Stress Management

About this Topic: Stress Management

Topic Mentor

Dr. Edward Hallowell

Dr. Edward Hallowell has been an instructor at Harvard Medical School and the founder
of the Hallowell Center for Cognitive and Emotional Health in Sudbury and Andover,
MA. Dr. Hallowell is a recognized expert on the topics of worry and stress, its causes
and cures. He frequently appears in the national news media and on shows such as
"Oprah," "20/20," "The Today Show," and "Good Morning America." He is the author
of several best-selling books, including his recent releases, Dare to Forgive, Connect:
12 Vital Ties that Open Your Heart, Lengthen Your Life and Deepen Your Soul, and
Worry: Hope and Help for a Common Problem. You can find out more about Dr.
Hallowell and his work at his Web site: www.drhallowell.com.

Topic Source Notes

Learn

Herbert Benson. The Relaxation Response. New York: Avon Books, 2000.

Herbert Benson. "Your Innate Asset for Combating Stress." Harvard Business Review,
July-August 1974.

Herbert Benson and Eileen M. Stuart. The Wellness Book: The Comprehensive Guide to
Maintaining Health and Treating Stress-Related Illness. New York: Simon & Schuster,
1993.

Mark L. Berman. "Avoiding Burnout through Personal Energy Management."

American Society for Training and Development, February 1995.

Sacha Cohen. "De-Stress for Success." Training & Development, November 1997.

Jeff Davidson. "Avoiding Job Burnout," an online program at www.youachieve.com.

Stewart D. Friedman, Perry Christensen, and Jessica DeGroot. "Work and Life: The
End of the Zero-Sum Game." Harvard Business Review, November-December 1998.
Edward M. Hallowell. Connect. New York: Pantheon Books, 1999.

Edward M. Hallowell. Personal conversations. October 2000.

Edward M. Hallowell. Worry. New York: Ballantine Books, 1997.

The Editors. "How to Get People on Board." Harvard Management Update, June 2000.

Jennifer Laabs. "Workforce Overload." Workforce, January 1999.

David S. Rosenthal and Kenneth L. Minaker. Stress Management Guidebook. Harvard

University Health Services Good Health Management Series. Cambridge: Harvard
University Health Services, 1996.

Steps

Herbert Benson and Eileen M. Stuart. The Wellness Book. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1993.

Edward M. Hallowell. Connect. New York: Pantheon Books, 1999.

Edward M. Hallowell. Worry. New York: Ballantine Books, 1997.

David S. Rosenthal and Kenneth L. Minaker. Stress Management Guidebook. Harvard

University Health Services Good Health Management Series. Cambridge: Harvard
University Health Services, 1996.

Tips

Herbert Benson and Eileen M. Stuart. The Wellness Book. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 1993.

Mark L. Berman. "Avoiding Burnout through Personal Energy Management."

American Society for Training and Development, February 1995.

Sacha Cohen. "De-Stress for Success." Training & Development, November 1997.

Edward M. Hallowell. Connect. New York: Pantheon Books, 1999.

Edward M. Hallowell. Worry. New York: Ballantine Books, 1997.

David S. Rosenthal and Kenneth L. Minaker. Stress Management Guidebook. Harvard

University Health Services Good Health Management Series. Cambridge: Harvard
University Health Services, 1996.

Tools

Edward M. Hallowell. Worry. New York: Ballantine Books, 1997.

David S. Rosenthal and Kenneth L. Minaker. Stress Management Guidebook. Harvard
University Health Services Good Health Management Series. Cambridge: Harvard
University Health Services, 1996.

What Would You Do?

What would you do?

When Daniel accepted the promotion, he felt confident that he would be able to handle
the increased responsibilities that came with the new position. One month into the job,
however, Daniel wondered if he had made the wrong decision. Managing ten direct
reports was a full-time job in and of itself. In addition, he was responsible for generating
a new marketing plan, overseeing a huge budget, and serving on multiple task forces.
Even though Daniel was staying on top of things, he felt increasingly overwhelmed and
tired. He hadn't eaten in days. Leaving the office at 8:00 p.m. had become the norm. He
wished there was something he could do to make things better, but what?

What would you do?

Daniel could follow a rational, step-by-step process to examine and improve his stress
level. The "Evaluate-Plan-Remediate" approach works by breaking down the problems
that are causing stress into smaller, more manageable units that can be resolved. First,
Daniel should identify the problem at hand—namely that he's overworked and has too
many responsibilities. Next, he should think about structuring his time differently. He
should set reasonable goals, prioritize them, and break them down into manageable
tasks. After that, he should take direct action. He should meet with his supervisor and
discuss ways to relieve his workload or delegate some of his responsibilities. By
confronting and taking charge of his situation, Daniel will likely reduce his stress level.

In this topic, you'll learn how to recognize the signs that you're under too much stress,
explore the causes of stress, and set priorities so you can focus your energy on what
really needs to get done.

Stress is an inescapable part of the workplace. But how do you keep your stress level
under control?

Topic Objectives

This topic has information on how to:

 Understand the problem of excessive stress and worry in the workplace

 Identify ways to manage your own stress
 Develop strategies for turning worry into action
 Let your body help you deal with stress
 Practice good stress habits
 Help others deal with excess stress and toxic worry

The word on worry

Are worry and stress really such bad things? Or are we just making a big deal out of a
normal state of mind and feeling? Some worry or stress is a necessary and important
part of our lives, but in today's fast-paced work world, these natural human responses
often spiral out of control and become toxic to our productivity, our peace of mind, and
our health. Just see what some experts have to say:

"According to a University of Chicago survey, more than 40% of Americans suffer

stress in the workplace." NPR, Morning Edition

"Job stress today accounts for more than 50% of the 550 million workdays lost
annually because of absenteeism." K. R. S. Edstrom

"Information anxiety is a chronic malaise, a pervasive fear that we're about to be

overwhelmed by the very material we need to master in order to function in this world."
Richard Saul Wurman, "Overload"

According to the World Health Organization, "job stress [is] a world-wide epidemic."

"What were once considered crisis-mode workloads have now become business as
usual." Jennifer Laabs, Workforce

Why be concerned about stress?

More heart attacks occur Mondays between six a.m. and noon than during any

other time.
–Harry Dassah, M.D., cardiologist

So, why be concerned, particularly in the workplace? There are many reasons. What
seems normal and familiar—a feeling of worry and anxiety about your daily activities—
may be preventing you or your team members from reaching personal and professional
goals. Left unchecked, toxic stress can:

 Reduce productivity. Toxic stress contributes to decreased productivity,

absenteeism, and employee turnover. When employees start making mistakes
or slow down on the job, stay home to avoid stressful work situations, or
even quit, hoping to find a less stressful position somewhere else, the
productivity of your team or the people you supervise can be directly
affected.
 Affect health. Too much prolonged stress can make you physically ill, and
can even kill you. Your body reacts to stress as it would to any dangerous
physical situation, raising blood pressure and alerting the senses. This
response protects you and can be beneficial for a brief time; however,
prolonged stress, worry, and anxiety can strain your body beyond its limits.
 Drain energy. Excess worry, stress, and anxiety can drain you of energy,
causing your work and your personal life to suffer. You need energy to
 concentrate well, respond effectively, and judge situations appropriately.
Worry uses up your energy, depriving you of the physical, mental, or
emotional resources needed to do the job well.
 Damage relationships. Stress can disrupt relationships—whether at work or
at home. While there are often mismatched personalities in work situations
that can cause interpersonal conflicts, stress can accentuate these negative
feelings or can aggravate existing situations, causing small problems to seem
large and disturbing the functioning of an entire team.

Key Idea: The basic equation of worry

Key Idea

What causes toxic worry? When you feel vulnerable to the perceived threats in your
world, and you feel that you have less power to control your world, your level of worry
and anxiety will often increase. In mathematical terms:

Increased vulnerability + Decreased power = Increased worry

A sense of increased vulnerability causes you to exaggerate danger, so that a small

problem becomes a huge nightmare.

For example, if one month your department's direct costs exceed its budget, you might
imagine that the entire year's budget will be engulfed by unforeseen costs.

A feeling of decreased power causes you to underestimate or forget the power you
have to combat danger.

For example, when confronted with the cost overrun, you might forget that you have the
power to assess the causes of the overrun and make adjustments to remedy the situation
in the following months.

Increased worry hinders you from making rational decisions and taking positive
actions to resolve problems.

This basic equation of worry expresses how toxic worry can arise not from actual
danger but from imagined peril. It helps explain how a worried mind can be very
creative in anticipating threatening situations that are unlikely to occur.

Worry is the root cause of most workplace stress. But what causes toxic worry?

Negative stress cycle

Once increased worry sets in, it may be difficult to readjust your worry balance. The
diagram of the negative stress cycle below shows how stress and anxiety symptoms can
become a self-perpetuating set of interactions.

Breaking out of the negative stress cycle is an important first step in achieving a healthy
worry balance.
Bad things really do happen

It is true, however, that bad things really do happen, and at times what seems to be
excessive worry is actually appropriate for the situation.

If your company is unexpectedly acquired by another, fears of downsizing may be

perfectly justified. Or if you're an entrepreneur facing a cash-flow squeeze, and you
know the bank could suddenly call in your line of credit, you may feel justified in
fearing just such an event.

In these situations, the "work of worry," or good worry, can give you the energy you
need to deal with the problems. By anticipating the reality, you can be preparing
possible solutions. The important thing is to know the difference between healthy,
protective worry that can help you and toxic worry that can harm you.

Key Idea: The dynamic power of worry

Key Idea

Because bad things do happen and because there are high-tension times when we have
to be alert, we do need some worry to survive. Worry is our natural defense to a
threatening situation, helping us to react quickly and effectively. So up to a point, worry
and anxiety are healthy responses.

At first, as anxiety or worry increases, performance also increases. But at a certain

point, anxiety becomes excessive and begins to depress performance. This relationship
is expressed in the "Performance Anxiety Curve."

An important goal of every business person is to find that level of anxiety that will bring
about peak performance while avoiding the additional anxiety that becomes toxic to
your team or direct reports, as well as to your professional and personal health.

Worry isn't always bad. But realize that there is a point at which worry decreases your
performance.

The business value of wise worry

Good worry is informed anticipation.

–Edward M. Hallowell, M.D.

When worry moves from personal fear to clear-headed anticipation, worry energy can
make you productive and creative, helping you to discover new solutions to business
challenges. Some high-tension worry at work can give you the impetus and adrenaline
needed to focus more clearly and perform at a higher level. For example, healthy,
positive stress can energize you for action when you have to:

 Meet critical deadlines

 Present an exciting proposal
 Solve new problems
  Feel in control
 Contribute to a team effort
 Learn new skills
 Start a new job
 Deal with a crisis

Wise worry in anticipation can help you prepare for these events, and positive stress
during an event can give you the power and vigor to get the job done.

Different strokes for different folks

Some people actually thrive in the high-risk world of trading in the futures market or
investing in high-tech start-ups or meeting creative goals in advertising. But other folks
prefer a more stable work environment, something more predictable and manageable.
The downside of stress is that too much can lead to early burnout and too little can make
it easy for people to underproduce. But for each person there is a level of stress at the
peak of the Performance Anxiety Curve that helps that person maximize his or her work
goals.

Do you have a problem?

Wise worry helps many businesspeople perform effectively by giving them the foresight
and insight to solve business problems. But toxic worry can distort their perception of
problems and hamper their efforts to deal with them.

How, then, can you tell whether the stress you feel is healthy or not? How can you
discover if you are a problem worrier at work? Simply put, when worry or stress
interferes with your productive work, then you do have a problem. Problem worriers
exaggerate fears, spend too much time on nonconstructive concerns, fail to make
decisions, and are slow to produce results.

If you suspect, or already know, that stress is a problem for you, your team, or your
direct reports, start to assess the severity of the problem by looking at the both the work
environment and individual responses to that environment.

Leadership Insight: The vicious stress cycle

The truth is that we are all conditioned to be stressed, particularly in the U.S., where we
come from a Puritan culture that has basically told us, "Have no pleasure. Work all the
time."

And we're trained, from the time we go to school to the time we enter the workforce, to
get up in the morning, do our classes, do our homework, and really perform, all day
long. I have a 17-year-old who starts at 6:30 in the morning, and she goes till 10:30 at
night. And she works harder than a lot of people. But this is the way we are conditioned
to be.
The problem is that we assume that because we think this is reality that this is the way
we're supposed to perform best is to push ourselves to work 80 hours a week, to double-
and triple-book, to manage many, many tasks at once. And of course, what happens is,
we can't. We fall apart. We get sick. We don't sleep. And it's all a vicious cycle, because
the harder you work, the less able you are to perform.

So, by managing your stress, you actually raise your performance level, and you can
actually get more done in a day than you would if you simply push yourself.

And for me, this really came home when I had my daughter. She was a little girl, and I
was the sole support of my family. And I was managing many too many things at once,
and I was working many too many hours a week at once. And I suddenly realized that I
was like an oak tree. I was the tree, and I was the roots, and I was the branches, and if I
did not take care of my own roots, the whole tree would come down, including my
family.

So, if we think of ourselves as really having to take care of our own trees and make sure
that the tree is strong and well-nourished and has very good roots, it's a way of
understanding that we do need to take care of ourselves and manage our stress.

Working harder and longer is often counterproductive.

Bronwyn Fryer
Contributing Editor, Harvard Business Review

Bronwyn Fryer is a business writer and editor who collaborates with thought leaders to
produce influential books, articles, and other publications.

She specializes in organizational behavior, behavioral economics, emotional

intelligence, positive psychology, career and talent management, innovation, change
management, executive coaching, and high-performance leadership.

While Bronwyn is currently a contributing editor at the Harvard Business Review, she
previously spent 10 years as a Senior Editor for the Review. She has worked with
hundreds of thought leaders, including behavioral economist Dan Ariely, author of
"Predictably Irrational"; and human resources and executive recruiting expert Claudio
Fernández-Aráoz, author of "Great People Decisions."

Prior to joining Harvard Business Review, Bronwyn wrote for the New York Times,
Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Fortune, and many other publications.

Her academic background is in comparative literature, in which she holds a Bachelor of

Arts degree, Master of Arts degrees, and doctorate studies from University of
California, Santa Cruz, and University of California, Berkeley. Bronwyn has also taught
world literature, critical thinking, and writing at the university level.

Activity: Take the stress test

Take this self-assessment to see how big a problem workplace stress is for you. Note
that this does not provide a scientific measure of your stress level, but can provide you a
helpful look at how much you worry in comparison to others.

Adapted from "How Much of a Worrier Are You?" in Worry by Edward M. Hallowell,
M.D., New York: Ballantine Books, 1997. Reprinted with permission.

Workplace stress affects even the most productive employees. Answer the following
questions to determine your own stress level.

Answer each of the following twenty questions "Not at all," "Sometimes," "Frequently,"
or "All the time." Record your answers manually as you go.

1. Do you wish you worried less?

2. Do others comment on how much you worry?

3. Do you find that worry clouds your judgment?

4. Do you dwell upon a time or times you were unfairly sued, slandered, unexpectedly
fired, downsized, or otherwise victimized by injustice?

5. Do you worry that good friends will turn on you?

6. Do you worry about your health in a way that you know, or others have told you, is
excessive or irrational?

7. Do you worry about money more than you really need to?

8. Do you become immobilized by worry?

9. Are you more concerned than you wish you were with what others think of you?

10. Do you develop physical symptoms in response to stress?

11. Do you tend to brood over possible danger rather than doing something about it?

12. In the midst of success, do you find yourself feeling apprehensive, wondering what
will go wrong?

13. Are you inhibited and/or shy?

14. How much do you procrastinate?

15. Do you avoid confrontations?

16. Do you find yourself drawn to negative thoughts even when you're otherwise in a
good mood?

17. Is it hard for you to shake off criticism, even if you know the criticism is inaccurate?
18. Do you fail to live up to the standards you set for yourself?

19. Do you feel an unmet need for reassurance?

20. Do you lose perspective easily, worrying over some relatively minor matter as if it
were a major concern?

The maximum score for this assessment is 60. Tally your score, giving yourself zero
points for "Not at all," one point for "Sometimes," two points for "Frequently," and
three points for "All the Time." Select your score from the answer options below.

Score range 0-16

It appears that your stress level is low. You are not an excessive worrier. You should
review this topic to brush up on ways to keep your stress down, but right now you are in
good shape. Keep up the good work!
Score range 17-39
You seem to have a moderate stress level. This is a potential danger zone. Use this
course to help you identify the main stressors in your life and set habits that will
counteract the negative impact of these stressors.
Score range 40-60
You seem to have a high stress level and may be in the danger zone. This much worry is
not good for you physically or emotionally, and can negatively affect your life at work
and home. In addition to using some of the strategies covered in this topic, you might
also consider consulting a professional.

Major work stressors

The common causes of stress in the workplace are (1) changes in the workplace—
precipitating events that set off a cycle of negative stress; (2) an unhealthy work
environment—ongoing, underlying, and systemic problems in the office; or (3)
individual responses—anxious reactions to normal or abnormal situations in the
workplace. Typically, the negative stress and toxic worry a person experiences can be
related to more than one stressor.

Changes in the workplace

Stressful changes in the workplace include:

 Change in workload. If a company reduces the size of its workforce but not
its production levels, then employees may be asked to take on additional
tasks and increase productivity to make up for the loss of personnel. Or
employees may be asked to take on additional responsibility on top of their
regular tasks during a period of company expansion. In either case, the extra
work may cause both resentment and anxiety.
 Change in pay. If an employee receives a reduction in pay (perhaps through
a reduction in benefits), this would very likely cause worry about budgeting.
 But even an increase in pay can cause concern if it puts workers into an
increased tax bracket or if they feel that they must perform at a higher level to
"earn" the increase.
 Change of job, assignment, or team. A new job situation is always a
stressful time. Not only does a worker have to learn new skills and processes,
but new office or team relationships have to be developed. All this takes extra
energy and attention that can become toxic stress, preventing you from doing
your best.
 Change in job security. In this age of high-tech revolution, large corporation
downsizing (which often hits middle management the hardest), expected
rapid turnover, and rapidly growing global markets, the threat of losing one's
job seems to be more constant.

Unhealthy work environment

Work environments can feel particularly stressful if employees must contend with:

 Work overload. When companies downsize or have trouble finding skilled

workers, supervisors often expect their current employees to pitch in and
make up the difference in time and labor. Work overload is often the result,
adding stress and strain to an already overextended team.
 Workaholic office culture. At some high-pressure organizations, the culture
demands that employees work long hours and weekends, whether or not the
need is real. This culture is marked by intense competition and exhausted
workers.
 Difficult supervisor. There are managers whose leadership styles simply
don't match the professional needs of their direct reports. Some supervisors,
for example, believe that pushing their team will increase productivity when
the opposite is often the reality—creating a general sense of fear and worry
that undermines productivity. Conflict with a difficult supervisor is a major
cause of corporate turnover.
 Negative coworkers. If an office is filled with an atmosphere of distrust and
dissension, the level of stress rises for everyone involved. The causes may be
varied—a personality clash, disproportionate workloads, inappropriate or
discourteous behavior—but the negative effect is the same.

Individual responses

Some workplaces can foster anxiety and other negative individual responses. For
example:

 Fear of failure. If a work environment is one of competition and criticism

rather than team building and reinforcement, negative thinking can result,
turning external critical messages into internal self-doubt and an increased
fear of failure.
 Low self-esteem. Closely related to fear of failure, low self-esteem occurs
when negative thinking gains control and blocks out or distorts any positive
messages. A can't-do attitude is the result.
 Lack of trust. A sense of cynicism can pervade a work environment if
management claims one set of positive values, such as loyalty and dedication,
 but then acts in a way that contradicts those values, such as by retooling or
downsizing.
 Loss of collegial community. Many people feel disconnected at work, left
out, forgotten in their cubicles. This sense of isolation is a real problem for
self-employed workers, but it's also a growing concern for companies that are
connected through computer networks rather than community gathering
spaces.
 Job burnout. Job burnout is a unique type of stress. It's a serious
consequence of the combination of a workaholic culture and toxic stress. You
may feel burned out when you feel trapped in your job, unable to see a future
in it. You can't manage to handle routine tasks; you're tired, tense, and
irritable; and frankly, you just don't care!

Signs of dis-stress

Some of the signs of dis-stress, that is, stress gone too far, are easily recognized, but
many are not. If you can develop an awareness of these signs, you can judge whether
you are a normal or a problem worrier. Stress can affect you and your body in four
areas: physical, emotional, behavioral, and mental.

Physical. Some physical signs of stress include the following:

 Pounding heart
 Elevated blood pressure
 Sweating
 Headache
 Sleep disturbances
 Skin rashes
 Trembling or tics

These reactions may be transitory, but if they persist, then your stress level may be too
high for too long a time; this can cause serious harm to your body.

Emotional. Some emotional signs of stress include the following:

 Irritability and impatience

 Depression
 Fearfulness
 Low self-esteem
 Envy
 Loss of interest in your job

If you feel as though you aren't in control, that you are vulnerable in your situation, then
you may be experiencing some of these characteristic symptoms of the Basic Worry
Equation.

Behavioral. Some behavioral signs of stress include the following:

 Changes in eating habits (eating too much or too little)

 Drinking more alcohol
  Pacing, restlessness
 Increased smoking
 Teeth grinding and/or nail biting
 Aggressive driving

While nail biting and teeth grinding may not seem to be particularly dangerous habits,
they do reflect an inner turmoil. The other symptoms listed are potentially much more
disturbing and even dangerous to you and to others around you.

Mental. Some mental signs of stress include the following:

 A tendency to forget
 Mind racing or going blank
 Indecisiveness
 Resisting change
 Diminished sense of humor
 Declining productivity

These mental signs of stress suggest a mind that is overwhelmed and unable to function
at normal, much less peak, levels. And that's just what toxic worry does; it overwhelms
your ability to do the things you want to do and be the person you want to be.

As a supervisor, you may not be able to detect all the signs of stress in your direct
reports, but stay alert to the most obvious ones: declining productivity, restlessness, and
irritability.

Levels of stress

Levels of stress can range from healthy responses to dangerous situations all the way to
exaggerated and dysfunctional worry about every aspect of life.

Consider your particular situation:

 Does the level of stress in your workplace promote energy and excitement?
 Are there major work stressors affecting your performance or the work of
those around you?
 Do you, members of your team, or direct reports show signs of toxic stress?

If stress is a problem for you or for others in your work environment, then it's time to
face it and deal with it. There are many ways of improving an unhealthy stress-laden
situation. The strategies for dealing with toxic stress in this topic can help most people
achieve a healthier stress-performance balance. However, if you or your coworkers or
direct reports get stuck, then it is important to recognize the extent of the problem and
get further professional help.

Acceptance or action?
There are always parts of your life that you cannot change—who you are, where you
are, and where you've been. For those facts that simply are, acceptance is the healthiest
path to take.

But for those parts of your life that you can change, taking charge by giving yourself the
power to change is an exciting prospect. If your stress level is too high, if you worry
obsessively, if you are anxious about every little thing, then take a deep breath (that's
the first step) and take charge.

As a manager, the same words of wisdom apply. Help your team or direct reports accept
the unchangeable elements of the business environment and take charge of what can be
changed or reformed.

This section presents an overview of the basic strategies for taking charge.

Reverse the basic equation of worry

If worrying can persecute us, it can also work for us, as self-preparation. No stage

fright, no performance.
–Adam Phillips

The basic equation of worry describes a negative process of increasing worry.

Increased vulnerability + Decreased power = Increased worry

Taking charge describes the process of reversing this basic equation: Ease worry by
reducing your feeling of vulnerability and bolstering your feeling of power.

Decreased vulnerability + Increased power = Decreased worry

By beginning to take charge, you can decrease your sense of helplessness, increase your
power to perceive the problem more clearly and to discover positive actions you need to
take to improve the situation or solve the problem, and quickly diminish the worry that
was interfering with your ability to function effectively.

Key Idea: Take the four-step approach

Key Idea

Decreasing your worry and breaking out of a negative stress cycle isn't easy. You'll need
a structure for dealing with stress as it occurs. Consider the following four-step
approach:

 Step 1: Stop. As soon as you begin to feel stress coming on, say "Stop!" to
yourself. For example, your computer freezes just as you're trying to finish
 your presentation, and you feel that rush of anxiety with failure messages
flooding into your mind: "The presentation will fail; I'll fail; I'll be fired."
Block those messages before they can be heard by saying, "Stop!" Repeat the
message two more times: "Stop!" "Stop!"
 Step 2: Breathe. The next step is to breathe. Take a deep breath, filling your
diaphragm with air. Hold that breath for eight seconds, and then slowly let
the air out. Just as the word "stop" blocks the negative thoughts from your
mind, breathing overcomes the stress tendency to hold your breath when
under stress. Focusing on breathing helps you to focus on your stress in a
different way.
 Step 3: Reflect. By interrupting the pattern of stress and giving yourself
energy through breathing, you can now focus on the real problem, the cause
of the stress. By reflecting on your stress response, you can begin to
distinguish the different levels of thought and to sort out rational from
irrational stress responses. You can see the practical situation more calmly
and realistically and distinguish it from the distortions of your anxiety-
influenced thoughts.
 Step 4: Choose. Finally, with your attention now on the practical problem
itself, you can choose to find real solutions. For example, after rebooting
your computer you may discover that very little material was lost, or that
even without the lost material, you'll still be able to get the information across
to your audience using the old-fashioned method of talking it through. What
might have seemed a disaster becomes a manageable problem that you were
given the power to solve by identifying your options.

Find yourself stuck in a negative stress cycle? Use this four-step approach to break free.

Work/life balance

Stress occurs in most working situations, but the often-conflicting demands of work and
personal life can be a major source of stress, worry, and anxiety, both at work and at
home. Finding a healthy balance between the two can reduce toxic stress and increase
productive energy in all aspects of your life. Keep in mind the following:

 Work and personal life need to be complementary, not conflicting.

 Business priorities need to be identified and then balanced with personal
concerns.
 "Whole people" are those whose skills and knowledge overlap in work and
life beyond.
 Flexible and creative approaches to this balance enhance employee's
performance and energy for both work and personal life.

A systematic approach

You already have the means to change the pattern of escalating worry by using the
power of your mind. The systematic Evaluate-Plan-Remediate approach allows you to
examine the process of worry and break it down into smaller, more manageable
problem-units that can be solved or resolved.
For example, suppose you receive a team e-mail from your supervisor about the agenda
for an upcoming budget review meeting. In the past, you've always been asked to
present the target revenues for your department, but you have yet to be asked this year.
You feel a twist in your stomach, a sign that worry is creeping in. Your thoughts begin
to speed up: "Why haven't I been asked? Did someone else get the assignment? Did I do
a poor job last time? I must be an idiot! Am I being demoted or eased out?" Using the
Evaluate-Plan-Remediate worry-intervention method, you can stop the worry as soon as
you start to feel it taking over.

1. Evaluate: "Yes, I haven't yet been asked to present the projected revenues at
the budget review meeting. That's all I know right now."
2. Plan: "I need to get information. I should contact my supervisor and ask her
directly if she expects me to present this part of the budget."
3. Remediate: "I'll call my supervisor and make an appointment to see her in
person."

This simple sequence can replace that sense of panic with an immediate evaluation of
the situation and a plan for necessary action. If you can make this process a habit every
time you feel that twist in your stomach or twinge in your head, you'll turn your worry
into action.

Leadership Insight: Chop goals down to size

One of the big sources of stress is having awfully big goals that are hanging over your
head, essentially, but they're bigger than you can complete in a day.

I set these big honking goals for myself often, and I then proceed to stress about them
for weeks and weeks and weeks. I'm like, "Oh, my goodness! I have this huge report
that I want to write and I have to do research for it." I'll spend half of the day every
single day freaking out because I have this giant goal — which, by the way, maybe I'm
the one who set. Even if someone else set it, maybe it was a goal that I wanted to adopt.

What I find really reduces stress in those situations is to break down the goal into things
that can be accomplished within your mental time horizon. So if you think generally in
terms of a day, or some people think in terms of three or four days or a week, set
subgoals that fit within that time period.

My goal was, "Oh, my gosh! I've got this huge report that I want to write." What I
discovered was I set goals in terms of paragraphs. My goal is to write one paragraph.
That's it, just one. I would sit down, write a paragraph and be like, "Yes! I have
achieved that goal."

Rather than feeling stressed, I got to feel this sense of completion, and then, "Well, if I
can do one paragraph, I'm going to set another goal of doing another paragraph." I did
that — got it done and felt a sense of completion.

Now the report that I ended up writing was quite long, but by setting myself goals — a
paragraph at a time, and eventually I was able to build up and do a page at a time or a
couple of pages at a time — rather than being overwhelmed by this gigantic thing
hanging over my head, I was able to just calmly go, "You know what? As long as I can
do a paragraph here and then a paragraph there and a paragraph there, I will eventually
reach the end of the project."

So to reduce your stress, the stress of having really large goals that you're working
toward, break them down into smaller, achievable goals and celebrate each one of the
small goals as you achieve it. Rather than being one constant experience of not reaching
the big goal, it's one constant experience of reaching small goal after small goal after
small goal.

That's the way to take your stress level and instead turn it into a feeling of
accomplishment.

By breaking down large goals into smaller, more achievable bits, you can reduce your
stress.

Stever Robbins
CEO, Stever Robbins, Inc.

Stever Robbins is an entrepreneur, management consultant, and adjunct lecturer at

Babson College in building social capital.

A veteran of nine startups, including FTP Software, Intuit, and HEAR Music, he has
helped executives navigate their organizations and themselves through building high-
growth companies.

He is an expert on personal productivity and writes and hosts the Get-It-Done Guy
podcast on personal productivity.

Stever's work with younger and emerging business leaders includes mentoring high-
school students through Junior Achievement, serving as career coach and business plan
judge at Harvard Business School, and participating in Boston's Principal for a Day
program.

He is the author of two business books, "It Takes a Lot More Than Attitude to Lead a
Stellar Organization" and "Get-It-Done Guy's 9 Steps to Work Less and Do More."

Stever holds a bachelor's degree from MIT and a Master of Business Administration
from Harvard.

Evaluate

Toxic worry is a misreading of reality.

–Edward M. Hallowell, M.D.

The key to evaluating the cause of the worry is to confront it. Don't ignore those little
signals your body is giving you. They won't go away until you face what causes them.
1. Name the problem. Just giving a name to a problem can help reduce stress because
by identifying the specific problem, you've already eliminated all other possibilities.
Naming makes things more manageable.

Discover the stress-creating pattern that describes your situation.

For example, do you:

 Take on too many responsibilities?

 Find it difficult to balance work-life issues?
 Work in the wrong job?
 Have problems with colleagues or supervisors?
 Procrastinate when a deadline looms?

2. Think constructively about the problem. This may seem like a difficult step, but all
it takes is an honest examination of your own automatic worry process. It requires that
you step back and watch yourself, in order to identify how your mind leaps from the bad
news or perceived danger that triggers the worry to the "awfulizing" of the initial event.
Take these steps, one by one:

 Examine your automatic thoughts. Monitor your automatic thoughts. What

words pop into your mind? Write the words down and look at them more
objectively. Often you can see how exaggerated they are. For example, do
you use negative descriptors (idiot, stupid) against yourself?
 Correct errors in logic. Next, examine your automatic thoughts for errors in
logic. For example, why would your supervisor include you in the e-mail
message about the budget meetings unless you had a role in that meeting?
Your hasty assumption that you were being excluded is an error in logic.
 Develop alternative hypotheses. Even though you may leap to the worst-
case scenario, there may be other hypotheses that could explain the situation.
Your supervisor may have assumed that you were working on the revenue
report, or she may have a different task in mind for you.
 Revise your fundamental assumptions about yourself and your work.
Instead of calling yourself stupid and assuming that the disaster will certainly
occur, start becoming your own best supporter. This may prove to be a
difficult step to take because these fundamental assumptions can reflect
ancient and deep-seated ways of looking at yourself and your world.
However, if these assumptions are untrue and block constructive thoughts,
then they need to be replaced with healthier and more honest ones. The
important thing is to discard the distortions that prevent you from achieving
rational and productive solutions.
 Never worry alone. Invite a friend to help as a listening partner. Sharing
your worries with the right person can make you feel better by unloading the
weight of worry. Just talking out loud about your concerns helps to sort them
out and to clarify where your concerns may be valid and where you may be
distorting the problem. The listener, at this point, needs simply to listen,
rather than trying to solve your problems. Your goal here is to understand
your own worry process and gain the power to find your own solutions.

Plan
Planning ahead can take time and seem to be a burden, but the value of planning is a
more than adequate return on your time investment. Planning can intercept the toxic
worry and replace it with effective action. Here are some steps you can take in advance:

Get the facts. Wise worry confronts real problems. Toxic worry exaggerates and
misrepresents reality. Brooding about the "what-if" possibilities passively burns up your
energy. So get active! Find out what the truth of the matter is. Go to the sources of
information, and don't rely on hearsay, gossip, or your own vivid imagination.

Structure your life. Much worry results from unstructured living and thinking habits.
A cluttered desk with files scattered about means wasted time finding the material you
need and the risk of losing important information. In the same way, a mind cluttered
with "what-if" possibilities can hide the "that-is" reality. Worried people typically spend
more time and energy worrying than they do accomplishing productive tasks.

Structuring your life is being kind and considerate to yourself—organizing your desk
helps you find things. And structuring your life reduces your risk of losing vital files,
information, keys—as well as preventing you from losing perspective. Use structure as
an anti-anxiety agent: lists, reminders, schedules, rules, and budgets are all methods of
structuring your life for your own benefit.

Here are some ways to structure your space:

 Take the time to organize your desk.

 Use colored file folders with clear labels.
 Put your keys in the same spot every day.
 Organize your computer desktop and mailbox.

Here are some ways to structure your time:

 Set goals. Decide what you want or need to accomplish in the coming week.
 Prioritize your goals. Break them down into small, manageable activities.
 Use a date book to avoid missing appointments and to stay on target.
 Be fair to yourself: make your plan for the week reasonable.
 Match important activities to the times of your high energy peaks—the times
of the day when you feel most alert and vigorous.
 Save the simple, repetitive tasks for your low-energy periods.
 Avoid getting involved in activities that don't match your goals.
 Be sure to take breaks to restore energy—stand up and stretch, take a short
walk, or chat briefly with a colleague.

The act of structuring can itself be difficult. If you find the idea of organizing a cause
for new worry, then ask a friend or colleague—someone whose desk is neat and who is
never late to a meeting—to give you a hand. Ask for help from more than one person—
you may discover ideas and ways to structure your life that are actually easy and fun!

Remediate

The next step is to find a remedy for toxic worry. Reason, planning, and action are
powerful antidotes to the paralysis of stress and worry.
  Take direct action. If you've evaluated the problem and planned what you
can do about it, then go ahead, take the plunge and just do it! Make the phone
call, change your behavior, clean up that desk, connect with a friend, or
confront that difficult colleague. Taking action is empowering. Your feeling
of vulnerability and your toxic worry will fade.
 Let it go. Why let go? No matter how much you may want to effect a change,
there are some problems that can't be solved by any action on your part. You
just have to wait and see how things turn out. Worrying about the matter
won't help. For example, if your supervisor suddenly announces a major
reorganization, you can't do anything about it until the event happens and you
have more information about how it will affect you. You just have to sit tight
and wait. Or perhaps you're up for a big promotion, but you won't find out
about the decision for a month. You will be better off in every way—
physically, emotionally, and mentally—if you can let the worry go until later.

What does letting go mean? Letting go means giving up your sense of

control, and this can be difficult to do. Often people feel that if they worry
enough, they might affect the outcome. But in those cases and times when
control doesn't help and worry only hurts, it's worth the effort to give up both
worry and control.

How can you let worry go? Different people have different ways. Some find
that meditation helps. Some listen to music or sing a song. Try putting your
worry in the palm of your hand and blowing it away. Close your eyes and
imagine the worry putting on its coat and hat and walking slowly out of the
room. The important thing for you is to say good-bye to useless worry.

Activity: Evaluate, plan, and remediate

Practice applying the evaluate, plan, and remediate process to help you halt escalating
worry.

You've spent six months participating in a cross-functional team charged with

completing a project for an important client. You and your supervisor are proud of the
work the team has accomplished so far. However, at the last team meeting, the project
leader informed everyone that the client is not pleased with your team's progress. The
project leader, who is responsible for all direct communication with the client, also
suggested that a major change in direction may be required. A sense of panic has come
over you.

How should you evaluate this situation?

"I haven't been working on this project hard enough."

Not the best choice. This response represents a jump to an unfounded conclusion about
your own effectiveness, not an objective evaluation of the situation.
"Our team's efforts aren't as well coordinated as they should be."
Not the best choice. This response represents a jump to an unfounded conclusion about
your team's effectiveness, not an objective evaluation of the situation.
 "At least one person at the client organization isn't fully satisfied with the work that
has been done."
Correct choice. In the evaluation phase, you establish what you know, without jumping
to a conclusion based on worries or assumptions.

You've determined that at least one person at the client organization isn't fully satisfied
with your team's progress on the project.

What plan should you develop to address the situation?

"We need more information on why the client is unhappy with the progress on the
project. We should solicit more detailed feedback."
Correct choice. More information and feedback from the client will help you get the
facts about the problem. The facts, in turn, will enable you to generate potential
solutions to the problem.
"Our team has missed the point somehow. We need to return to our early project
plans and reevaluate them."
Not the best choice. Reworking your team's early project plans might ultimately prove
necessary, but it won't help you find out what the client is unhappy about. Thus, this
plan could lead you and your team to address the wrong problem.
"I'll have to work harder to make sure this doesn't happen again."
Not the best choice. While you should always take responsibility for your own errors,
you don't yet know what has made the client unhappy. Therefore, "working harder" may
not address the real problem. In addition, "working harder" isn't specific enough to
constitute a helpful plan of action.

You've decided the project team needs more information on why the client is unhappy
with the direction of the project.

What steps can you take to remediate this situation?

"I'll suggest to the project leader that we arrange a teleconference where we can
discuss the problems with the client."
Correct choice. This kind of teleconference could help your whole team get more
information from the client about the problem and explore potential solutions for
moving the project forward.
"I'll contact the client via email myself to see what improvements could be made on
the next iteration of the project."
Not the best choice. It is the project leader's responsibility to initiate and manage
important communications with the client.
 "I'll compile a record of all the work I've done on the project, to show I'm not
responsible for the client's dissatisfaction."
Not the best choice. Compiling such a record to "prove" how hard you have worked
will likely only increase your stress level. And it won't help you or your team to get at
the root of the client's dissatisfaction.

Make connections

The Evaluate-Plan-Remediate approach uses reason, logic, and action to confront the
exaggerations of toxic worry by increasing the worrier's sense of power and control.
Connectedness uses the human need to connect and share with others to reduce the
sense of vulnerability. Thus, both approaches help to reverse the Basic Worry Equation.

Connectedness is feeling that you are part of something larger than yourself. In the
workplace, it can be feeling that you are part of a company, part of a department, part of
a team, working together. Connectedness can also be a sharing with friends, with
partners, and in activities you love.

The disconnected workplace

Worry gives a small thing a big shadow.

–Swedish proverb

As so many of us sit in our cubicles today, separated from our coworkers and yet not
quite alone, we can feel disconnected from the people surrounding us. Entrepreneurs or
home-office workers can feel even more isolated. We communicate via e-mails, voice
mail, and faxes, rarely actually speaking one-on-one to a human voice on the telephone,
much less face-to-face. With the ability to access large amounts of information on the
Internet, we don't even need to speak to a librarian to get the data or knowledge we need
to complete a project.

That sense of disconnectedness can aggravate our anxieties, contribute to worry, and
increase stress. We can have a difficult time finding someone to talk to, someone with
whom we can test out our concerns in reality checks; share news, ideas, and resources;
or just banter about the latest sports or political or company events. The obstacles to
connecting that some companies create can seem daunting:

 Treating employees as robots

 Using technical communication instead of human interaction
 Encouraging a competitive desire to hoard information instead of sharing
 Separating employees physically into work cubes
 Overloading employees with extra work
Time, pressure, and competition keep employees hunched over their desks, increasing
their stress and ultimately decreasing their productivity.

Key Idea: Power of connectedness

Key Idea

While isolation permits toxic worry to escalate, human contact can deflate toxic worry.
The human moment—when two people are face-to-face and listening to each other—
gives the worrier a chance to unburden himself or herself of those anxieties, a chance to
get a reality check from the listener, a chance to be reassured that he or she is not alone
facing apparently overwhelming problems.

