Management Blog

Stress Management Techniques

Came across this today. Is there any truth in this?

Handling Stress

A young lady confidently walked around the room while leading and explaining stress management to an audience; with a raised glass of water, and everyone knew she was going to ask the ultimate question, 'half empty or half full?'..... she fooled them all...
"How heavy is this glass of water?", she inquired with a smile.

Answers called out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes." She continued, "and that's the way it is with stress. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on."

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden - holding stress longer and better each time practiced. So, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don't carry them through the evening and into the night... pick them up tomorrow.

Whatever burdens you're carrying now, let them down for a moment. Relax, pick them up later after you've rested. Life is short. Enjoy it and the now 'supposed' stress that you've conquered!"


  1 * Accept the fact that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue!

  2 * Always keep your words soft and sweet, just in case you have to eat them.

  3 * Always read stuff that will make you look good if you die in the middle of it.

  4 * Drive carefully... It's not only cars that can be recalled by their Maker.

  5 * If you can't be kind, at least have the decency to be vague.

  6 * If you lend someone £20 and never see that person again, it was probably worth it.

  7 * It may be that your sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others.

  8 * Never buy a car you can't push.

  9 * Never put both feet in your mouth at the same time, because then you won't have a leg to stand on.

10 * Nobody cares if you can't dance well. Just get up and dance.

11 * Since it's the early worm that gets eaten by the bird, sleep late.

12 * The second mouse gets the cheese.

13 * When everything's coming your way, you're in the wrong lane.

14 * Birthdays are good for you. The more you have, the longer you live.

15 * You may be only one person in the world, but you may also be the world to one person.

16 * Some mistakes are too much fun to make only once.

17 * We could learn a lot from crayons. Some are sharp, some are pretty and some are dull. Some have weird names and all are different colors, but they all have to live in the same box.

18 * A truly happy person is one who can enjoy the scenery on a detour.


For more information visit the Call of the Wild website

 

How Resilient is Your Organisation?

“European shares touched a new 11-month low on Thursday, indicating a gloomy outlook for the global economy” The Telegraph 4th Aug 2011

This is just one of hundreds of headlines, articles and academic papers underlying the extremely difficult global circumstances in which we as commercial organisations have to trade in the short to medium term.

The real question is how resilient is your organisation?

Many of the pressures and stressors arising from the financial crisis are completely out of our control as individuals and organisations; therefore the way we deal and thrive within this pressured environment is the key to the ability to succeed in difficult times.

The concept of Mental Toughness accurately predicts how individuals and organisations are able to cope with the pressure and stressors of the work environment. Developed by Dr Peter Clough in Hull University the MTQ 48 tool assesses the ability to thrive when placed under pressure. It has been taken by many thousands of individuals from every level within many organisations and has been found to be a reliable and accurate measure of resilience in the face of challenge.

The Call of the Wild one day Mental Toughness workshop has been developed as a response to these difficult times. The workshop acts an introduction to the concept and illustrates how the tool will help to identify and develop the levels of Mental Toughness required within your organisation.

By the end of the workshop each individual will have had the chance to explore their own MTQ report and the subsequent implications both for them and their organisations.

The background and applications of Mental Toughness will be covered with a particular focus on the use of MTQ48 as a development tool.

Read on for more information about of mental toughness workshops.

Emotional Intelligence Versus Real Intelligence

You don’t have to be bright just control those emotions writies Adrian Furnham, Professor of Psychology at University of London in  Times newspaper (3rd July). He argues that emotional intelligence is not as important as we have been led to believe by many commentators over the last 20 years. Real intelligence (cognitive ability) is more important.

“Intelligence unlocks the doors of education which gives the knowledge and skills to acquire jobs.  Certainly soft skills help,  but they are little use without the horse-power of intelligence.”

 Emotional intelligence is quite simply an awareness of our own and others emotions. More importantly it is about emotional management: the ability to regulate and control your feelings to suit the situation. And crucially at work it is about managing others’s emotions. “It is about:-

• inspiring the downhearted
• dissipating anger
• calming fears

It is an important skill but without real intelligence will only get you so far. Overall brighter people do beter. But how is it that averagely  intelligent people can do so well. Furnham says there are 3 reasons:-

1.Success in some jobs is not linked to intelligence

Sales is one example You have to be motivatedand resilieint rather than bright.

2.People Inherit Jobs far above their Ability level

Nepotism remains rife in many organisations and peole can be gifted jobs by realtives or friends.

 3. Ability is Never Actually Revealed

 There are situations where incompetence is never actually revealed or tested. Working for an organisation where output is never measured means an average employee may never be found out

 And what about the super-smart who don’t make it? Furnham suggests that one of the main reasons is that, and this is the point of emotional intellignce lobby, some bright people fail because they are not good at social relationships. You have to work with and through your people. You have to motivate and inspire them. People can be too clever by half and dismissive of those around them who are too slow to understand concepts. They are good with ideas bad with people.

 How often have you heard this said about people in your organisation?  How do you address this well in our opinion by raising self-awareness on the part of the individual. