Strategy in Performance

Sun, 25 Apr 2010 04:10:19 +0000

Strategy 1. Adjust Your Leadership Behavior
Don’t create needless stress. Avoid adding needless stress to an already stressed-out team. Some of the leadership behaviors that tend to trigger work stress are listed below. Note any of those behaviors that pertain to your performance. In addition, because most people are not accurate observers of their own behavior, consider using this checklist to ask for feedback on your leadership style from a trusted team member or work associate. Do you:
• Vacillate on decisions, procrastinate on decisions, or rush into decisions without first having sufficient information?
• Create arbitrary deadlines for projects? That is, do your dead¬lines take into account real job requirements?
• Generate conflicts by encouraging win-lose competition among members?
• Criticize members in public rather than in private?
• Make comments that make people feel threatened about the loss of their jobs?
• Intentionally withhold information from members?
• Pit people against each other?
• Use force and threats to win discussions with members?
• Gossip about members behind their backs?
• Withdraw your support, assistance, and energy from your group?
• Create conflicts between your team and others and then thrust your members into the middle of these problems?
• Become loud and vocally abusive whenever you discover a work problem?
• Monitor your stress level. Don’t use your team as an outlet for your own stress. If you find yourself ready to climb the walls because of something your boss or your supplier finds, avoid taking your frustration out on your team.

Instead, before interacting with your team, give yourself time to recover, and carefully think through the following questions:
• How much of what I’m upset about is directly within control of my team?
• Are they really the target of my anger?
• Am I angry with my team or just anxious about my job?
• If I blow up, am I really going to move the job along faster, or will I simply create more problems?
• Do team members really understand the full context of my anger and frustration? If they don’t seem to understand the significance of a problem, is it because part of the situation is outside of their visibility?

Your Role as Stress Buffer

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 03:54:16 +0000

Next series from Performance and Organization. At this point you may be thinking, “Okay, even assuming that excessive stress does lead to poor performance, what am I expected to do about it? I’m not a trained psychologist or therapist.” That’s right, but, unfortunately, you are struck with this situation. You depend on your team to meet your objectives, and you can’t afford to wait until your organization becomes less stressful. Like it or not, you play a pivotal role in helping your team successfully cope with work stress.

Since the early 1970s, abundant research has shown that one of the most critical factors for coping successfully with stress is the presence of a solid support system-those networks of interpersonal relation ships that, during periods of stress and trauma, provide emotional and social support and assistance. Support systems offer a sense that one isn’t alone with one’s problems, that there is someone out there who is willing to help.

Research has shown that when people are exposed to severe stresses, such as illness or the death of a spouse, those who have good support systems are much less likely to suffer from heart problems and other major stress disorders. Additional research has shown that the most effective buffer against work stress is not one’s friends, coworkers, or spouse but one’s manager. The actions you as manager take and the relationships you form with your team members thus directly influence their ability to cope with work and stress.

Business and Marketing » stresses

Strategy in Performance

Your Role as Stress Buffer