The human moment, that one-on-one connection between two people, is essential for
combating negative stress and distorted worries, but other forms of positive
connectedness are also important and powerful antidotes to stress and worry. Everyone
in the workplace—individual employees, supervisors, and self-employed workers—
needs to strive to increase their own and others' connections to people they trust and to
ideas and things they care about.

Isolation often fuels negative stress and worry. However, connecting with friends,
family, and coworkers can serve as a powerful antidote.

Connections foster community

Two kinds of connectedness are vital in the workplace: connectedness to colleagues and
connectedness to a mission.

 Connectedness to colleagues. This takes effort on your part, but it's worth it.
Seek out other members of your department or team, but don't limit yourself
to this group. Start by saying hello—it's as simple as that! Pause at the coffee
center to chat about small things. Sit down next to a new person in the
lunchroom. Ask people about their work, family, or other interests—usually
people are pleased to have someone interested in them.

Individual entrepreneurs and home-office workers can make the effort to get
together as a group to form a community and share their experiences—
successes and problems, worries and concerns. Weekly or monthly gatherings
(even Internet chat rooms) with the express purpose of connection are
primarily used as professional networking tools, but they can also fulfill a
human need for connectedness.

 Connectedness to a mission. On the job, caring about your team's projects or

your company's mission can help you feel just as connected as sharing news
with a colleague. Feeling as if you are a part of the whole, not just some
interchangeable peg, gives you a sense of your own worth. As a supervisor,
encouraging this kind of connected spirit will increase your team's
productivity. As an employee, caring can help turn negative worry into
positive energy.
Together, these two kinds of connectedness can produce a sense of community in the
workplace that is essential for the well-being and productivity of all of its members.

Leadership Insight: Take time to disconnect

When I was promoted for the first time to a leadership position within the Danish
government, I became responsible for a very high-profile project, which I had to deliver
results on within a very short period of time. It involved a lot of different stakeholders
and we had to make a lot of decisions. My team and I worked around the clock. And
after six months, I came up in a situation where I was supposed to go on vacation.

This was a vacation I had booked before I got promoted — it was a trip to Cuba, and
I've always wanted to go there. So, went to my boss and asked him, "Is it OK if I go, or
should I stay?" because I was feeling a lot of responsibility for this project.

I was probably hoping that he should say that I should actually stay. But instead,
without any hesitation, he said, "I think you should go, and we'll see how things will
work out when you come back." I went — and I probably thought that I would still be
able to work, just a little bit, from Cuba.

But I suddenly found out when I got there that there was absolutely no connection to my
cell phone and I had only limited access to my e-mail. Instead, I ended up enjoying the
trip a lot. When I came back, I found out that the project was running fine and people
were happy and motivated. When I logged on to my computer, though, I found 780
emails in my inbox.

But at the same time, my CEO came into the office. He said, "Well, you see the project
is running fine, and the e-mails — I think you should just delete them. Because, if
they're important, the important ones will come back to you and then you can respond to
them. And instead, I think you should go out and talk to the employees. Let them tell
you what their experience has been and which decisions that they have made."

This situation gave me a lot food for thought, because before I left, I think I would say
that I had been kind of a micromanager involving myself in all of the projects, in all of
the decisions. And when I came back, I actually began to relax a lot more.

I found out that if I step back, if I focus on communicating the overall vision and our
goals, and give people much more room to maneuver and a lot more responsibility, I'll
actually end up not only becoming a more efficient leader myself. I'll end up having a
much more efficient team. And, at the end of this project, people were actually talking
about how this team was a dream team.

Managers who have a tendency to control everything can learn how not to
micromanage, to the benefit of their team and themselves.

Flemming Pedersen
Chief of Division, Danish Ministry of Economic and Business Affairs

Flemming Pedersen is the Chief of Division with the Danish Ministry of Economic and
Business Affairs, which conducts economic analyses and suggests policy initiatives for
economic growth.

In a previous role as the Chief of the Division for Globalization and Growth Strategy,
he led the development of strategies to improve the competitiveness of the Danish
companies operating domestically and globally.

Flemming is also a member of the board of directors at the Danish Design Center. He
holds a Master of political science from Aarhus University (Denmark) and has formerly
worked with the Danish Ministry of Finance and as a consultant for the Boston
Consulting Group.

Quick-fix connections

Long-term positive and trusting relationships may be the best kind of anti-worry
connection, but there are times when a person simply needs a quick fix. Quick-fix
connections don't solve deeper problems, but they can be very useful for those
occasional crises that almost everyone experiences.

Reassurance as a bandage. If, for example, two different supervisors ask one
employee for two separate reports due on the same day, the employee may feel
panicked, overwhelmed by the enormity of the required tasks. The work may seem
impossible, and anticipating failure can set off waves of toxic stress. What to do? In this
situation, the employee could use some reassurance just to help make it through this
tough time.

Reassurance is a type of connectedness that says to the worrier that everything will be
fine. It's a kind of comfort that can soothe the anxious mind with a counteracting voice
and offer just enough encouragement to help the worrier get over through the difficult
time. It's easy to give and warmly received.

 Getting reassurance. When you need reassurance, ask for it. That's difficult
for some people, but it's worth learning how to do it. Don't make them guess
that you need reassurance from your body language or roundabout questions.
Just say, "Tell me everything is going to be okay." But even more important,
ask the right person. Some people simply can't respond—they may be too
distant or too honest. Make sure the person you ask knows when to be
reassuring and when to provide their honest opinion.
 Giving reassurance. Even though it's easy to give reassurance, it may seem
hard. If you've never received it yourself or if you believe a person needs to
be "strong" enough to make it through without reassurance or if you believe
you always need to be honest about the prospects of success or failure, then
you may resist giving reassurance. You may be pleasantly surprised at how a
little reassurance can go a long way toward turning an anxious person into a
more productive one. Say the words, "It'll be fine." Give a pat on the back, a
little hug, a bit of hope to build some confidence.

The problem with reassurance is that it is just a bandage used to cover a hurt. If it's the
only tool used to counteract worry, then it's not enough. Chronic worriers need much
more than just reassurance; chronic worriers need to challenge themselves in more
systematic and holistic ways.

Venting as relief. Another kind of quick-fix connection is venting. If, for example, you
have a bad week when everything seems to go wrong—your car breaks down, your
assistant quits, your computer gets a virus, your budget request is denied—you can feel
overwhelmed and begin to wonder what new catastrophe awaits. The stress of dealing
with these real problems can suddenly escalate and interfere with a rational approach to
problem-solving. That's when not only reassurance can help, but, in addition, a healthy
session of venting.

Venting can offer relief by allowing you to unburden your problems. Just listing them
out loud can diminish their power to assault your worried mind. Venting can be good
for you!

Be sure to vent to the right person, though. You need someone who will listen and
sympathize, not someone who will brush aside your list as unimportant, and not
someone who wants to solve everything for you. The purpose of venting is to ease your
mind, giving you the mental space to return to the problems with renewed energy to
deal with them as needed.

Self-talk

Connecting with yourself may be one of the most effective strategies for challenging
stress and winning. As we grow up and learn about the world around us, we develop
automatic thoughts to help us sort through our perceptions and experiences. If these
automatic thoughts are healthy and constructive, we cope with our life in positive ways.
However, chronic worriers often subject themselves to negative automatic thoughts that
contribute to their worry and stress.

The power of negative thoughts

Negative self-talk, what you say to yourself, contributes directly to your stress. Self-talk
is related to your internal assumptions and beliefs, and it is typically automatic, familiar,
and unconscious.

 Our bodies can't sort out the experiences we have from the events we
imagine. As we imagine a bad outcome—say, being fired from our job—our
body reacts to the thought as though it were actually happening. All the
physical reactions that would occur in a dangerous situation will occur in an
imagined one too.
 We talk to ourselves constantly, and if those messages are negative-critical
("How could I do such a foolish thing!") or name-calling ("I'm an idiot!")—
then we start to believe them.
 We rarely stop to consider what we are saying to ourselves. We don't counter
the criticisms, for example, with understanding or forgiveness. In other
words, we don't test our own assumptions. Because we don't counter negative
 thoughts—such as, "I know I won't get that raise"—those thoughts can
become self-fulfilling.

Tune in to your self-talk

To accurately tune into your negative self-talk, you must first identify your automatic
thoughts. These are thoughts that you have spontaneously that may or may not reflect
the reality of your situation.

Think about what you tell yourself when you first arrive at the office in the morning. Is
the message positive or negative? Is there a familiar feel to the message? For example,
do you see your desk and think, "I'll never get everything done today?" Is the message
accurate? Could you be distorting or exaggerating the situation?

Identify common mind traps

Automatic thoughts often fall into categories, called mind traps. These mind traps are
irrational beliefs that can lead you astray from a clear and realistic perception of your
world. Identifying the ones you use and are comfortable with will help you challenge
them.

Consider how your automatic thinking might fall into the following traps:

Mind Traps What They Are

"Should" statements "I should do this. I must do that." You motivate yourself with
"shoulds" and then feel guilty.
All-or-nothing thinking "One mistake, and total failure will result." You see things in
extremes of black or white, all good or all bad.
Overgeneralizations "This always happens." You set a pattern of inevitability to an
event that happens once or twice.
Mental filtering "This one mistake ruins everything." You see only the
negative side to an event and ignore the positive one.
Rejecting positive "The team complimented my work just to be polite." You
experiences accept only the negative messages.
Jumping to conclusions "Our department is being restructured. I know I'll be fired."
Without bothering to get the facts, you assume the worst.
Emotional reasoning "I feel like a loser, so I must be a loser." You assume your
negative feelings represent reality.
Labeling "I'm so stupid and irresponsible to be late for that meeting!"
You label yourself negatively.
Personalizing "The proposal was rejected because I was on the team." You
assign cause and blame to yourself inappropriately.

Challenge self-talk distortions

Once you are able to identify the mind traps that you easily fall into, begin to challenge
them, one by one. The following table offers possible remedies for common mind traps:

Mind Traps Remedies

"Should" statements Use the verb "want" instead of "should." Give yourself some
flexibility in deciding what you want to do.
All-or-nothing thinking Don't make black-or-white judgments. Think of the in-
between points or percentages (40% or 75%).
Overgeneralizations Examine the evidence. Is something always true? Or has it
happened two times out of the past five?
Mental filtering Look for the positive side as well as the negative. Focus on
solving the problem.
Rejecting positive Acknowledge and accept the reality of positive experiences or
experiences events.
Jumping to conclusions Get the facts first. See if the evidence supports your
conclusion.
Emotional reasoning Step away from just your emotions, and try to look at yourself
as others see you.
Labeling Describe the behavior, not yourself. If you make a mistake,
acknowledge the mistake; don't blame yourself.
Personalizing Make yourself prove that you are responsible for the situation.
What is the evidence?

Choose positive self-talk

Choosing positive self-talk over existing mind traps isn't easy. However, adopting a
positive outlook is critical to avoiding workplace stress. To reprogram your self-talk,
start slowly. Consider how you can:

 Reframe the way you perceive events. Reframing is a way of restating

negative self-talk into positive affirmation. It puts the picture or experience
into a different frame, so that you can look at it in a new way. Consider the
worst-case scenario of a given situation. For example, what if you do get
fired after a merger. What would happen to you? What new opportunities
might emerge from that event? In other words, look at a situation from as
many different views as possible. What can you learn about it? A situation
that might seem disastrous could offer exciting new opportunities. What
seems like a terrible mistake may be a great chance to learn.
 Affirm yourself. Give yourself reassurance and support. Positive and
constructive self-talking takes practice; at first, it may seem uncomfortable.
But keep on using it. Tell yourself that you're fine, that you'll make it, and
that you deserve that raise. Give yourself credit when it's due. The positive
alternatives will gain strength because they actually make more sense.

Activity: Make your talk positive

Making your self-talk positive is an important part of managing workplace stress. Find a
positive version of each of the following comments.

Making your self-talk positive is an important part of managing workplace stress. Find a
positive version of each of the following comments.

"I can't believe I screwed up this report again."

 "Someone else should handle these reports."
Not the best choice. This comment still essentially surrenders to your negative self-talk.
Rather than seeking improvement, this language suggests that you are seeking to unload
problems on someone else.
"I need to find out what I'm doing wrong on these reports."
Correct choice. This response acknowledges the issue at the basis of your self-talk.
However, it replaces the negativity of the original comment with a positive impulse
toward improvement.
"So what if I'm not good with these reports? I can do other things."
Not the best choice. Avoiding negative self-talk doesn't mean you should stop working
on tasks that are sometimes difficult and frustrating. Learning to perform difficult tasks
can strengthen your on-the-job performance.

"My customers all hate me."

"I think my people skills need some work."

Correct choice. This response acknowledges the issue at the basis of your self-talk.
However, it replaces the negativity of the original comment with a positive impulse
toward improvement.
"I wish I was more like Chuck. That guy can charm anyone. Ah, well."
Not the best choice. Although this comment at least implies a positive role model, it
does not suggest any effort to learn from that role model or make improvements.
"Maybe I need to try a job where I don't have to deal with people."
Not the best choice. This comment suggests giving up, rather than making an
improvement.

"My supervisors never notice me."

"My supervisors are probably too busy to be concerned with me."

