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5 Ways to Stay Cool Under Pressure

Written by: Sylvia Lafair

Article Overview: How do you manage the office stress, the added holiday stress, and keep everyone chugging along and engaged in their work? Read on to gain five ways to manage stress, utilizing the latest techniques of neuropsychology. And this season especially, when so many employees are feeling the pinch of financial difficulties, helping them learn how to face tensions and tough emotions and learning from them, is the sign of a successful leader.

5 Ways to Stay Cool Under Pressure

One of the key jobs of successful leadership is to monitor workplace relationships and help employees get along at work. During this holiday season, people issues seem to escalate and the best workplace cultures are those that can regulate stress in the same way that the temperature in the office is monitored and regulated. We now know enough about brain physiology that we can do a great deal to modulate team conflict and improve the essential people skills to get along in a more productive way.

We can literally talk to ourselves in shorthand to make changes happen quickly and effectively.

Here are five ways that workplace leadership can take the bull by the horns and have everyone start to change their minds in the blink of an eye.

• Situation selection: we can decide where to put our focus by asking ourselves, or each other "what do I/you want as an outcome of this discussion"?

• Better solution search: we can take time to write down or discuss alternative choices for the outcome of the present tension. When we focus on intentions that will create a better outcome for the largest number of people, we are thinking in systems' terms, and positive emotions begin to stream into the room.

• Sing it: that's right, go into a quiet place, even a closet if need be, and sing the annoying conflict situation. It is amazing how many nuances come clear and how this bit of whimsy opens creative parts of the brain to help bring new perspectives to mind.

• Write it: Singing not your thing? Then write a poem. Haiku, which is short and simple to do, often gives better solutions after one or two attempts. Haiku is an ancient Japanese form of three lines. Line one has five syllables, line two has seven and line three has five. It can be about anything, although usually there is some reference to nature, clouds, rain, sun, etc.

• Reappraisal: Reinterpret the meaning of what is going on - depersonalize and see the situation as if you were watching a play so you can see beyond the concrete, visceral setting of the moment.

Research indicates that it is mentally taxing to suppress feelings. They are the most difficult part of working together. It is like taming a lion and then getting that lion to do your bidding. There is great power in being a leader who models depth of emotion and then exhibits ways to keep this feisty beast from taking over.

I believe all leadership and executive programs would do best to include a module on taming the beast of emotions, rather than attempting to avoid or deny them. And this season especially, when so many employees are feeling the pinch of financial difficulties, helping them learn how to face tensions and tough emotions and learning from them is the sign of a successful leader.

Related Articles
  Leadership and Practicing Safe Stress
  Keeping the Change Process Cool
  How to Handle the Heat - Insurance Sales Training
  Remedies for High Blood Pressure
  Why this Common Sales Mistake is Costing You More Sales than You Realize

Article Tags: emotions, feeling the pinch, financial difficulties, holiday stress, neuropsychology, Stay Cool Under Pressureways to manage stress, Successful Leaders, tensions



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