Lower Stress At Work Is Just Good Business Manners

If you're a boss, there may be strong value for you in reading and applying this. If you're one of the troops, the real value will be in passing this to your boss, and asking to discuss it!

Protect and Grow Small Courtesies

Few things within a business are guaranteed to raise tensions, shorten fuses and lower productivity as are simple bad manners and yet, when times get tough and stress rises, good manners are often an early victim.

When the erosion of good manners then leaks from team relations into customer relations (as it inevitably must) that, in turn, costs sales - not just immediate sales, but all of the remaining sales you would have made to that client had you retained them for years to come, and the sales of all the other people whom they were miffed enough to discourage from dealing with you in future!

What would be the likely consequences (I don't mind you thinking "pay-offs" here) of you and your team creating a deliberate focus on raising the level of good manners, politeness and real attention to the needs of others among themselves and then directing that outwards, as a deliberate and conscious policy to customers, suppliers and other business associates?

I think it would: 1. Make no difference 2. Make little difference 3. Make a big difference

Protect and Grow Security

You and your team would not be human if you were not affected by the constant wash of negativity that the press barons cynically generate to fuel news sales.

Fearful, nervous and insecure people do not work well. They don't cope with stress well, they don't concentrate well, they don't relate well, and they don't sell well (there's a proven direct correlation between optimism and sales performance)!

Research repeatedly shows that when times are tough, employees don't want to be "falsely comforted" with platitudes or empty assurances. In fact, management who take such an approach are seen as either cynical liars (they think we're fools) or incompetent idiots (we think they're fools!)

No, they want to be told the truth of the situation, however tough that may be, and then be told the plan for handling that situation. Once they understand the challenge, the risks and the plan, they are far more likely to dig deep and do whatever is asked of them to push the business through any tough spot.

So the question for all leaders is: What are you doing to balance the negative press with accurate positive information about the current status of your business and the market in which it operates, and with a positive plan of action that challenges and engages your team, providing them with the opportunity to step up and help?

I think: 1. I'm doing enough 2. I could do more 3. I've not done enough

Go Back to Basics

Challenging times provide a good reason to go back to basics on everything in the business and to ask fundamental questions about every aspect of what you are doing.

Engaging your team in solving the problems may not directly lower their stress, though gaining control of your fate often does just that. So, here are a few questions you might like to try with your team:

1. Has the market that gave rise to our original business moved or changed? (Think digital imaging and what Polaroid failed to grasp about it.)

2. Are we still in the same business we think we're in? (Fedex started as couriers, but now earn huge fees as 'logistical consultants'.)

3. What has changed about what our Customers want right now and are we meeting that? (Think GM and Ford who churned out SUV gas-guzzlers while the world went looking for something that will run on sunlight.)

4. Are your values in alignment with the needs of the current market? (Why are Hummers a bit on the nose right now?)

5. What else could you offer your current Customers that they have never thought of you for? (Google was just for searches, right?)

6. If you did a SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis right now, would it show different results to the last one - or one done a year ago? (Bankers used to think that CMOs (Consolidated Mortgage Obligations) were an "opportunity" - that changed pretty quickly!)

7. How can we do more using the people we already have? (Management often only thinks they know; the people doing the work really know. Have you asked them?)

8. What do your people think they could do to help? (Different question to the last: We're now looking for volunteers to clean, maintain, save, economise inside the business instead of paying others outside of it.)

9. If the business can't carry us all right now, what options do we have? (Look for volunteers who are happy to move to a four-day week, or job share to spend quality time with family, or move to contract work for the freedom it offers.)

10. What could we do with our systems to make us leaner, or more competitive? (One Client has refined his estimating system to control the risks associated with reducing his margin and is gaining lower-profit work that once eluded him.)

11. What could we do to steal, seduce, win our competitor's Customers over to us? (Hint: Work out what they do that ticks people off, then just promise their Customers you'll never do that! And mean it.)

12. What is the best way for us to contact our Customers with offers of value, twice as often as we do now? (One of our clients is in Childcare, and they've written to all of their mothers, urging them to tell their friends patronising an ailing competitor, how well their business is doing, and inviting them to come in for a chat!)

On our basics: 1. We're on song 2. We're reviewing them now 3. Haven't a clue!

Communicate More Often

When times are tough any vacuum in the information channel will be instantly filled by negatively-charged gossip. Gossip left unattended can become self-generating.

So, there is no better time to look at your meeting regime as your primary means of conveying information throughout the business. Don't rely on emails, as they are a blunt instrument and can actually fan an issue rather than put it out, so here's a suggested timetable of meetings:

• Daily: Five-minute stand-up gathering to swap vital information about who's doing what and progress to date and to coordinate goals for the day so that they align with your Vision and Quarterly Plan.

• Weekly: One-hour formal meeting; time limit per person; each person required to report to the group in a simple format; aimed at producing a "Do" (a clear commitment to action that is aligned with our current goals) for every item.

• Monthly: Two-four-hour review of where we are in relation to our Quarterly Plan, and where we need to be at the end of the next month. Includes issue and problem solving, and a bit of bonding.

• Quarterly: Review the quarter's progress; create the next Quarterly Plan.

In the absence of positive communication, fear fills the void.

On communications we rate: 1. Very good 2. Need improvement 3. Lousy