Not the best choice. This comment misses the opportunity to seek more information or
make an improvement. It's a form of giving up.
"I'm glad I'm not one of those people who's always talking about their latest
accomplishment."
Not the best choice. Replacing negativity toward yourself with negativity towards
others does not decrease your stress level—it just directs your stress in a different
direction.
"Maybe I need to keep my supervisors more up-to-speed on my activities."
Correct choice. This response acknowledges the issue at the basis of your self-talk.
However, it replaces the negativity of the original comment with a positive impulse
toward improvement.
Stress's effects on the body

There are times when no matter how much you evaluate, plan, and remediate, no matter
how connected you become to others and to your own feelings, you may still be
burdened by those real situations that deserve your attention and concern. Or you may
just still feel those waves of anxiety and stress in spite of how thoughtful, analytical, or
connected you may be. One important way to manage your stress, whatever its source,
is to exercise your body. Changing your physical state can help change your mental
state.

After all, stress has a direct impact on your body. In the short term, it gives you that
energy surge and alertness you need to confront a threatening situation. However,
prolonged stress puts an unhealthy strain on your body. Prolonged stress can:

 Raise your cholesterol level

 Cause your arteries to restrict, limiting blood flow to the heart
 Disrupt your digestive process and result in stomach acid, constipation,
diarrhea, ulcers, or even cancer of the bowels
 Stimulate migraine headaches, asthma attacks, or other allergic reactions

Even if you can't eliminate the stress-causing situation, you can choose to reduce the
effect stress has on your body. You can exercise, eat healthy foods, get enough rest, and
relax and breathe deeply.

Exercise, exercise, exercise

The easiest, cheapest, and most natural antidote to worry is exercise. Exercise benefits
your brain by:

 Reducing tension
 Easing aggression and frustration
 Providing an increased sense of well-being
 Improving sleep
 Aiding concentration

Exercise is also good for almost every other part of your body—heart, circulation,
bones, respiratory system, skin, etc. And it helps you reduce your weight, lower your
blood pressure, and regulate your blood sugar.

Worry tends to put your body in a frozen, unmoving state. Exercise helps you break out
of the immobility. So start by simply moving. Rock and sway. Get up and stretch. Even
better, take a walk or climb some stairs. Even those brief physical efforts can help clear
your mind of the weight of worry.
Better yet, get in the habit of exercising on a regular basis—three to four times a week,
if possible. Choose something you enjoy doing—walking, running, bicycling, roller-
blading, hiking, swimming, rowing, playing tennis or basketball. If you don't enjoy it,
you won't keep it up.

Eat healthfully

Eating is another way of coping with stress. If you turn to consuming junk food as a
response to a stressful day, then food has become a negative coping response for you.
But if you eat a healthy and varied diet, then your body will be better able to deal with
the normal or higher levels of stress you face each day.

Some ways to achieve healthy eating habits include:

 Maintaining a healthy weight. Toxic stress can affect your weight by

causing you to under- or overeat. Either way, your body won't have the
optimum level of energy it needs to function effectively. First, determine the
healthiest body weight for you, taking into account that this number varies by
height, gender, and age. Then, if you do need to adjust your body weight,
choose a slow, steady weight-loss or -gain diet.
 Eating a variety of food. Not only is it more interesting to vary your diet,
but you give your body the full range of nutrients it needs.
 Eating plenty of vegetables, fruit, and grains.
 Reducing the level of fat and cholesterol in your diet. Eat foods that are
broiled, baked, or steamed rather than fried. Limit your intake of animal
products such as egg yolks.
 Using sugar, salt, and sodium in moderation.
 Moderating your consumption of alcohol and caffeine.

Sleep restfully

There is more to life than just increasing its speed.

–Mahatma Gandhi

Insomnia can be caused by stress, and lack of sleep can aggravate the level of stress.
This can cause you to become more tense, irritable, and anxious. People vary in the
amount of sleep they need, but your body will tell you what's right for you. Pay
attention to how you feel in the morning after more or less sleep. Then make an effort to
get the amount of sleep that's right for you. If you are having problems sleeping, then
try some of these simple sleep-improving activities:

 Reduce your intake of coffee, other caffeinated drinks, and alcohol. These
substances tend to disrupt your sleep.
 Exercise regularly.
 Plan the next day's activities early in the evening.
 Prepare for your morning routine before you go to bed.
 Make your sleeping environment as quiet and dark as possible.
 Establish a routine for going to sleep.
 Use relaxation techniques to help yourself fall asleep.
  If you can't sleep, get out of bed and do something soothing until you feel
sleepy again.

Relax and breathe: the relaxation response

The relaxation response is a structured approach to using breathing and relaxation to

counter the negative affects of stress. It is a deliberate and controlled technique that is
opposite to the body's natural fight-or-flight stress response in the face of apparent
danger or a perceived threatening situation. While the body's fight-or-flight mode
causes an increase in the heart rate and breathing, the relaxation response reverses these
bodily states.

When you find yourself feeling unnecessary stress, apply this simple technique to
counteract the negative effects of stress on your body. To prepare, you will need:

 A quiet environment. Find a quiet, calm place; a private room; or a space

with no distractions.
 A mental device. Choose a constant stimulus of a single-syllable sound or
word, such as the word, "one." Repeat that sound silently or softly over and
over again. Focus solely on that sound.
 A passive attitude. Disregard all distracting thoughts. Simply let yourself be
completely passive.
 A comfortable position. Sit in a comfortable chair, preferably with neck and
head support. Loosen all tight-fitting clothes. Prop your feet up, if possible.

To induce the relaxation response:

1. Sit in a comfortable position.

2. Close your eyes.
3. Deeply relax your muscles, starting with your toes and moving up to
your face and head.
4. Breathe through your nose. As you breathe out, say the sound or word you
have chosen silently or softly to yourself. Breathe in. Breathe out and say the
word again. Breathe in.
5. Keep repeating the breathing in and out and the sound for 20 minutes.
Open your eyes to check the time, but do not use an alarm or other sharp
noise.
6. When you finish, sit quietly for several minutes, at first with your eyes
closed and then with your eyes open.

After using this technique, most people feel calm and relaxed, but perhaps the most
important benefit is an immediate lowering of blood pressure. And the interruption of
stressful and worried thoughts can enable you to focus more clearly on the real
situation.

Key Idea: Avoid stress stimulants

Key Idea

Stress stimulants surround us in our busy, modern world. Try to avoid those superficial
stress arousers and focus on only those matters that are truly important.

 Shun negative office politics and workplace conflicts. Intra- and

interdepartmental rivalries can create an artificial sense of competition and
crisis. Genuine teamwork and shared activities create a more effective and
productive environment. If you have the power to move your colleagues
away from conflict and toward a connected community, then you will be
helping not only yourself but the organization as well.
 Limit excessive media stimulants. Too much Internet time can aggravate
tension by its flashing advertisements, overly busy pages, frustratingly slow
downloads, and startling pop-up menus. Skip over exaggerated disaster news
stories; one of their purposes is to arouse your level of worry. Avoid
watching too much television—it's another source of extraneous information
and pressure.
 Restrict your intake of coffee, caffeine, alcohol, and sugar. They may
seem to help give you what you want at the moment—whether it's being alert
with caffeine, or gaining a quick energy pick-me-up with sugar, or relaxing
with an alcoholic drink—but these effects are all superficial. Overuse can
produce the opposite effect.

Stress stimulants are all around us. What should you avoid to keep your stress level
manageable?

Adopt stress busters

Incorporate stress busters into your everyday routine to help you deal with those
moments when your body tenses up at the thought of another long budget meeting, at
the message you received from your supervisor to see him immediately, or at the
workaholic's announcement that she worked all weekend. Stress busters can become
easy and natural ways to help you endure those anxious moments and enjoy your life
and work.

Try "minis." Minis are shorter versions of the relaxation response technique that you
can use quickly whenever you feel tension beginning to grip you. Taking the following
actions will help to reduce stress if you don't have a lot of time:

 Take a deep breath and hold it for several seconds. Then let your breath out
very slowly while repeating your focus word.
 Put your right hand just under your navel. Focus on breathing down to your
navel. As you breathe in the first time, say the number ten. Breathe out. Then
breathe in and say the number nine. Breathe out. Continue until you reach
zero.
  Breathe in through your nose and breathe out through your mouth ten times.
Notice how cool the air feels when you inhale and how warm it is when you
exhale.
 Imagine air as a cloud. As you breathe, envision that the air comes to you as a
cloud, filling you and then leaving you.

Enjoy humor. Just laughing can transform that rigidly tight facial expression of tension
into more relaxed and flexible features. Humor is also a way to reframe negative self-
talk into something more positive and fun.

Step back from the worry and strain of the job, and look for the funny side of things:

 Find the humor in everyday situations. Watch out for coincidences, ironies,
and contradictions.
 Think about playing at your work. Many routine tasks can be seen as game-
playing moves.
 Collect cartoons to decorate your workspace.
 Exaggerate something to the point of absurdity. Step out of your usual
bounds, or say the unexpected occasionally.
 Take your standard negative self-talk lines, and rephrase them into funny
talk. For example, change "This always happens to me" to "And I only
volunteer 60% of the time!"

A note of caution: Don't mistake humor for ridicule. Laughing at someone or at the
expense of someone is not nearly as funny as it is hurtful. Real humor is based on
respect and involves everyone in the fun.

Take a break. Our bodies and minds need time-outs, breaks from our work and
activities. Pay attention to your stress and energy levels. When you feel tension rising
and energy falling, then take a break. Some stress-reducing changes in your work
pattern include:

 Listening to music
 Going for a walk
 Chatting with friends
 Climbing some stairs

These are brief, daily breaks. But be sure to schedule longer breaks with an extended
weekend or short getaways as well. Ride out into the country; stay in a bed-and-
breakfast; go hiking or fishing, or simply read a good book. A complete and longer
change of pace can help you perceive your work world in a whole new way—with less
worry and more energy.

All of these activities can serve to reduce stress and restore energy. Moments of leisure,
relaxation, and pleasure mean less worry and dis-stress.

Activity: Keep a body healthy

Stress stimulants and stress busters sometimes aren't as easy to distinguish as you'd
think. See if you can spot the stress stimulants in an office.
Stress stimulants and stress busters sometimes aren't as easy to distinguish as you'd
think. See if you can spot the stress stimulants in an office.

Is coffee a potential stress stimulant?

Yes
Correct choice. Many people like to start their day with a cup of coffee. However,
coffee is a stimulant, and drinking too much of it when you are already stressed can
make you jumpy and nervous. Enjoy it in moderation and avoid using it as an "energy
booster."
No
Not the best choice. Many people like to start their day with a cup of coffee. However,
coffee is a stimulant, and drinking too much of it when you are already stressed can
make you jumpy and nervous. Enjoy it in moderation and avoid using it as an "energy
booster."

Is a hamburger a potential stress stimulant?

Yes
Correct choice. When work gets really busy, a lot of people fall back on a diet of fast
food. Avoid this. High stress already puts a burden on your digestive and circulatory
systems. Adding fat-laden, high calorie foods will only negatively impact your overall
health.
No
Not the best choice. When work gets really busy, a lot of people fall back on a diet of
fast food. Avoid this. High stress already puts a burden on your digestive and
circulatory systems. Adding fat-laden, high calorie foods will only negatively impact
your overall health.

Are hand weights a potential stress stimulant?

Yes
Not the best choice. While you don't want to turn your office into a gym, simple pieces
of exercise equipment that can be used for 5- to 10-minute sessions (e.g., an exercise
ball or hand weights) may let you work off frustration and build positive energy.
No
Correct choice. While you don't want to turn your office into a gym, simple pieces of
exercise equipment that can be used for 5- to 10-minute sessions (e.g., an exercise ball
or hand weights) may let you work off frustration and build positive energy.
Is a radio a potential stress stimulant?

Yes
Not the best choice. Tuning in to your favorite music station for a few minutes at work
can give your mind a well-deserved break from your daily activities, and may help to
boost your energy level. Additionally, listening to soothing music at a reasonable
volume may help ease your stress without taking your focus off your work.
No
Correct choice. Tuning in to your favorite music station for a few minutes at work can
give your mind a well-deserved break from your daily activities, and may help to boost
your energy level. Additionally, listening to soothing music at a reasonable volume may
help ease your stress without taking your focus off your work.

Are phones potential stress stimulants?

Yes
Correct choice. In the business world, information comes from a lot of sources: e-mail,
phones, PDAs, memos, etc. Having to juggle all these sources is a major source of
stress, especially if many are bringing bad news. Try, if possible, not to give attention to
all these sources of input at once. Turn off your phone when and if you can.
No
Not the best choice. In the business world, information comes from a lot of sources: e-
mail, phones, PDAs, memos, etc. Having to juggle all these sources is a major source of
stress, especially if many are bringing bad news. Try, if possible, not to give attention to
all these sources of input at once. Turn off your phone when and if you can.

Frequently Asked Questions

How common are stress-related problems at work?

Extremely common. With heavy workloads, career pressure, and demands for increased
productivity in almost all areas of the workplace, stress is a constant factor in our
professional lives. Some stress is good—it gets people going—but too much can have
the opposite effect. Excessive stress is repetitive and frustrating with no reward and no
satisfaction, and it can become toxic—doing real damage to your mind and body.

Don't I have to be stressed to succeed in today's professional environment?

To a degree, yes. Stress does stimulate performance. Some people thrive in a
demanding, high-stress world. They are energized by the fast-paced working style, the
demands of multi-tasking, and the excitement of stiff competition. But most managers
can't keep up that pace for long without physical and emotional consequences. The most
successful managers tend to be those who prioritize their tasks, delegate responsibilities,
and know when to leave their work problems behind them.

How can I tell whether my worry is productive or toxic?

It's important to tell the difference between positive stress and toxic worry. If you feel
good about what you're doing, if you're producing excellent work on time and under
budget, then enjoy yourself! But if you're worried and anxious, unable to concentrate on
your work, or unhappy about even going to work, then the stress you feel is poisoning
your life—at work and at home.

