Stress

(Time to read this article: 9 minutes)

"Global financial crisis!", "world business slowdown!", "international banking collapse!", if you haven't been pummelled by the doom and gloom merchants over the last couple of months, you must have been on Mars!

So, how is all of this negativity affecting you?

Boiling Mad?

If you drop a frog into hot water, he'll jump out! But, the story goes, you can drop him into cold water, then heat it slowly and he'll stay. Being a cold-blooded creature, the frog's internal temperature rises to match that of his environment, and so he notices nothing unusual - until suddenly, he's dead! This grim little tale provides a strong analogy for what happens to many people when the stress levels in their environment rise slowly but surely by unnoticed degrees, until they reach a fatal level. And then they're dead! So as the bad news purveyors multiply, has there been a gradual - and, perhaps "unnoticed" - increase in your stress levels recently?

About Camels

Like our frog story, the saying "the straw that broke the camel's back" refers to the last tiny, little, incy, wincy item which, when added to the cumulative load of myriad other small items that went before it, exceeds the limit of the camels strength, and breaks its back.

Of course, there are many lesser degrees of stress which may merely make you unhappy, debilitated or catatonic but, hey, I did not set out to depress you - I just wanted your attention so that I could share some good news with you!

10 Second Stress Test

First, let's find out whether you are in hot water in the first place - that is, if you're stressed at all.

This test is very quick and easy: Touch your neck with the fingertips of both hands.

• If your fingers feel really cold, then you are showing extra tension which may indicate a high level of stress.

• If your fingers feel mildly cool, then you are showing some tension, which may indicate some stress.

• If your fingers and neck feel the same temperature, then you are likely to be relaxed and comfortable.

• If your fingers feel hotter than your neck, then you may be deeply relaxed.

How Stressed?

Next, let's find out just how hot your water is right now, and how many straws you have accumulated on your back from the simple process of living for the last two years.

For each of the following major life events which have taken place in your life during the last 24 months, transfer the relevant "Weight" into the "Your Score" column, then total your stress burden. If an event occurred more than once, add a multiple of its weight to your score.

Your Score

You'll notice some surprising entries in the list (birth of a child; vacation; Christmas - I recall an article from last year in which we found that men can be more stressed by Christmas shopping than by battle!) they all create some degree of stress, and all add to our ultimate stress burden. So, here's how the scores go:

• 0-149: Low

• 150-299: Medium

• 300 or more: High

What Does Your Score Mean?

This is the funny part. Some camels have stronger backs than others and so a fatal load for one can be a light workout for another, but . . . there is no denying the cumulative nature of a stress burden, and it would be foolish to ignore a 'medium' or 'high' reading here.

In fact, if you're in anything but the "low" range, it would be healthy to take a look through the following "Stress Management Techniques" and to adopt those that suit your nature and lifestyle as sensible preventative measures, and as positive additions to your lifestyle.

How Stress Affects Our Bodies

Stress is an unavoidable and, to a large degree, potentially positive force in our lives.

Like all forces, the art lies in learning to manage the force to our advantage rather than to allow ourselves to be its passive victim.

What is Stress? In the business context, it is what you undergo when your body is switched into "fight or flight" mode. The causes of stress can be internal (imaginary) or external (real). As with visualization, it matters little to your mind which category the trigger falls into - if it's vividly imagined, it's "real" to your mind, and your mind will switch on whatever bodily responses it associates with fighting or fleeing that event!

Controlling Stress

You have the choice of managing stress "on the way in" or "on the way out".

On the way in: The only successful method of pre-emptively controlling stress, is to have a positive outlook - a positive philosophy or understanding of how the world works, and what your place is in the scheme of things.

It is never important what happens to you; it is always important how you choose to understand and interpret it.

So: Cultivate a Positive Mental Attitude, and develop a meaningful philosophy.

For example, if you were to view Life as "a challenging learning process, which carries a guarantee that you will never be challenged beyond your means" you might find that you welcome change and challenge, and look about within your own resources for the means that you know must be there to meet it.

When faced with any challenging event, the healthiest discipline you can ever adopt is to vividly imagine yourself having overcome it before you even start to tackle it!

Always be aware of the basic fact that if you are healthy, fit and physically strong, you will always cope with and dissipate the effects of stress better than if you were not. So, one simple, effective and risk-free strategy to adopt whenever your stress level starts to rise, is to set about becoming healthier, fitter and stronger.

So: Cultivate a Positive Physical State, and react less to stress in the first place.

On the way out: Your body's normal reaction to stress is, in purely physiological terms, an "extreme" reaction consisting, among other things, of the injection of a number of natural chemical stimulants into your bloodstream.

These substances are mildly toxic to your system and their by-products are even more so, but your body is designed to flush them during the severe physical activity (the fight or flight) that they are intended to induce.

Since our current society induces stress but does not sanction violent physical responses (or even permit us to run away from many of the situations we face), we must create opportunities that allow our body to purge the stress by-products.

