By:
Dale Collie www.couragebuilders.com
The
United Nations declares workplace stress to be a worldwide epidemic.
In the United States alone, forty-six percent of workers report
that their job is very stressful. This adds up to a million stress
related workplace absences each day. Meditation,
soothing music, biofeedback, and other techniques work well to
help people cope with the stress of our modern workplace. Individual
stress control techniques such as these are important.
However,
the real solution is in the hands of company management because
stress control is a leadership responsibility. Leaders and managers
can do more to control stress than all of the individual stress
relief techniques combined.
Leaders
who implement stress control strategies see the results in reduced
absenteeism, lower medical costs, minimized health insurance expenses,
lower
workers comp payments, fewer accidents, less complaints, and so
on.
Here
are 12 strategies help control stress, minimize costs and boost
profits. The workplace is improved. Employees and their families
are happier. Business owners make more money.
Management
can control stress by:
- Eliminating
unreasonable expectations
- Positioning
people in jobs that use their skills and abilities
- Adjusting
pay for the level of responsibility assigned to individuals
- Correcting
vague and arbitrary promotion policies
- Including
employee in making decisions that affect their jobs
- Avoiding
excessive overtime, even if there is additional compensation
- Distributing
unpleasant tasks fairly
- Enforcing
policies equally throughout the organization, from top to bottom
- Implementing
problem-solving strategies and acceptable mediation of conflicts
- Using
family stress control strategies to minimize the impact of
family separation caused by travel or long office hours
- Demonstrating
concern for employee welfare
- Eliminating
intolerable conditions such as temperature, hazards, noise,
light, and odors
It
is difficult to remove some of these stressors when you are
faced with aggressive competitors or unfavorable economic conditions,
but this challenge is just as important as anything else facing
those who wear the mantle of leadership.
Making
all of these changes can seem overwhelming. However, you can
make an impact by selecting a single strategy and making a plan
to improve
it.
Sound
leadership and stress control will maximize performance and increase
net profits.
Written
by Dale Collie (collie@couragebuilders.com) former US Army
Ranger, CEO, and teacher at West Point. Selected by "Fast
Company" as one of America's Fast 50 innovative leaders.
Speaker and author "Winning Under Fire: Turn Stress
into Success the US Army Way"- McGraw Hill - www.couragebuilders.com
To
learn more about stress reducing strategies, send an email
to toptenstressors@couragebuilders.com for our free auto
responder about the top ten causes of workplace stress.
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