What are some of the signs of toxic stress?

Some signs of toxic stress are subtle and difficult to detect while others are clearly
recognizable. The most common indicators are changes in behavior such as: decreased
productivity, creativity, motivation, or confidence; increased irritability, fatigue, or
pessimism; increased use of alcohol or other drugs; and increased physical ailments
with no apparent cause. In practical terms, you may be dealing with a toxic level of
stress if you find yourself canceling appointments, failing in an interview, or refusing to
fly on an airplane just because you're too anxious.

Why is it important to talk with someone about the problem?

One of the first rules for managing stress is never worry alone. Talk with someone you
trust. Why? Talking helps you feel more in control because it lets you know you're not
alone—you're sharing the burden with another person. Your talking partner can ease
your mind by reassuring you that you're okay or that the problem can be solved. He may
also help you reflect on the situation and get the facts straight. When you're stressed,
you tend to exaggerate the situation, making it worse in your mind. A talking partner
can offer a different point of view—a different way of seeing the situation.

How do deep-breathing exercises help manage stressful moments?

Deep breathing can help in several ways. First, the very act of taking a deep breath helps
you relax—it slows the heart rate and the respiratory rate, and keeps the pH level of the
blood stable. Just noticing your breathing takes your mind off the problem and puts it
onto your body. Also, many people tend to hold their breath when stressed—deep
breathing forces them to get oxygen back into their system.

Overview

This section provides interactive exercises so you can practice what you've learned.
These exercises are self-checks only; your answers will not be used to evaluate your
performance in the topic.

Scenario
Assume the role of a manager in a fictional situation and explore different outcomes
based on your choices (5-10 minutes).

Check Your Knowledge

Assess your understanding of key points by completing a 10-question quiz (10 minutes).

Scenario: Part 1

Part 1

Ian is a finance manager at ProCore, which was recently acquired—a huge surprise to
all. The future is unclear, stock is down, and everyone is anxious. Stress is in the air.
Every morning, when Ian arrives at ProCore, his heart starts pounding as he worries
about what might happen during the day ahead.

Ian's pounding heart isn't his only symptom of stress. He has grown increasingly
irritable at work, and his mind has gone blank during several emotionally charged
meetings. He's even begun isolating himself in his office—something he realizes is not
helpful in his managerial role. Ian knows he must do something about his stress level—
but he's not sure where to begin.

How might Ian begin taking charge of his situation?

Eliminate the emotionally charged meetings and any other sources of

workplace stress that he can

 Not the best choice.

The key to managing workplace stress isn't removing sources of anxiety and
worry entirely. Stress is a fact of life. Eliminating all its sources simply isn't
possible. Ian needs to develop a healthier response to unavoidable stress.

A certain amount of stress can be healthy and invigorating. Rather than trying
to eliminate stress, Ian should strive to turn unhealthy worrying into positive
energy. That way, he can remain productive even during stressful times.

Accept that anxiety is natural in times of change, and realize that the stress
will subside once things calm down

 Not the best choice.

 Trying to ignore unhealthy stress can have serious consequences. Prolonged
stress can actually make individuals physically ill. For a company, stress can
decrease productivity and increase absenteeism and employee turnover.
Finally, ongoing stress can damage relationships, both at work and at home.
Taking steps to manage stress is therefore crucial.

Acknowledge that working will always involve stress in some form, and find
healthier ways to respond

 Correct choice.

Ian can't hope to eliminate all sources of stress from work. But he can
improve the way he reacts to stress—by understanding how he feels
vulnerable and understanding what power he does have to combat problems.

In fact, stress increases whenever people feel both vulnerable and powerless
to control their situation. You can reduce the "stress equation" to simple
terms: Vulnerability + Powerlessness = Stress. By decreasing feelings of
vulnerability and powerlessness, you can reduce stress.

Scenario: Part 2

Part 2

ProCore recognizes the tension in the air, and Human Resources holds a seminar on
stress management. Ian picks up some tips on how to manage stress. He learns that if he
decreases his feelings of vulnerability and powerlessness, his anxiety and worry will
also diminish—no matter how stressful things get at ProCore. Human Resources
presents this as a "Worry Equation": Increased Vulnerability + Decreased Power =
Increased worry.

Ian soon has an opportunity to practice exercising more power over his situation. One
morning, he overhears a colleague talking about presenting reports at an upcoming
meeting. They are reports that Ian usually presents. He wonders whether he did a poor
job presenting the reports last time—and worries that his supervisor has asked someone
else to present them this time because she wasn't satisfied with his presentation.

What should Ian do first to manage his stress?

Evaluate what's actually happening, not what might be happening

 Correct choice.

Evaluation is the first step for turning worry into action. By evaluating what's
actually happening—rather than obsessing about what might be happening—
Ian names the problem and can begin to think more constructively about it.
Just giving a name to a problem can help reduce stress. Identifying the
specific problem eliminates all other possibilities. The next step is to make a
plan for gathering more information. And the final step is to take action.
These three steps can help reduce the hold that hearsay and imagination can
have—turning unhealthy worry into "wise worry."

Think back to the last time he presented the reports, and identify possible
weaknesses

 Not the best choice.

Obsessing over possible flaws in his last presentation will only make Ian feel
even more powerless, because he can't change the past. His stress will only
increase. To turn unhealthy worry into "wise worry," Ian needs to evaluate
what's actually going on, and then make a plan to gather more information.
Thinking constructively about a problem and planning what to do, can
intercept toxic worry and replace it with effective action. These three steps,
called the Evaluate-Plan-Remediate approach, help reduce feelings of
powerlessness, easing anxiety and stress.

Directly consult the colleague about what he overheard

 Not the best choice.

Since Ian is most worried about his supervisor's assessment of his

performance, he should consult her rather than the colleague. However, he
should do so only after he evaluates the situation and makes a plan for
gathering more information about what's going on. Taking action—such as
meeting with his supervisor—is empowering. By following these three steps
in the Evaluate-Plan-Remediate approach, Ian can reduce his feelings of
powerlessness and ease his anxiety.
Scenario: Part 3

Part 3

Ian meets with his supervisor to find out if she expects him to present the usual reports
at the next meeting. Surprised by his question, she answers, "Of course!" When he tells
her what he overhead, she says, "Oh, he's talking about a possible new format for the
printed reports. You'll be presenting the usual analysis." Ian walks away feeling
relieved.

By using the Evaluate-Plan-Remediate approach in specific situations, Ian has begun

decreasing his sense of powerlessness. He has changed one part of the "worry
equation." But to manage stress, Ian also needs to decrease his feelings of vulnerability
—the other part of the equation.

Which would be an effective way for Ian to reduce feelings of vulnerability?

Ask his boss whether she thinks the company is going to survive this time of
volatile change and if his future is in question

 Not the best choice.

Seeking reassurance from his supervisor can serve as a stress-management

"quick fix" by soothing Ian's anxious thoughts temporarily. However, Ian
shouldn't rely solely on reassurance to reduce his feelings of vulnerability. He
also needs a more systematic way of managing this part of the stress
equation.

Systematically schedule lunches and other social interaction with members of

his department, as well as with people from other departments

 Good choice.

Connecting with colleagues is actually a powerful antidote to stress and

worry, because it eases feelings of isolation and vulnerability. By interacting
with others, Ian can conduct "reality checks" on his concerns, as well as share
news, ideas, and resources. He may discover he's not alone in his struggle to
manage stress.


 Remind himself that he has consistently done a good job and that his
supervisor has given him positive performance reviews

 Good choice.

When people are stressed, they tend to engage in negative self-talk—such as

overgeneralizing or blaming themselves inappropriately for problems. By
replacing such thought patterns with more positive self-talk, Ian can reframe
the way he perceives stressful events and reduce his feelings of vulnerability
—a major contributor to unhealthy worry.

Scenario: Conclusion

Conclusion

Ian has made major strides in managing his stress level. He realizes that he can't
eliminate stress from his work life—but that he can control how he responds to stress.

Ian used the Evaluate-Plan-Remediate process to decrease feelings of powerlessness.

Then he connected with colleagues to decrease his feelings of vulnerability. By
reducing feelings of powerlessness and vulnerability, the two factors that produce stress,
Ian reversed the cycle of unhealthy worry.

Though times are still tough at ProCore, Ian now comes to work with more energy and
optimism—and with tools to manage stress.

Activity: Check Your Knowledge: Question 1

Is the following statement true or false? All stress and worry should be avoided.

True

 Not the best choice.

This statement is actually false. All stress and worry should not be avoided;
some stress is actually good because it can provide you with the extra energy
you need to deal with challenging situations. To the extent that stress and
worry help you prepare for difficult times, you can benefit from it.


 False

 Correct choice.

Some stress is actually good because it can provide you with the extra energy
you need to deal with challenging situations. To the extent that stress and
worry help you prepare for difficult times, you can benefit from it.

Check Your Knowledge: Question 2

Some of the most common sources of stress in the workplace are:

Physical illness

 Not the best choice.

Though physical illness can contribute to stress, it is not among the most
common sources of stress in the workplace. Instead, changes in the
workplace (whether positive or negative) as well as an unhealthy work
environment (marked by conflict or confusing expectations) are the more
common direct causes of stress in the workplace.

Changes in the workplace and an unhealthy work environment

 Correct choice.

One common source of stress in the workplace is change—whether positive

(such as a new assignment) or negative (such an increase in workload).
Another major source of stress is an unhealthy work environment marked by
interpersonal conflicts or confusing expectations.

Concerns about home life affecting work

  Not the best choice.

Though concerns about home life's impact on work can contribute to stress, it
is not among the most common sources of stress in the workplace. Instead,
changes in the workplace (whether positive or negative) as well as an
unhealthy work environment (marked by conflict or confusing expectations)
are the more common direct causes of stress in the workplace.

Check Your Knowledge: Question 3

The four steps used to break out of the negative stress cycle are:

Breathe. Reflect. Choose. Act.

 Not the best choice.

These actions are all helpful, but the important step of Stop is missing.
Stopping your negative thoughts and reactions to a difficult situation is the
first response needed to break the negative stress cycle. When you stop, you
block the negative messages you're giving yourself. When you breathe, you
calm your body down. Then you can reflect on the problem and choose the
best action to take.

Consult friends. Relax. Get a massage. Take a walk.

 Not the best choice.

These actions are all helpful, but they're not the four steps used to break out
of the negative stress cycle. The steps are Stop, Breathe, Reflect, and Choose.
When you stop, you block the negative messages you're giving yourself.
When you breathe, you calm your body down. Then you can reflect on the
problem and choose the best action to take.

Stop. Breathe. Reflect. Choose.

  Correct choice.

These four steps are effective in breaking the negative stress cycle. When you
stop, you block the negative messages you're giving yourself. When you
breathe, you calm your body down. Then you can reflect on the problem and
choose the best action to take.

Check Your Knowledge: Question 4

In what ways can connectedness help reduce stress?

Connecting with solutions can reduce stressful situations.

 Not the best choice.

Exploring solutions can help you reduce stress in some situations, but
connecting with trusted people can help in all stressful situations. Why?
Trusted individuals can listen to you and help you see a stressful situation in
a different light. Remember the first rule in taking charge of worry and stress:
Never worry alone!

Connections with trusted people, particularly colleagues, can provide you

with reassurance, and can help you gain perspective and perhaps new ideas
for solutions.

 Correct choice.

Connections with trusted people are the most powerful antidote to stress,
because those individuals can listen to you and help you see a stressful
situation in a different light. Remember the first rule in taking charge of
worry and stress: Never worry alone!

Offices that are technologically connected help reduce the stress of dealing
with outdated networks or a lack of networks.
  Not the best choice.

Technology can help you reduce stress in some situations, but connecting
with trusted people can help in all stressful situations. Why? Trusted
individuals can listen to you and help you see a stressful situation in a
different light. Remember the first rule in taking charge of worry and stress:
Never worry alone!

Check Your Knowledge: Question 5

Is the following statement true or false? Chronic worriers often subject themselves to
negative automatic thoughts that contribute to their worry and stress.

True

 Correct choice.

Chronic worriers tend to make their problems worse by listening to their own
negative automatic thoughts instead of looking at the actual situation. To
combat chronic worrying, you can reshape such negative self-talk into more
positive and healthy messages.

False

 Not the best choice.

This statement is actually true. Chronic worriers do tend to make their

problems worse by listening to their own negative automatic thoughts instead
of looking at the actual situation. To combat chronic worrying, you can
reshape such negative self-talk into more positive and healthy messages.

Check Your Knowledge: Question 6

Which of the following is the easiest and least expensive antidote to worry?


 Exercising

 Correct choice.

Exercise helps you break out of the physical immobility that stress often
causes. Even brief physical efforts, such as standing up and stretching, can
clear your mind of the weight of worry. Exercise reduces tension, eases
aggression and frustration, increases your sense of well-being, improves
sleep, and aids concentration.

Eating healthfully

 Not the best choice.

Though eating healthfully is a good idea, for many people it's not the easiest
and least expensive antidote to worry. Instead, exercise meets all these
criteria. Exercise helps you break out of the physical immobility that stress
often causes. Even brief physical efforts, such as standing up and stretching,
can clear your mind of the weight of worry. Exercise reduces tension, eases
aggression and frustration, increases your sense of well-being, improves
sleep, and aids concentration.

Taking week-long vacations for travel to new destinations

 Not the best choice.

