Stress in the Workplace Some Practical Strategies for Coping More Effectively1,2 A Presentation for

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Stress in the WorkplaceSome Practical Strategies
for Coping More Effectively1,2A Presentation
for Portsmouth City Schools

• Kendall L. Stewart, MD, MBA
• September 4, 2007

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Why is this important?

• Stress is one of the most often-cited problems in
  the workplace.1
• Almost everyone who feels stressed believesand
  strongly believesthat stress is something that
  someone or some thing causes.
• But given the same circumstances, people differ
  widely in how stressed they feel.2
• This observation gives us great hope.
• We can do something about the stress we feel in
  the workplaceand in our lives.

• After mastering the information in this
  presentation, you will be able to
• Identify three of the common things that cause
  you to feel stressed at work,
• Describe three ways that feeling stressed makes
  you feel and behave,
• Name three practical strategies that will allow
  you to decrease your stress in the workplace,
• Explain why you should adopt these strategies,
  and
• Clarify how to deploy these strategies
  successfully.

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What causes you to feel stressed in the
workplace?1,2

• Conflict
• Negative coworkers
• Rumors
• Criticism
• Meaningless work
• Perceived slights
• The failure of leaders to hold problem people
  accountable
• Perceived unfairness
• Excessive sensitivity

• Time pressure
• Information overload
• Unclear expectations
• Unreasonable demands
• Slackers
• Troublemakers
• Incompetent leaders
• An uncomfortable environment
• Faulty equipment
• Inadequate training

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How does feeling stressed affect you?

• You feel
• Irritable
• Preoccupied
• Upset
• Resentful
• Tired
• Angry
• Apprehensive
• Anxious
• Depressed
• Hopeless

• You behave
• Impulsively
• Reluctantly
• Absent-mindedly
• Dangerously
• Self-destructively
• Revengefully1,2
• Passively
• Distractedly
• Hurriedly
• Prematurely

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What are some practical strategies for decreasing
your stress in the workplace?

• Focus on yourself.
• Avoid negative people.
• Seek out positive people.
• Focus on providing exceptional quality and
  service.
• Stop longing for people to change.

• Busy yourself with what you can do instead of
  what you cant do.
• Draft a position letter, but dont send it.
• Label and manage your difficult colleagues.
• Reframe challenging situations.1
• Increase your physical activity.2

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Focus on yourself.

• Why should you?
• You are the only person you can change.
• This decision put you in charge.
• This perspective means you are no longer
  dependent on how others behave.
• When you focus on pleasing yourself, pleasing
  others no longer matters as much.

• How can you?
• Write down exactly what happened.
• Write down exactly how you felt.
• Write down exactly how your feelings caused you
  to behave.
• Write down how you might have behaved.
• Practice behaving that way so you can go on
  autopilot when it happens again.
• Become the organizational expert at something.1,2

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What have you learned?

• Stuff happens at work.
• The degree to which you are stressed by it is up
  to youat least to some extent.
• This simple but profound insight should give you
  great hope.
• Changing your instinctive reactions to others and
  your environment is not easy.
• But it can be done.
• You can do it by becoming the CEO of you.
• And decreasing the amount of stress in your life
  is a very good thing.

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Where can you learn more?1

• Review some of the causes and antidotes to stress
  in the workplace at http//health.discovery.com/ce
  nters/stress/stress.html.
• Identify some of the factors that lead to job
  stress at http//www.helpguide.org/mental/work_str
  ess_management.htm.
• Read a National Institute for Occupational Safety
  and Health publication on Stress at Work at
  http//www.cdc.gov/niosh/stresswk.html.
• Explore a variety of resources available for
  dealing more effectively with stress in the
  workplace at http//www.cdc.gov/niosh/topics/stres
  s/.

1Please visit www.KendallLStewart.com to download
related White Papers and presentations.
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Are there other questions?
www.somc.org
? Safety ? Quality ? Service ? Relationships ?
Performance ?