
Finally, let’s return to the root cause of the situation, our overwhelming work commitments. Sadly, in today’s economic climate, we often have to take on more than our current capacity can safely handle. Although there is no avoiding these situations, the best we can do is plan for the additional stresses and pressures as best as we can.