Though taking any type of break is a good idea, travel to new places is not
the easiest and least expensive antidote to worry. Instead, exercise meets
these criteria. Exercise helps you break out of the physical immobility that
stress often causes. Even brief physical efforts, such as standing up and
stretching, can clear your mind of the weight of worry. Exercise reduces
tension, eases aggression and frustration, increases your sense of well-being,
improves sleep, and aids concentration.

Check Your Knowledge: Question 7

What do you need to prepare for the relaxation response?

 

A dark room, a bed or cot, and soft music

 Not the best choice.

You actually don't need these things to prepare for the relaxation response.
All you really need is a quiet environment where you can focus on relaxing.
Then you find a comfortable position, concentrate on a single mental image,
and push away distracting thoughts.

A spiritual guide

 Not the best choice.

You actually don't need a spiritual guide to prepare for the relaxation
response. All you really need is a quiet environment where you can focus on
relaxing. Then you find a comfortable position, concentrate on a single
mental image, and push away distracting thoughts.

A quiet place, a quiet mind, and a comfortable position

 Correct choice.

You don't need much to prepare for the relaxation response. All you really
need is a quiet environment where you can focus on relaxing. Then you find
a comfortable position, concentrate on a single mental image, and push away
distracting thoughts.

Check Your Knowledge: Question 8

Which of the following activities can be used as stress busters?

Playing video games

  Not the best choice.

Playing video games can stimulate you in a way that actually contributes to
your stress. Instead of playing video games, try finding the humor in your
everyday life. Humor is a wonderful antidote to stress, and laughter is a
natural and healthy way to release tension and put aside serious thoughts for
awhile. But remember not to confuse genuine humor with ridicule. Humor
enriches us all; ridicule hurts us all.

Laughing about an amusing story

 Correct choice.

Humor is a wonderful antidote to stress, and laughter is a natural and healthy

way to release tension and put aside serious thoughts for awhile. Try finding
the humor in your everyday life—but remember not to confuse genuine
humor with ridicule. Humor enriches us all; ridicule hurts us all.

Taking a coffee break

 Not the best choice.

Caffeine can stimulate you in a way that actually contributes to your stress.
Instead of drinking coffee, try finding the humor in your everyday life.
Humor is a wonderful antidote to stress, and laughter is a natural and healthy
way to release tension and put aside serious thoughts for awhile. But
remember not to confuse genuine humor with ridicule. Humor enriches us all;
ridicule hurts us all.

Check Your Knowledge: Question 9

Which of the following is not an effective response to a colleague who tells you he's
extremely worried about something?

Use body language to show your concern

  Not the best choice.

Using body language (such as making eye contact and nodding) to show your
concern actually is an effective response to a colleague who tells you he's
extremely worried about something. The ineffective response is to suggest
several possible solutions. To listen effectively to a worried colleague, it's
best not to try to solve his problem but instead to understand it. If you want to
comment, do so only on what your colleague is describing, rather than
offering possible solutions to his problem. In addition to using body language
to show your concern, you can provide occasional verbal acknowledgment,
such as "I understand" or "I see."

Suggest several possible solutions to his problem

 Correct choice.

To listen effectively to a worried colleague, it's best not to try to solve his
problem but instead to understand it. If you want to comment, do so only on
what your colleague is describing, rather than offering possible solutions to
his problem. In addition, use body language to show your concern and
provide occasional verbal acknowledgment, such as "I understand" or "I see."

Provide occasional verbal acknowledgment

 Not the best choice.

Providing occasional verbal acknowledgment (such as "I see" or "I

understand") actually is an effective response to a colleague who tells you
he's extremely worried about something. The ineffective response is to
suggest several possible solutions. To listen effectively to a worried
colleague, it's best not to try to solve his problem but instead to understand it.
If you want to comment, do so only on what your colleague is describing,
rather than offering possible solutions to his problem. In addition to
providing occasional verbal acknowledgment, you can use body language
(such as making eye contact and nodding) to show your concern.

Check Your Knowledge: Question 10

The most effective way to counter the negative effects of toxic worry is to:

Reverse the worry equation by increasing your sense of power and decreasing
your sense of vulnerability

 Correct choice.

In any stressful situation, you can reduce the negative effects of toxic worry
by increasing your sense of power and control and decreasing your sense of
vulnerability. Strategies for increasing power and decreasing vulnerability
include structuring your activities, connecting with people who can listen,
and taking care of your health. All of these strategies give you the power to
better manage your stress.

Solve the problems that are causing the worry

 Not the best choice.

Solving the problems behind the worry may work for some stressful
situations but not for all. The most effective approach is to reverse the worry
equation. In any stressful situation, you can reduce the negative effects of
toxic worry by increasing your sense of power and control and decreasing
your sense of vulnerability. Strategies for increasing power and decreasing
vulnerability include structuring your activities, connecting with people who
can listen, and taking care of your health. All of these strategies give you the
power to better manage your stress.

Ensure that you get sufficiently restful sleep

 Not the best choice.

Getting sufficiently restful sleep may work for some stressful situations but
not for all. The most effective approach is to reverse the worry equation. In
any stressful situation, you can reduce the negative effects of toxic worry by
increasing your sense of power and control and decreasing your sense of
vulnerability. Strategies for increasing power and decreasing vulnerability
include structuring your activities, connecting with people who can listen,
 and taking care of your health. All of these strategies give you the power to
better manage your stress.

Check Your Knowledge: Results

Your score:
Steps for quick stress reduction

1. Stop.
2. Breathe.
3. Reflect.

After interfering with the automatic stress response, you should now be able
to focus on the real problem without the distractions of exaggerated worries.
Reflect on the causes of your worry and consider these questions:

o Why do I leap to negative conclusions?

o Am I exaggerating the threat?
o What is the emotional "hook" that sets my stress reaction going? For
example, your emotional "hook" might be that you feel unappreciated
for what you do and are overburdened as well. Your supervisor
should know how much work you have and shouldn't ask you to do
more. The hooks are your feelings about the conditions, not the
realities.
o What is the specific problem in this case? By reflecting, you can put
aside the feelings and examine the immediate problem. In this case,
you have several projects to perform within a limited time frame.
4. Choose.

The next step is to choose how to deal with the situation. Consider each
available option, and then choose the one that best fulfills your goals. Ask
yourself:

o What is my real goal here?

o What is the best solution to the problem?
o Do I have the skills and tools to achieve the best solution?
o What can I possibly do right now? Later today? Tomorrow?

In a work overload situation, you might choose to do one of the following:

o Prioritize the projects, and work on the most urgent one first.
o Let your supervisor know that you won't be able to finish the report
until the next day.
o Plan to work during your lunch break to finish the work on time.
o Ask a colleague to help you with one or two of the tasks.
 Once you've made your decision, then you can then act on it.

Steps for decreasing toxic worry

1. Never worry alone.

Talk to someone you trust—a friend, partner, colleague, mentor—about your

concerns. Just talking can be a relief, and your listener may even provide
some reassurance and guidance.

2. Get the facts.

Often worry is a small problem blown out of proportion by your imagination.

Before you let worry consume you, get the facts. Find out what and how big
the real problem is.

3. Make a plan.

Don't become a passive victim of toxic worry; attack the worry by solving the
problem. You don't even have to solve the whole problem at once—just make
a plan and take it one step at a time, solving one part of the problem first and
then the next. Bit by bit you'll overcome the problem and dissolve your
worry.

4. Practice brain maintenance.

Maintaining your brain means caring for your body. Get enough sleep, eat a
balanced, healthy diet (cut down on fats, sugar, caffeine, and alcohol),
exercise every day (even a short walk will help invigorate your brain as well
as your body), and practice relaxation techniques (tune out your critical
voice).

5. Let it go.

When you can't do anything more about the problem, then let the worry go.
Give it up to your past and forget about it. This may be difficult to do, but it
is worth the conscious effort.

Tips for managing worry

 Learn to distinguish between positive stress and toxic worry. Positive stress
can give you the energy you need to get the job done. Toxic worry only drags
you down, making it hard to achieve even small tasks.
 Do a reality check. Find out if your worry has any basis in fact. Toxic worry
can distort the real situation. Check to make sure that things are really as bad
as they seem. Even when there is an actual problem, it may be easier to solve
than you think.
 Talk with friends or colleagues you trust. They can help you see things
differently. Connect with those you know will reassure you, not those who
might exaggerate your concerns.
  Take positive action to correct the problem. Don't be a victim of worry and
stress. Brooding about the problem gets you nowhere. Fix the problem if you
can! If not, then make the problem more manageable by making small
corrective changes.
 Get help from the right sources—people who have the information you need.
Often you don't have the information or tools necessary to attack a problem.
Instead of worrying, take control by getting the help you need. Find out who
the authority is and where you should look for answers.
 Take care of your body. Exercise daily, eat healthy foods, and get enough
sleep. Worry and stress put a heavy strain on your body. Taking good care of
yourself physically not only reduces the level of tension your body is coping
with, but it gives you more energy to deal with the problem itself!
 Relax whenever and wherever you can. Practice relaxation techniques
whenever you start to feel the first signs of tension, worry, or stress. While
quick exercises that you can do almost anywhere are helpful, find the time
and space for longer, more meditative relaxation—these exercises are more
beneficial in the long run.
 Let worries go. If there's nothing you can do about a problem (or nothing
more, if you already worked on it)—if it's simply out of your control—then
you have to let the worry go. Blow it away, and start a new project, read a
different book, walk another path.

Tips for setting stress-reducing goals

 Choose a goal you value. A stress-reducing goal should be one you care
about, something you want to achieve; otherwise, you won't work for it. If
your main source of stress is from work overload, then your stress-reducing
goal might be to start setting limits to work assignments.
 Make a formal declaration of your long-term goal. Write your goal down and
post it where you'll see it every day. The formal declaration gives the goal the
importance it deserves, and you'll be more likely to stick with it.
 Start with short-term goals. Long-term goals, such as becoming organized or
maintaining a healthy exercise routine, take time to achieve. Short-term goals
are steps on the path to that end goal. For example, if your long-term goal is
to become organized, start with a short-term goal of making a to-do list as
soon as you get to the office each day.
 Set specific and achievable short-term goals. Don't make your goals so vague
that even you don't know when you've reached them. If you're trying to get
organized, one specific short-term goal could be making file folders for
important projects.
 Set reasonable time frames for your goals.
 Reward yourself for each achievement—large or small. Be kind to yourself!
Don't focus on the times you forgot to set a limit on a work assignment;
instead, give yourself a pat on the back each time you cross an item off your
list.

Tips for coping with difficult coworkers

  Look for good models for dealing with them. Watch how other people
interact with the difficult coworkers. See if you can pick up some techniques
for working effectively with them.
 Find something good about the difficult person. When you focus on finding
good qualities about the person, you may discover they outweigh the
annoying features. And you may find it easier to get along with them.
 Recognize your own annoying habits. You may discover that you do some
things that bother other people in the office. If so, perhaps you could try to
change some of your ways.
 Talk with your supervisor confidentially. Let your supervisor know what the
problem is. She may be able to help mediate between you and the difficult
colleague or provide some other form of support.
 Try to work the problem(s) out. Sit down and have a talk with your
colleague. If you can work out the problems with this one person, then
everyone in the office will benefit. It's worth the effort.
 If you can't work things out, then it's time to set limits. Give the person
feedback; let her know what the boundaries are for her behavior. Ask politely
first, but make sure you are clear about your request for quiet, space, or
whatever the issue may be.
 Don't gossip about the person with other coworkers. It's certainly important
to notify your supervisor about your concerns or try to talk directly to the
difficult person, but gossiping about it with others in the office only creates
negative feelings and deeper rifts.
 If all else fails, stay away from them, if possible. The easiest way (and
sometimes the only way) to deal with difficult colleagues is simply to avoid
them!

Tips for listening effectively to a worried colleague

 Pay full attention to the speaker. Don't try to perform other tasks such as
answering the phone or filing papers. Listen carefully to what is being said.
 Use body language to show your concern—a person under stress wants to be
heard on all levels. Make eye contact with and lean toward the speaker. Nod
your head to show you understand. Use facial expressions to indicate
feelings.
 Respond every now and then with a verbal acknowledgement such as, "I
understand," or "I see what's happening."
 Restate the speaker's point in your own words to make sure you understand
what they are trying to convey.
 Comment only on what the speaker is describing. Don't try to solve the
problem; just try to understand it.
 Acknowledge the feelings behind the words. You can even identify them by
saying, "It sounds as though you're feeling very hurt (or angry or frustrated)."

Worry self-assessment

Life changes as stressors checklist

Workplace stress assessment

Why Develop Others?

“At the end of the day, you bet on people, not strategies.”
Larry Bossidy
Former CEO, AlliedSignal

In today’s global business environment, markets and regulations change quickly.

Competitors constantly innovate. Technological changes are the norm.

In order to outmaneuver the competition and meet the demands of the moment,
organizations must be agile. They must execute flawlessly. And they must transform
themselves continuously.

Are your leaders ready?

Dr. Noel M. Tichy

Professor
University of Michigan Ross School of Business

We have now entered an era where I don’t care what industry you’re in, you need
leaders who can make decisions, make judgment calls at every single level. All the way
down to the interface with the customer.

If you go to a company like Google or any of the high tech companies, a lot of the
innovation that Amazon does is happening right at the front line. Go ahead, try it, put it
out there, we'll learn from it. That cannot happen if the senior leadership doesn't have a
commitment to both develop the leadership capability, but develop the business through
engaging people at all levels of the organization.

Becoming a teaching organization

I like to tell parents that they cannot delegate their responsibility to develop their
children. And I think it is the same in an organization. Day in and day out the person
that has the biggest impact on people in the organization is the next level above and the
associates around and below. And so to build a learning organization I say is not
enough. Learning could be, you know we are learning cooking, we are learning this or
that, but teaching organizations, when I learned something, I have a responsibility to
teach my colleagues.

