Understandably workplace stress gets a lot of bad press, and we know how many individuals and managers are tasked with managing stress at work, juggling work and personal stressors whilst supporting colleagues and their teams.
Fortunately, there is increasing research into the benefits of stress as a positive force rather than a negative one. With the right tools, it is possible to turn certain familiar stressors into something useful that can empower you and your people and facilitate improved performance and personal growth. In this article we look at the causes of workplace stress, the ‘managing stress’ trap, and whether it is possible to turn workplace stress into something useful that delivers better outcomes for you and your organisation.
It's personal: Causes of workplace stress
Stress is a well recognised problem in the workplace. Not surprisingly with so many places for it to come from - uncertainty, challenges, change, dealing with difficult individuals.
According to the NHS work-related stress is highly personal citing that, though there are 7 main areas that are typically seen as the source of workplace stress, there is no single cause of stress at work and causes can differ significantly from person to person. The NHS 7 causes of stress at work are:
- Lack of control over workload
- Lack of clarity about responsibilities and high demands on time and energy
- Fear of change or redundancy
- Lack of support and poor line management
- Difficult colleague relationships
- Workplace bullying or harassment
- Workplace discrimination
They share a number of helpful resources for setting boundaries and seeking support, but there is also room for a fresh perspective on the traditional approach to stress management.
The stress trap: Limitations of traditional stress management
When it comes to stress there is one word that tends to be mentioned more than any other – managing.
However, ‘managing’ stress can actually raise a couple of significant pitfalls. First of all is one can be summed up in the phrase ‘what you resist, persists’. When trying to manage stress, it naturally tunes your attention into the stresses that you're trying to get rid of, those that you want to experience less of, as our trainer Sue Evans explains:
“When you pay attention to something, you start to notice more of it, even without more of it actually being there.”
Unfortunately, by focusing so much energy into trying to manage stress you can inadvertently end up amplifying it.
The second pitfall can be described as the Stress Yo-yo. When we focus on managing stress there are a whole host of techniques and routes we can take, from specialised support, exercise, journaling or practising daily gratitude, taking time out to talk things through with someone supportive, practising mindfulness, settling your breathing. All of these can be really effective. However, they only work with consistent practice which, as Sue goes on to explain, is where the second pitfall comes in.
“These are all great - as long as you do them. And generally, we're not very good at doing what's good for us consistently. So, the stress tends to yo-yo. It builds up. It gets uncomfortable. You start doing something differently. If it works, the stress reduces. You heave a sigh of relief. You stop doing things differently, and the stress comes back again”.
So, if managing stress has its limitations, what other approaches can individuals and organisations take?
Stress: a powerful motivator for improved performance and personal growth?
Research suggests that adapting our stress mindset leads to better outcomes than with benefits for both individuals and companies.
Drawn from work and research with executives, students, Navy SEALs and professional athletes, research published in the Harvard Business Review found that “individuals who adopt a “stress is enhancing” mindset in their lives show greater work performance and fewer negative health symptoms than those who adopt a “stress-is-debilitating” lens.”
Further in-depth research into Quantifying the impact of positive stress on individuals and companies found four types of stress culture in companies - a low stress, passive, negative stress, or positive stress company. Despite assumptions that the low-stress and passive companies would yield better employee outcomes, research found that it was only the employees of positive stress companies – companies that are characterised by high growth and collaboration – that reported feeling both challenged and supported, leading to greater engagement and productivity, whilst these ‘positive stress’ businesses themselves consistently demonstrated better financial performance compared to the other 3 company types.
Tools that you and your organisation can use to harness stress positively.
Moving beyond simply "managing" stress, we’re seeing a shift towards embracing stress as a potentially positive force emerging. And as we have seen, solely managing stress or even creating neutral, passive work environments is not the answer.
Our course How to Keep Stress Useful with Sue Evans is here to help you look at stress from a different, more empowering perspective, to give you a fresh set of tools and techniques to break those yo-yoing stress cycles and put in place something that not only works but can lead to better performance and outcomes.
Through this online programme, delegates can explore straightforward skills to enable them to embrace stress differently. Our trainer Sue, explains what delegates can expect:
“Typical outcomes that people experience are being able to completely stop repetitive worrying, dealing comfortably with people who used to wind you up or ‘mood hoover’ you, dealing smoothly with sudden challenges or changes in priority, just being able to roll with whatever life throws at you and sleeping more restfully no matter what you've got going on.”
Our next How to Keep Stress Useful training course will kick off on 5th December 2024. Places are strictly limited so click here to find out more and secure your spot.
To find out more about any of our training courses including programmes like Building your Resilience at Work, Managing Performance, Conflict, Bullying and Harassment, Courageous Conversations and more visit our courses page or speak to one of our team to discuss tailored training for your organisation.