You can do this in two ways:

1. Actively: Through gross impact exercises, which mimic the "fight or flight" reaction and flush the system of stress toxins: racquet ball, squash, weightlifting, aerobics, swimming, power walking all assist the body in processing - and neutralizing ¬- the toxic by-products of stress.

2. Passively: There are a range of techniques you can learn that will effectively "process" stress out of your system, including:
   
   Progressive Muscle Relaxation techniques in which you learn to guide yourself into a deeply relaxed state. These can be learned using physical and mental disciplines (eg. yoga) or by employing biofeedback mechanisms which enable you to gain greater control over what were previously assumed to be autonomic processes (heart rate, blood pressure, skin temperature, etc).
   
   Restorative Therapies include hydrotherapy (warm, moving water induces relaxation in muscles, with a subsequent relaxation of the mind); sauna (induces increased blood flow and autonomic relaxation); massage (induces relaxation, can release body-retained stresses).
   
   Autogenic Training such as self-induced deep relaxation or true Meditation (at 7-14 brain cycles per second) for around 20 minutes a day. Deep prayer also comes into this category.
   
   Each of these types of technique enables you to put your body into a unique state that is very different from exercise which enables it to "backwash" its systems and flush stress toxicity, as well as carrying out a number of other processes in which the brain integrates recent stressful events into its system of understanding, values and knowledge (in much the same way we do when dreaming).
   
   It could be well worth your while to assess the range of benefits that a simple meditation technique can bring busy people.

The Best Strategy

The best results for most people come from a "triple antigen" strategy of:

1. Disciplined positive thinking (always imagine the best possible outcome);

2. Regular physical activity (40 minutes of light-skin-sweat exertion, three times a week); and

3. Deep relaxation (deep prayer, meditation, guided visualisation, massage).

For more information on saving your quality of life (and maybe your life) click to receive our 12-Step Stress Cure template.

Lowering Stress At Work

(Time to read this article: 8 minutes)

If you're a boss, there may be strong value for you in reading and applying this. If you're one of the troops, the real value will be in passing this to your boss, and asking to discuss it!

Protect and Grow Small Courtesies

Few things within a business are guaranteed to raise tensions, shorten fuses and lower productivity as are simple bad manners and yet, when times get tough and stress rises, good manners are often an early victim. When the erosion of good manners then leaks from team relations into customer relations (as it inevitably must) that, in turn, costs sales - not just immediate sales, but all of the remaining sales you would have made to that client had you retained them for years to come, and the sales of all the other people whom they were miffed enough to discourage from dealing with you in future!

What would be the likely consequences (I don't mind you thinking "pay-offs" here) of you and your team creating a deliberate focus on raising the level of good manners, politeness and real attention to the needs of others among themselves and then directing that outwards, as a deliberate and conscious policy to customers, suppliers and other business associates?

I think it would: r Make no difference r Make little difference r Make a big difference

Protect and Grow Security

You and your team would not be human if you were not affected by the constant wash of negativity that the press barons cynically generate to fuel news sales.

Fearful, nervous and insecure people do not work well. They don't cope with stress well, they don't concentrate well, they don't relate well, and they don't sell well (there's a proven direct correlation between optimism and sales performance)!

Research repeatedly shows that when times are tough, employees don't want to be "falsely comforted" with platitudes or empty assurances. In fact, management who take such an approach are seen as either cynical liars (they think we're fools) or incompetent idiots (we think they're fools!)

No, they want to be told the truth of the situation, however tough that may be, and then be told the plan for handling that situation. Once they understand the challenge, the risks and the plan, they are far more likely to dig deep and do whatever is asked of them to push the business through any tough spot.

So the question for all leaders is: What are you doing to balance the negative press with accurate positive information about the current status of your business and the market in which it operates, and with a positive plan of action that challenges and engages your team, providing them with the opportunity to step up and help?

I think: r I'm doing enough r I could do more r I've not done enough

Go Back to Basics

Challenging times provide a good reason to go back to basics on everything in the business and to ask fundamental questions about every aspect of what you are doing.

Engaging your team in solving the problems may not directly lower their stress, though gaining control of your fate often does just that. So, here are a few questions you might like to try with your team:

1. Has the market that gave rise to our original business moved or changed? (Think digital imaging and what Polaroid failed to grasp about it.)

2. Are we still in the same business we think we're in? (Fedex started as couriers, but now earn huge fees as 'logistical consultants'.)

3. What has changed about what our Customers want right now and are we meeting that? (Think GM and Ford who churned out SUV gas-guzzlers while the world went looking for something that will run on sunlight.)

4. Are your values in alignment with the needs of the current market? (Why are Hummers a bit on the nose right now?)

5. What else could you offer your current Customers that they have never thought of you for? (Google was just for searches, right?)

6. If you did a SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis right now, would it show different results to the last one - or one done a year ago? (Bankers used to think that CMOs (Consolidated Mortgage Obligations) were an "opportunity" - that changed pretty quickly!)

