Do You Know How You Manage Stress?
The key to thriving through change is knowing what causes you stress, and how to manage your stress levels… and everybody is different.
The big picture…
Stress is often good. It keeps us alert and enables us to respond quickly in demanding situations. But stress over an extended period can be the source of debilitating strain. We need to be able to distinguish between good stress and bad stress. An element of competition can bring out the best in us. Too much focus on competition creates the risk of exhaustion and the stress of failure and disappointment.
There is the inevitable stress of schedules that need to be met and difficult conversations that need to be had. Handling rapid change will often mean that people’s jobs disappear or are radically altered. In these situations stress is inevitable. What matters is how you manage the inevitable stress in yourself when making difficult decisions.
For most of us there is a pattern about what causes us stress. The early warning is often in our sleep patterns, or in our ability to concentrate on key activities, or the blanking of certain activities because we want to avoid the stress they cause.
Here’s an example
Having a deliberate plan about how you are going to manage your stress levels during a demanding period is key to thriving through change. This is not about avoiding stress — this is about knowing how best to channel it, keep it to a minimum and take corrective action if it becomes expressed in damaging behaviour.
Alex knew that a danger sign for her was when she kept having the same conversation in her head about how to handle a particular situation. When she began to go round and round in circles she knew that she was getting over-stressed about a particular issue. In those circumstances she needed to write down what the issue was, the reasons why she was finding it difficult to deal with, and the next steps she needed to take. Once she had codified these factors she recognised that she needed to timetable how she addressed the issue in order to minimise the stress such an issue caused her.
Practical tips
- Recognise what is good stress and how that enables you to be innovative and productive.
- Be explicit in identifying what will cause you stress and how best you will manage that stress.
- Be aware of the danger signs in you for when stress is about to become difficult.
