Team Doctor recommends five ways to reduce stress in the workplace
Recent research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) highlights the crucial role the line manager has in managing workplace stress. At least one in six people are affected by stress at work at any one time and it is one of the leading causes of absence from the workplace. With this in mind, Tim Thurston and Rosie Runciman, co-founders at Team Doctor, the UK’s leading source of online health education for patients, have set out 5 ways to help combat the problem:
1. Know what makes you and your team happy
Firstly, understand what makes you happy. Is it being organised? Do you feel vulnerable if you haven’t got a clear plan? Everyone needs a well-defined purpose, so this is a good starting point. As a manager, it's fundamental that you understand what makes your team members happy.
2. Understand what keeps you well
How much sleep do you need? If you are not getting enough, make an effort to sleep for longer. Sleep sacrifice is common but is not beneficial to your health, especially if it happens over a long period of time. How much exercise do you need? What is the right diet for you?
3. Create an action plan for when you get distressed
We all feel stressed at some point, so we need to have a plan in place so we can cope better. It could be that you take a break and go for a walk, or if that’s not possible you might do a simple breathing exercise. As long as you have thought about it in advance and have developed a strategy that works for you, those heightened moments of stress during the day will be far more manageable.
4. Control what you can and don't get stressed about what you can't
Trying to control things that you have no control over, are almost guaranteed to produce negative stress. What you can do, is control the way you and your team respond to stress-inducing situations that you can't do anything about, and this should be your focus.
5. Ensure proper training is given for each role and support one another
A major driver of stress is not knowing what to do or not knowing how to do it. A short-term investment in proper training pays huge dividends in the long-term. We are all part of a team of some description, and knowing that you are all working together and want each other to do well is incredibly powerful in terms of improving wellbeing and performance.
Tim Thurston, who is an experienced Managing Director and business leader with over 30 years of management experience says ‘There’s no doubt that when individuals and teams are stressed over a period of time, it can start to cause real problems. By utilising these 5 steps and the online courses and films we have available, we believe that line managers will be better prepared to manage this issue’
TeamDoctor provides online courses and films that help improve wellbeing at work. For more information email info@teamdoctor.org or visit www.teamdoctor.org