So everybody takes responsibility for generating new knowledge and it is not enough to
be a learner, you then have to translate it into teaching.
The Virtuous Teaching Cycle
The role of a leader is to ensure that the people who work for them and around them are
better every day. There's only one way to make people better. It's to teach them, learn
from them, create what I call "virtuous teaching cycles”, not command and control.

A virtuous teaching cycle is teach learn, teach learn. And the leader has a responsibility
for reducing the hierarchy, for having a point of view to start the discussion, but then to
be responsible to hear everyone's voice, get everyone involved in a disciplined way. It is
not a free for all. But it is the leader's responsibility to create that virtuous teaching
cycle.

A wonderful example of virtuous teaching cycle is the program that Roger Enrico ran at
Pepsi, where every one of the 10 vice presidents comes with a business project.

Roger Enrico gets smarter as result of five days with 10 vice presidents, because he's
learning from them. He needs to lower the hierarchy. He needs to be open to learning.
And in turn, the people participating need to be energized and empowered to come up
and engage in problem solving.

Another example is at Best Buy, where every morning in the stores you would bring 20
associates or so together and they would review the profit and loss statement from the
day before, what we learned from the different customer segments in our stores, what
we can do to improve our performance this day. And they do that every single day. The
store manager was learning mostly from the associates on the floor.

That was a virtuous teaching cycle were everybody is teaching everybody, everybody is
learning and the result has been an incredible result at Best Buy.

“The growth and development of people is the highest calling of leadership.”

- Harvey S. Firestone
Founder, Firestone Tire and Rubber Co

There are clear advantages to leader-led development.

But for many leaders, taking on teaching, coaching, and other development
responsibilities can seem daunting. You might avoid taking on these roles due to lack of
time, resources, or your own lack of comfort with this role.

The following tips and resources can help you impart valuable learning to your team
every day.

To develop others…
• Start with a Teachable Point of View

The first requirement of being able to develop other leaders is to have what I call a
teachable point of view. I often give the example of, if I ran a tennis camp and you just
came to day one of the tennis camp, I better have a teachable point of view on how I
teach tennis. So you are standing there looking at me and it has got four elements. One,
the ideas, well how do I teach the backhand, the forehand, the serve, rules of tennis.
Then if I am a good tennis coach, I have a set of values. What are the right behaviors I
want, how do I want you to dress, how do I want you to behave on the tennis court.

But if that's all I have, what do I do? Show you a power point presentation and then
expect you to hit 500 backhands, 500 serves, run around for eight hours. I have to have
a teachable point of view on emotional energy. How do I motivate you to buy in to the
ideas and values?

On one end of the spectrum it could be I threaten you with corporal punishment, the
other I can give you stock options, I can make you feel good about yourself, I can help
you develop as a human being, what motivates you.

And then finally, how do I make the tough judgment calls, the yes/no, decisions as the
tennis coach, the ball is in, the ball is out. I don't hire consultants and set up a
committee, it is yes/no. And the same with running a business, what are the products,
services, distribution channels, customer segments that are going to grow top line
growth and profitability of the organization.

What are the values that I want everyone in the organization to have, how do I
emotionally energize thousands of people, and then how do I make the yes/no,
judgments on people and on business issues. So the fundamental building block of
being able to develop other leaders is to have that teachable point of view just like the
tennis coach.

To develop others…
• Lead with questions

Questions are hugely important because you want to create dialogue and again, what I
call a virtuous teaching cycle where the teacher learns from the students and vice versa.
Which means everybody ought to be free to ask whatever is on their mind, whatever it
will take to get clarity and understanding, but it is not the leader just coming in and
freeform asking questions. I believe the leader has a responsibility for framing the
discussion, for having as best they can a teachable point of view, they may need help
from their people in flushing it out, but they need to set the stage but then it has to be a
very interactive, what I call virtuous teaching cycle environment, teach learn, teach
learn, teach learn.

To develop others…
• Make it part of your routine

A good example to me of an outstanding leader developing other leaders is Myrtle

Potter who at the time I am commenting was Chief Operating Officer of Genentech
running the commercial side of the business. And she would take time at the end of
every single meeting and do some coaching of the whole team on how we could
perform as a team better, and then she would often take individuals and say, could we
spend 10 minutes over a cup of coffee, I want to give you some feedback and coaching
on that report that you just presented on or how you are handling a particularly difficult
human resource issue, but it was part of her regular routine. And I think the challenge
for all of us as leaders is to make that a way of life and it is built into the fabric of how
we lead and it is not a one off event, three times a year. It is happening almost every
day.

To develop others…
• Make it a priority

One of the biggest challenges in getting people kind of on this path is to overcome some
of their own resistance, either fear or the way I view the world I don't have time for this,
everybody can make time. Roger Enrico is CEO of Pepsi. He didn't have time to go off
for a week at a time and run training sessions. He had to readjust his calendar. So it
requires you to look in the mirror and say, is this important. If it is important, of course I
can make the time. Then I have to get over my own anxiety on how well I can do it, but
it is a commitment to get on the path that says: this is how I am going to drive my own
performance and the performance of my colleagues.

To develop others…
• Learn to teach

I think the biggest mistake is to assume you are going to be good at it right off the bat. It
is like learning anything else. First time you go out and try and play tennis, good luck.
But you got to stay with it and you got to engage your people in helping make you
better and them better. And so it is a journey you need to get on, not I am going to do it
perfectly when I start out.

If you want to be a great leader who is a great teacher, it's very simple. You have got to
dive into the deep end of the pool. But you've got to dive into the pool with preparation.
I don't want you drowning. I want you succeeding. It is extraordinarily rewarding for
most human beings to teach others. I think once you can turn that switch on, it is self
perpetuating. You get a lot of reinforcement, your team is better. You perform better
because your performance goes up and it becomes this virtuous teaching cycle.

Your opportunity to develop others

We’ve heard why developing others can drive greater business results, and how to make
the most of your leader-led development efforts. The materials provided in Develop
Others enable you to create personalized learning experiences for YOUR team within
the flow of their daily activities. Use the guides and projects to engage your team
quickly. And to explore how key concepts apply to them in the context of their priorities
and goals.

The value of teaching is the performance of the organization is totally dependent on

making your people smarter and more aligned every day as the world changes. In the
21st century we are not going to get by with command and control. We are going to
have to get by with knowledge creation. The way you create knowledge in an
organization is you create these virtuous teaching cycles where you are teaching and
learning simultaneously, responding to customer demands and changes, responding to
changes in the global environment. My bottom line is if you're not teaching, you're not
leading.
A leader’s most important role in any organization is making good judgments — well
informed, wise decisions about people, strategy and crises that produce the desired
outcomes. When a leader shows consistently good judgment, little else matters. When
he or she shows poor judgment nothing else matters. In addition to making their own
good judgment calls, good leaders develop good judgment among their team members.

Dr. Noel M. Tichy

Professor, University of Michigan Ross School of Business

Dr. Noel M. Tichy is Professor of Management and Organizations, and Director of the
Global Business Partnership at the University of Michigan Ross School of Business.
The Global Business Partnership links companies and students around the world to
develop and engage business leaders to incorporate global citizenship activities, both
environmental projects and human capital development, for those at the bottom of the
pyramid. Previously, Noel was head of General Electric’s Leadership Center at
Crotonville, where he led the transformation to action learning at GE. Between 1985
and 1987, he was Manager of Management Education for GE where he directed its
worldwide development efforts at Crotonville. He currently consults widely in both the
private and public sectors. He is a senior partner in Action Learning Associates. Noel is
author of numerous books and articles, including:

For more information about Noel Tichy, visit http://www.noeltichy.com.

Share an Idea

Leaders are in a unique position to recognize the ideas and tools that are most relevant
and useful for their teams. If you only have a few minutes, consider sharing an idea or
tool from this topic with your team or peers that is relevant and timely to their situation.

For example, consider sending one of the three recommended ideas or tools below to
your team with your comments or questions on how the idea or tool can be of value to
your organization. By simply sharing the item, you can easily engage others in
important conversations and activities relevant to your goals and priorities.
Steps for quick stress reduction
Tips for managing worry
Workplace stress assessment
To share an idea, tip, step, or tool with your comments via e-mail, select the EMAIL
link in the upper right corner of the page that contains the idea, tip, step, or tool that you
wish to share.

Discussion 1: Mastering the art of positive self-talk

For many of us, it’s all too easy to fall into negative self-talk when worries or problems
arise. For example, we tell ourselves we’re stupid if we make a mistake. Or we convince
ourselves that just because something bad happened to us once, it will always happen.

Negative self-talk only worsens worry and stress. Yet it’s hard to combat because it
stems from our unconscious assumptions and beliefs. Only by examining what we say
to ourselves can we recognize which patterns of negative self-talk we tend to fall victim
to — and replace them with more constructive forms of self-talk.

For your team members, mastering the art of positive self-talk can serve as a powerful
weapon in the battle to manage stress. And that can translate directly into higher
productivity, improved morale, and better on-the-job performance.

Use these resources to lead a discussion with your team about how to understand
negative self-talk and replace it with positive self-talk.
Download resources:
Discussion Invitation: Mastering the Art of Positive Self-Talk
Discussion Guide: Mastering the Art of Positive Self-Talk
Discussion Slides: Mastering the Art of Positive Self-Talk (optional)
Tips for Preparing for and Leading the Discussion
Working through the discussion guide can take up to 45 minutes. If you prefer a shorter
15- or 30-minute session, you may want to focus only on those concepts and activities
most relevant to your situation.

Discussion 2: Managing stress in our group

Just like any individual, your entire group can experience stress in all its forms —
positive, energizing stress along with negative, toxic stress. And when the scale tips
toward the negative kind of stress, your group can suffer ills ranging from lowered
productivity and plummeting morale to burnout, turnover, and interpersonal conflict.

To avoid this scenario, your team members can take stock of the positive and negative
stress levels in the group and then work to enhance energizing stress while mitigating
toxic stress.

Use these resources to lead a discussion with your team about how to tip the scale away
from negative stress and toward the positive stress so important to team performance.

Download resources:
Discussion Invitation: Managing Stress in Our Group
Discussion Guide: Managing Stress in Our Group
Discussion Slides: Managing Stress in Our Group (optional)
Tips for Preparing for and Leading the Discussion
Working through the discussion guide can take up to 45 minutes. If you prefer a shorter
15- or 30-minute session, you may want to focus only on those concepts and activities
most relevant to your situation.

Start a Group Project

Just like any change effort, successfully incorporating new skills and behaviors into
one’s daily activities and habits takes time and effort. After reviewing or discussing the
concepts in this topic, your direct reports will still need your support to fully apply new
concepts and skills. They will need to overcome a variety of barriers including a lack of
time, lack of confidence, and a fear of making mistakes. They will also need
opportunities to hone their skills and break old habits. To help ensure their success, you
can provide safe opportunities for individuals and your team as a whole to practice and
experiment with new skills and behaviors on the job.

For example, to encourage the adoption of new norms, you can provide your team
members with coaching, feedback, and additional time to complete tasks that require the
use of new skills. Management approaches such as these will encourage team members
to experiment with new skills until they become proficient.

Group learning projects provide another valuable technique for accelerating team
members’ development of new behaviors. A group learning project is an on-the-job
activity aimed at providing team members with direct experience implementing their
new knowledge and skills. Through a learning project, team members discover how new
concepts work in the context of their situation, while simultaneously having a direct and
tangible impact on the organization.

The documents below provide steps, tips, and a template for initiating a group learning
project with your team, along with two project recommendations for this topic.
Download resources:
Tips for Initiating and Supporting a Learning Project
Learning Project Plan Template
Learning Project: Turn Worry into Action
Learning Project: Adopt Stress-Reducing Habits

Monitor and Manage Your Stress Level for Top Performance

Judith A. Ross. "Monitor and Manage Your Stress Level for Top Performance."
Harvard Management Update, April 2009.

Download file

Summary
We all know what a stress-induced rush of adrenaline feels like—and that it can
dramatically increase our focus and boost our performance. But if that rush of
adrenaline and other stress hormones becomes a constant, our ability to focus, think
creatively, and perform at our peak is impaired. Find out how you can dial down your
stress level and maintain your top-level performance.

Overloaded Circuits: Why Smart People Underperform

Edward M. Hallowell. "Overloaded Circuits: Why Smart People Underperform."

Harvard Business Review, January 2005.

Download file

Summary
Frenzied executives who fidget through meetings, lose track of their appointments, and
jab at the "door close" button on the elevator aren't crazy—just crazed. They suffer from
a newly recognized neurological phenomenon that the author, a psychiatrist, calls
attention deficit trait, or ADT. It isn't an illness; it's purely a response to the hyperkinetic
environment in which we live. But it has become epidemic in today's organizations.
When a manager is desperately trying to deal with more input than he possibly can, the
brain and body get locked into a reverberating circuit while the brain's frontal lobes lose
their sophistication, as if vinegar were added to wine. The result is black-and-white
thinking; perspective and shades of gray disappear. People with ADT have difficulty
staying organized, setting priorities, and managing time, and they feel a constant low
level of panic and guilt. It is possible to control ADT by engineering one's environment
and one's emotional and physical health. Make time every few hours for a "human
moment"—a face-to-face exchange with a person you like. Get enough sleep, switch to
a good diet, and get adequate exercise. Break down large tasks into smaller ones, and
keep a section of your work space clear. Try keeping a portion of your day free of
appointments and e-mail. The author recommends that companies invest in amenities
that contribute to a positive atmosphere.
v 11.0.2.07272011 © 2011 Harvard Business School Publishing. All rights reserved.