STRESS MANAGEMENT
Stress management includes a vast spectrum of techniques and psychotherapies aimed at controlling a person’s level of stress, especially chronic stress, usually for the purpose of and for the motive of improving everyday functioning. The process of stress management is named as one of the keys to a happy and successful life in modern society, as stress management provides several ways to manage anxiety and maintain overall wellbeing.
Some highlights of the causes of stress in a workplace includes
• Organizational factors
• Individual factors
• Job concerning factors
• Extra-organizational factors
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Safety and health priorities
Employers have a responsibility to ensure the health and safety of employees in the workplace. They set the protocols and make sure the workplace is in compliance with standards. Strategies to ensure safety by an employee in the workplace
• The employees should make a “to-do” list daily, prioritize the acts in the list and plan the acts accordingly. Take regular breaks during work to relax you. By effective time management, the employees can achieve their targets timely and can meet work pressures and, thus, avoid stress.
• Do hard work. Strive to achieve your goals but do not do it to the harm of family, health, or peer.
• Indulge in physical exercises. It helps in effective blood circulation, keeps your fit, diverts mind from work pressures.
• Encourage a healthy lifestyle. Take a regular sleep, have plenty of water, have healthy eating habits. Promote relaxation techniques such as yoga, listening music and meditation.
• Employees should have optimistic approach about their work. They should avoid connections with negative approach employees.
• The employees should have emotional intelligence at workplace. They should have self-awareness, self-confidence and self-control at workplace.
• The employees should build social support. They should have close connections with trustworthy peer who can listen to their problems and boost their confidence level. This social network will help the employees to overcome stress.
• Employee counselling is a very good strategy to overcome employee stress. Through counselling, employees can become aware of their strengths and how to develop those strengths; their weaknesses and how to eliminate them; and they can develop strategies for changing their behaviour. Employees are also given career counselling which helps in reducing their ambiguities with regard to career.
• Find a fun way to release stress, such as, cracking jokes, playing tennis, golf, etc.
• Do not remain pre-occupied with yourself. Turn your focus outwards. Help others. This will release some stress.
2. Work-Life Balance
A balance between work and personal life to increase self-awareness. A healthy balance might look like: meeting your deadline at work while still having time for friends and hobbies, having enough time to sleep properly and eat well, not worrying about work when you are at home. Importantly, this should not be a one-time fix, but rather, a cycle that must be engaged in continuously as circumstances and priorities evolve. This cycle is made up of five distinct steps:
• Pause and denormalize.
• Pay attention to your emotions.
• Reprioritize.
• Consider your alternatives
• Implement changes.
Poor work-life balance can lead to serious consequences, it can reduce your ability to work productively, think clearly and can take a toll on your professional reputation
3 Understanding roles and responsibilities
Clearly defined roles and responsibilities can boost operational efficiency by reducing stress, confusion and redundancies. When responsibilities are defined; Everyone knows what to do People work together better Less energy is wasted
Stress is avoided
4. Workplace discrimination
Discrimination in the workplace is based on certain prejudices and occurs when an employee is treated unfavorably because of gender, sexuality, race, religion, or disability. If you treat someone differently
because they possess different characteristics to other members of staff you could be acting unlawfully. Effects are not limited to physical but also mental effects which can trigger stress responses on the employee such as depression, anxiety disorders, loss of self-control leading to the employee becoming hostile or even attempting suicide
5 Leave, Rest and Break
Many employees are used to working indefinitely without taking breaks. The excuse for not taking breaks is usually, high workload, a deadline, a long-term sick colleague or an urgent request from that important client.
In order to stay sharp and focused, it is very important to take a break despite all the urgent matters. The word break may be interpreted in several ways. It can be a 10-minute break, a longer break, also a break in the form of leave. It's all about what you do or don't do during that break.
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ORGANIZING MEETINGS
1 Element of an Effective Meeting
Meetings are not just information exchanges, they are also “relationship-building” sessions. Establishing these relationships enables your efforts to take root and make a difference for your organizations.
To that end, based on research and best practices, we concluded on “five C’s” of an effective meeting:
1. Compelling: Tell a story to help illustrate your point. Everyone responds to a story and research has shown that stories increase message retention.
2. Clarity: Be focused and clear. Be restrained in what you share – summarize the high points. A great meeting will lead to follow-up discussions.
3. Consistency: Do your homework on meeting participants. Connect to their interests, including past decisions or common interests.
4. Conversation: Allow for dialogue. Creating an opportunity for a two-way conversation will allow for questions and clarifications.
5. Close: End the meeting effectively by having a running through the outcomes of he meeting and noting the key takeaways.
2 Preparing of Agenda
A meeting agenda is a list of topics or activities you want to cover during your meeting. The main purpose of the agenda is to give participants a clear outline of what should happen in
the meeting, who will lead each task and how long each step should take. Having this information before and during the meeting should ensure that it proceeds efficiently and productively.
Standard steps on how to write a meeting agenda
1. Identify the meeting’s goals.
2. Ask participants for input.
3. List the questions you want to address.
4. Identify the purpose of each task.
5. Estimate the amount of time to spend on each topic.
6. Identify who leads each topic.
7. End each meeting with a review.
3. Meeting Common Time Wasters
-Poorly managed and unstructured meetings
When meetings are poorly structured or managed, be it physical or online meetings, they can consume a significant amount of individual and organizational time
-Constant Interruptions (Business or Personal)
A worker delves into a meeting. Then the phone rings. Then an email message pops up. After that, the worker’s mom sends her a text message, and then a coworker stops by for a question (or two or five). Designate specific times of the day to handle calls and messages and leave the rest available for productive work.
