Are You Creating Stress For Others At Work Or In Your Business?
How often do you think about the impact you are having on others at work or in your business? You may have been stressed in the past by other people but could you be creating stress for others by your actions and behaviours? When I am working with clients who are feeling stressed they often feel that other people have caused them to feel stressed whether this is due to their decision making, attitudes, communication skills or many other reasons.
I therefore thought it may be helpful to provide some examples of where you may be creating stress for others at work or in your business:
Poor communication skills. How do you talk to and communicate with your key business contacts, your colleagues and your staff? Do you really listen to people when they are talking to you? You may be creating stress in others because you are abrupt in your communication, you do not speak clearly, you allow your moods to negatively impact your conversations and emails, you don't have time for others and you never really listen to other people.
Ineffective delegation or outsourcing. Are you trying to do everything yourself and not allowing others to fully contribute to the business? Are you delegating or outsourcing ineffectively? Your staff and suppliers may be getting very stressed because you are not giving enough time to explain how to do a task, you are not clear with your instructions, you are interfering all the time, you are not there to answer queries and support them and you never truly empower them or allow them to maximise their potential.
Inconsistency. Are you inconsistent at work or in your business? You can cause others to be stressed by being inconsistent. You may be constantly changing your mind, having ever changing priorities and plans or even moving your staff from one task to another before they can finish anything properly.
Lack of strategy and poor planning. Does the business have a long term strategy that you have shared with your team and key stakeholders? Do you have a short, medium and long term plan and do you have plans for individual projects? People can become stressed if they are operating in a vacuum without knowing where the business or their department is going. They can also find it very difficult if their work or the project they are working on is not planned effectively and if there is no overall plan.
Poor decision making. Are you indecisive, inconsistent or slow in your decision making and does every decision have to come through you? Working with or for someone who has poor decision making skills can be very stressful as business opportunities can be missed, you may not be able to get on with your work as you are always waiting for a decision or you are forever confused about what you should be doing.
Too much change or too little change. Is your business going through too much change or are you failing to keep up with developments in your business sector? Your business contacts, colleagues and staff can get very stressed and overwhelmed by too much change in the business, whereas too little change can be equally stressful.
Being reactive. Are you being proactive in your role or are you just waiting for things to happen and reacting accordingly? Working with someone who is very reactive is very stressful as you never know what you will be asked to do next and everything is very short term and last minute.
Blaming others. Do you blame everyone else for things that go wrong but take all the credit for things that go well? It can be very stressful for the people who are blamed for things that go wrong, as well as when they do a good job that someone else takes all the credit.
Archaic systems, processes and procedures. Are your business systems, processes and procedures in need of a refresh or replacement? Anyone who comes into contact with or who works in your business may find it stressful to deal with your business if you have poor processes, systems and procedures. Things will probably take longer than expected, customer service will be negatively impacted and there may be lots of time wasted too.
Not effectively managing others. Are you managing your staff effectively? It can be very stressful working for someone who is not very good at managing you. You may be ineffectual, constructive feedback is rare, you perhaps forget to do performance reviews and meetings with your team or individual staff members are few and far between.
So what do you need to change so you are not creating stress for others at work or in your business?
Author: Liz Makin
Published: October 2015
Makin It Happen has a range of personal development online courses to purchase, created by Liz Makin, including anxiety management, communication, resilience, soft skills, stress management, time management and coaching. Liz Makin also provides personalised business coaching, business mentoring and stress management services to business owners, directors, managers and professionals.
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