7. How can we do more using the people we already have? (Management often only thinks they know; the people doing the work really know. Have you asked them?)

8. What do your people think they could do to help? (Different question to the last: We're now looking for volunteers to clean, maintain, save, economise inside the business instead of paying others outside of it.)

9. If the business can't carry us all right now, what options do we have? (Look for volunteers who are happy to move to a four-day week, or job share to spend quality time with family, or move to contract work for the freedom it offers.)

10. What could we do with our systems to make us leaner, or more competitive? (One Client has refined his estimating system to control the risks associated with reducing his margin and is gaining lower-profit work that once eluded him.)

11. What could we do to steal, seduce, win our competitor's Customers over to us? (Hint: Work out what they do that ticks people off, then just promise their Customers you'll never do that! And mean it.)

12. What is the best way for us to contact our Customers with offers of value, twice as often as we do now? (One of our clients is in Childcare, and they've written to all of their mothers, urging them to tell their friends patronising an ailing competitor, how well their business is doing, and inviting them to come in for a chat!)

On our basics: r We're on song r We're reviewing them now r Haven't a clue!

Communicate More Often

When times are tough any vacuum in the information channel will be instantly filled by negatively-charged gossip. Gossip left unattended can become self-generating.

So, there is no better time to look at your meeting regime as your primary means of conveying information throughout the business. Don't rely on emails, as they are a blunt instrument and can actually fan an issue rather than put it out, so here's a suggested timetable of meetings:

• Daily: Five-minute stand-up gathering to swap vital information about who's doing what and progress to date and to coordinate goals for the day so that they align with your Vision and Quarterly Plan.

• Weekly: One-hour formal meeting; time limit per person; each person required to report to the group in a simple format; aimed at producing a "Do" (a clear commitment to action that is aligned with our current goals) for every item.

• Monthly: Two-four-hour review of where we are in relation to our Quarterly Plan, and where we need to be at the end of the next month. Includes issue and problem solving, and a bit of bonding.

• Quarterly: Review the quarter's progress; create the next Quarterly Plan.

In the absence of positive communication, fear fills the void.

On communications we rate: r Very good r Need improvement r Lousy

Christmas De-stress Program

 (Time to read this article: 2 minutes - and worth it!)

If you're one of those good souls who plans (most of) their business days to ensure that you achieve your goals and move your business forward, are you as thorough when it comes to planning your relaxation? Is it possible that you just fall in a heap on Day One of your break, fritter your precious private time away on not-much-at-all and then crawl (maybe a little resentfully?) back to work to start the whole slog over again?

If that is even slightly like you, what could you do differently this year to make your 2008/9 break one to be remembered? One to be savoured for months afterwards, sustaining you well into your new working year?

De-stress Candidates

In your break could you plan so as to:

1. Complete 3 leisure challenges you've been putting off (bungy jumping anyone?)
2. Visit a friend or relative with whom you are long overdue?
3. Exercise every 2nd day to achieve a fitness, weight or tone goal?
4. Read one or more books that you've been putting off?
5. Watch the Top Five Movies of your favourite genre (maybe all in one sitting)?
6. Change your diet closer to the ideal that you find hard to achieve at work?
7. Take a child (Fun Consultant) or ten out for a day, and play at their level all day?
8. Have a single day entirely to yourself, without one task assigned to the day?
9. Drive a different way home on every occasion?
10. Over the next 2 months, read a magazine a week that you've never bought before?

So, would that make it a Merrier Christmas?

Thoughts On The Subject Of Stress And Challenges

(Time to read this article: 1 minute)

• You are a 'camel' (we all are) so you know that no single straw weighs much on its own but you know that it pays to count the straws!

• The temperature is rising just now so if you can stick in the pot longer than the other frogs - but not long enough to get cooked - you'll win the pot!

• Men are lousy at sensing stress because they are biologically programmed to ignore it so as to persist in the hunt and feed the tribe. Fellas, that's why it's smart to ask a woman about your stress levels now and again!

• Fire tempers steel; business tempers people. Nothing's surer!

• If becoming a millionaire was easy, everyone would be one!

• If everyone got to the top of the mountain, the view would be lousy!

• Before you take on a new task, ask yourself what task you're going to put down first!

• Death is Nature's way of telling you to slow down - look for earlier signs!

• No dying man ever said that he wished he'd spent more time at the office.

• To be young again, put yourself in the hands of a child - play in their world and by their rules for an entire day.

On the Lighter Side

When you get home, lock your doors, draw the drapes, and disconnect the phone so you will not be disturbed during your therapy. Change to very comfortable clothing, such as a sweat suit and lie down on your bed. Open the package containing the thermometer and remove the thermometer and carefully place it on the bedside table so that it will not become chipped or broken.

Take the written material that accompanies the thermometer and as you read it you will notice in small print the statement that 'Every rectal thermometer made by Q-Tip is personally tested'.

Now close your eyes and say out loud five times, 'I am so glad that I do not work in quality control at the Q-Tip Company.'

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David Perrott
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