Greetings!
Welcome to our latest Newsletter. I hope this finds you well. I attended the Health and Wellbeing at Work exhibition at the NEC in Birmingham last week. There were some interesting talks from industry experts and practitioners on the HSE Management Standards; the psychological and social factors that can contribute to stress; the legal perspective and strategies for reducing stress, including emotional resilience. These are very much the sorts of areas I work in, and you'll see that I refer to some of these issues below. As ever, I hope that you find something of interest in the newsletter for you and your organisation. Please let me know if you have any questions you'd like to ask about the enclosed, or indeed if there's something you'd like to see covered in future newsletters. I welcome your feedback. Happy reading
Marc |
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Undertaking an individual Stress Risk Assessment
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We've looked in previous newsletters at the Health and Safety Executive (HSE)Management Standards for Work-Related Stress, and how we can use them to prevent and manage stress. To recap, they are the six hazards identified by the HSE as being central to creating an environment where the chances of stress occurring are limited: the DEMANDS placed on staff; the CONTROL they have over the work they do; the SUPPORT we provide as an organisation; the (positive) RELATIONSHIPS, or culture, we promote; how clear staff are about their ROLE; how well CHANGE is managed. We can apply these standards at unit/company-level, or at the individual level. For the latter, this means sitting down with our staff member, and checking how we/they are doing in relation to the Standards. For example, we can ask questions about the work itself, any changes that may be happening, or problems at work, or at home , that may be impacting on performance. You can download a copy of the HSE questionnaire based on the Management Standards from the 'Managing Stress' page of our website. (You won't need to ask all the questions, just use it as a basis for discussion). The benefit for both the individual and the manager is that we can identify any problem areas, and provide mutually-agreed interventions to address issues of concern. For a copy of the Management Standards, and example interventions, click here. Having undertaken a stress risk assessment, we can therefore be satisfied that we have done the right thing as a manager/organisation for the individual. It also means that we have fulfilled our duty of care - and legal obligations - towards our staff. If you'd like to see/download a copy of a stress risk assessment form, click here.
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Optimism v Pessimism
I wanted here to share a few ideas about the above, from the 'father' of positive psychology, Martin Seligman, in his book 'Learned Optimism'. In essence, optimism can enhance the quality of our lives, and help us to achieve our goals, including from a business perspective. As an organisation, our people are likely to be more resilient, adaptable and flexible, and to succeed, and be healthier and happier, if they have an optimistic outlook. Most importantly also, optimism is something that can be 'learned', and practiced, even if we're someone who may have been negative and
pessimistic for a while. This is not about 'blind optimism', living in 'la-la land', rather it's a way of being at our most effective personally and professionally, dealing well with adversity and making the best of what we've got and can achieve, rather than making the worst of it. It may well be that mild pessimism may help sometimes, to pull us back from risky, rash optimism. And in the work context, organisations do need their 'pessimists', those whose roles require a prudent, measured, cautious approach, in finance, budgetary roles, health and safety, engineers perhaps? (These may not be pessimists, only people who have used 'pessimism' as that's what the role requires). And what about the claim that 'being pessimistic means you'll never be disappointed'?. There may be something in this, provided this doesn't stop us achieving our goals, making
us feel negative, stopping us from making the most of ourselves and situations. Optimism achieves the opposite of that, helping us to make the most of ourselves and situations.
Optimistic explanatory style
If something good happens
'It was down to me'; 'It'll always be like this'; 'It applies to my life generally'
If something bad happens
'You/something external did it to me'; 'It'll be over soon'; 'It's only this situation that's bad'
Pessimistic explanatory style
If something good happens
'It wasn't down to me'; 'It won't last long'; 'It won't impact any other area of my life'
If something bad happens
'It's my fault'; 'It's going to last forever'; 'It's going to affect everything'
Whether it's as an individual or as an organisation, fostering and encouraging an optimistic outlook will make us more resilient and effective. |
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Give Me Some Pressure!
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In my training sessions I'm keen to make a distinction between 'pressure', which can be a positive, and 'stress', which has negative outcomes (physically, mentally, emotionally, behaviourally). Pressure is an essential part of our daily lives, it gets us out of bed in the morning, and keeps us motivated and gives us direction and focus. We all need some motivation, purpose and direction in our lives, and if we don't have any of that, we can experience symptoms in one or more of the response areas mentioned above. (Conversely, too much pressure or prolonged pressure can easily lead us to feel we can't cope, and to feeling overwhelmed). This is why organisations are required to provide us with challenge and 'pressure', and thereby keep us motivated. Having a challenge, and meeting the challenge will give us a feeling of achievement and satisfaction, and is likely to make us feel good about ourselves. We feel good about making the most of ourselves, and the organisation reaps the benefits too. In this way, work can be good for us, and for our psychological health. Equally, the organisation needs to support us, so getting the balance right between challenge (pressure) and support is of crucial importance. |
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That's all for this month. Please get in touch if you'd like a word about any of the above, or to discuss how we can support you/your organisation. |
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Best wishes,
Marc Kirby
Stress Management Plus |
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Marc Kirby
Director
Stress Management Plus
Top Stress Tips
ACT 'AS IF' Acting 'as if' can be helpful if you're feeling nervous or worried about something, a future event or when your self-confidence generally isn't what you think it should be. This is about how our feelings influence our behaviour, and vice-versa. If I feel nervous, I'm likely to act nervously, and if I feel confident, I'm likely to act confidently. We're looking at the cyclical nature of the feelings/behaviour dynamic, and how if I feel a certain way, I behave a certain way. Equally however, if I behave a certain way, this will engender feelings associated with that behaviour, so IF I ACT CONFIDENTLY, I FEEL CONFIDENT. This isn't the whole story I know, but it can be achieved, often allied to thinking in helpful ways: the better I think the better I feel the better I behave the better I think and so on. In addition, if I can start to act confidently, others think I'm confident, behave towards me as a confident person, and this will enhance my feelings of confidence. Why not give it a try, perhaps with new people/in new situations?
What we mean by 'catastrophising' is predicting that things are going to be really, really terrible, and over-estimating the chances of disaster/things going wrong. This can happen when we have something coming up that we're not looking forward to, perhaps a presentation, meeting, or other potentially stressful event. If we're able to look at things in a more considered, rational, way, we'd probably acknowledge that it won't be that bad. This is about trying to keep things in perspective, and about identifying that, in the grand scheme of things, it won't be the end of the world if things don't go to plan. There is an element of self-fulfilling prophecy here, where
the more we catastrophise and worry and dread whatever it is, the more we enhance the chances of things not going well. The most important thing we can do - as with most 'thinking errors' like catastrophising - is to identify and acknowledge that we're doing it, so that we can then start to do something about it.
QUOTES FROM HENRY FORD
"Whether you think you can, or whether you think you can't, you're right!"
"When I can't handle events, I let them handle themselves"
"Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young. The greatest thing in life is to keep your mind young"
STRESS AND WELLBEING IN THE NEWS
We have a new feature on our website listing the latest news items about stress and wellbeing for the individual and organisation. Click here to take a look. |
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