By building emotional intelligence, it is possible to decide how to deal with stressful scenarios without losing your self-control. Stress is often something driven from outside influences, so the way to deal with it is often through understanding how you react to stress and deciding what you want from the situation.

Here are some ideas on maintaining control and building mental strength under pressure:

1) Be aware of how you are feeling and commit to keeping cool under that pressure. Your emotional brain will run away from itself if you’re not careful, and the amygdala (the part of our brain that helps control temper) could be bypassed if we allow ourselves to ‘lose it’ for any reason.

2) Stop yourself from jumping to conclusions in any situations before you have understood exactly what has occurred.

3) Determine to get to the root cause of any situation before allowing yourself to make conclusions.

4) Remember that most disagreements are caused by a rules breakdown, that is, you may have guidelines and rules as to how things should be done and everyone else’s rules are different to yours. So don’t jump to hasty conclusions before investigating.

5) Bring any stressful situations to the notice of the people involved so everyone has the opportunity to deal with them openly and honestly.

6) Practice stress-management techniques that have worked for you in the past. Things like a quick walk outside, physical workouts and meditation have proved workable solutions to stressful situations, simply because the emotional connection with the scenario has been disassociated, and the solutions from the logical part of the thinking brain are clearer to see.

7) Discuss various ways of dealing with stress with your team members, so everyone can become pro-active in discussing the way forward if these situations ever occur again.

If you are able to maintain a steady response to stress, you give yourself and your team the chance to deal with problems in a way that can be solution-focused and not problematical.

Thanks again

Sean
Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Management Course

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”

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As a manager you’re going to find that there are times when you feel a lot more stressed than you do at other times. You might even stop and wonder why you feel more stressed than those around you. The truth is that, as managers, we tend to believe we need to be perfect at everything we do. We need to be in control. We want to be right. We want our jobs done perfectly. In short, we put too much pressure on ourselves.

As you approach the New Year, take the following 5 points into consideration and see if you can begin to make tiny changes, one at a time. Eliminating some of the stress you’re putting on yourself might make your job just a bit easier to accomplish!

5. Stop Expecting Perfection

You are not perfect, nor are the people who work for or with you. If you stop expecting perfection you won’t be disappointed when you don’t achieve it and you’ll be better able to take a strong, objective look at the great results you did achieve after working on a project instead of the minute percentage you think you didn’t.

4. Keep Your Opinions to Yourself

Do you have a tendancy towards giving people your unsolicited opinions or advice? Stop. If people want your help they will ask for it. If you’re working with someone who doesn’t know you well, ask them if you can offer your opinion or advice so that they can get ideas from another vantage point. If you stop forcing your ideas on others they’ll be more willing to work with you.

3. Forget the Past

So you’ve made a few mistakes in the past. Stop letting them eat at you, stressing you out even more. Put them aside and move on. You can’t change the past but you can control what you are doing now and in the future.

2. Analyse Less

Sometimes, when we are given new tasks, we feel like we have to learn as much as possible about the background or procedures before we get started. We end up adding stress and wasting time when we realistically could have just jumped right into the project. Try to spend less time analysing projects – just do them instead.

1. Stop Caring about Who Likes You

The truth is very simple. Not everyone you meet in your life is going to like you. Their reasons may or may not be valid. You don’t need to stress yourself out or care about who likes you and who does not. It doesn’t matter and, to be honest, you can work professionally with people who do not like you as long as you are all respectful.

Ready to reduce the stress in your life? Start by taking a look at yourself and your habits. Once you can do that you’ll be half way home and your relationships with your team members will instantly begin to improve!

Thanks again,
Sean

Sean McPheat
Managing Director
MTD Leadership

Click below for a:
FREE email course “Improve Your Management Skills”