4. Taking Minutes
Meeting minutes, or mom (minutes of meeting) is the written record of everything that's happened during a meeting. It informs people about what happened during the meeting and to keeps track of what was decided during the meeting. There are some few steps that must be included in your Minute
• Pre-Planning
• Record taking - at the meeting
• Minutes writing
• Distributing or sharing of meeting minutes
• Filing or storage of minutes for future reference
It is important to capture the essence of the meeting, including details like
• Decisions made (motions moved, votes, etc.)
• Action plan
• Identification and tracking of action items
5 Responsibilities of meeting leaders and participants
In most meetings, the leader is already the department head, the team leader, or the person appointed to lead an initiative.
Here are some of the key responsibilities of a meeting leader.
• The meeting leader determines the goal, task, or purpose that must be accomplished in the meeting.
• The meeting leader decides whether a meeting is the best possible method for obtaining the goal or purpose or attaining the desired outcome.
• The meeting leader decides upon the agenda for the meeting. (In ongoing meetings, this task is accomplished at the end of the current meeting.)
• The meeting leader ensures that the meeting has a recorder or minute taker to document the proceedings and any commitments, action items, or decisions.
• The meeting leader may use an icebreaker to warm up the participants and create an environment in which the meeting participants are comfortable communicating with each other and exchanging ideas and information.
• The meeting leader arrives early and leads the meeting by keeping it on track and involving all participants so each feel that their presence was essential at the meeting. This ensures their participation in the next meeting
• Reading the agenda of the meeting and taking preparation on the points where he can make valuable contribution.
• Every participant should carefully read the notice of the meeting and other related documents in order to find the background information of the meeting.
• All participants observing one another: In this stage, characteristics, taste, liking, disliking, attitude, feelings, the way of speaking and reaction etc. of other participants should be observed keenly. An understanding of strengths and weaknesses of other participants of the meeting enables a person to device the most effective way of dealing with them.
CORPORATE CULTURE
1. Global standard
Beliefs and practices that are generally acceptable. The key to a successful organization is to have a culture based on a strongly held and widely shared set of beliefs that are supported by strategy and structure. When an organization has a strong culture, three things happen:
Employees know how top management wants them to respond to any situation. Employees believe that the expected response is the proper one. Employees know that they will be rewarded for demonstrating the organization's values. Corporate culture refers to the shared values, attitudes, standards, and beliefs that characterize members of an organization and define its nature. Corporate culture is rooted in an organization's goals, strategies, structure, and approaches to labor, customers, investors, and the greater community. What defines a great and healthy corporate culture?
• Successful collaboration
• Practical perks
• Rewards
• Positive feedback
• Transparent communication
• Fun environment
• Trust
• Flexibility.
Best workplace practices may include;
• Clear Expectations from employee an employer
• Opportunity to display skills
• Support
• Encouraging people to contribute ideas and get involved in decisions
• Encouraging Feedback and Recognition
• Encouraging learning and development
• Encouraging diversity and inclusion
2. Rules, Policies and Procedures
Policies and procedures laid by the organization, helps in making the workplace run efficiently. A successful company is not known by what they are doing; but by how they are doing it and what governs them to be consistent. As an employee in an organization, it is necessary to review and become conversant with the rules, policies and procedures of your organization. Policies and procedures are an essential part of any organization. Together, policies and procedures provide a roadmap for day-to-day operations. They ensure compliance with laws and regulations, give guidance for decision-making, and streamline internal processes. However, policies and procedures won’t do your organization any good if your employees don’t follow them.
Consistent processes and structures
Policies and procedures keep operations from devolving into complete chaos.
When everyone is following policies and procedures, your organization can run smoothly. Management structures and teams operate as they’re meant to. And mistakes and hiccups in processes can be quickly identified and addressed.
When your staff is following policies and procedures, your organization will use time and resources more efficiently. You’ll be able to grow and achieve your goals as an organization. Consistency in practices is also right for employees individually. They know what they’re responsible for, what’s expected of them, and what they can expect from their supervisors and co-workers. This frees them up to do their jobs with confidence and excellence.
Better quality service
When employees follow procedures, they perform tasks correctly and provide consistent customer service. This enhances the quality of your organization’s products and services. And, in turn, improves your company’s reputation. Employees can know they are fulfilling their roles and take pride in their work.
A safer workplace
When your staff is following policies and procedures, workplace accidents and incidents are less likely to occur. This reduces liability risks for your organization and limits interruptions in operations. Your employees can feel safe and comfortable in the workplace, knowing that their managers and co-workers are looking out for their best interest. They can rest assured that they’ll be taken care of if something does happen.
3. Adapting to change and its impact
The ability to adapt to change is important for your long-term career success. It has long been a skillset employers look for as a core capability in their workforce. The importance of adaptability can’t be underestimated today.
You find that the prospect of change cause fear and anxiety, it’s therefore important to learn how to embrace change.
Tips on how to adapt to change in the work place
• Accept the change
• Reframe change as an opportunity
• Have an open mind and make change work for you
• Focus on what you can control
• Rework your goals and set out to achieve them
• Ask questions - communication is key
4. Core Values
The core value of an organization forms the foundation on which we employees perform work and conduct themselves. Having clear company values helps ensure all employees work towards the same goals. Core values support a company's vision and shape its culture. Company values are company's DNA and they help differentiate business from competition.
5. Organizational Structure
Organizational structure is a term used to define a hierarchy within an organization. It identifies each job, its function and where it reports to within the organization. This structure is developed to establish how an organization operates and assists an organization in obtaining its goals to allow for future growth. The structure is illustrated using an organizational chart.
A functional organizational structure is based on each job's duties. An employee is saddled with the responsibility to follow the organizations structure in other to develop in its career in such organization. Visit our official website for more information. www.azurevoice.com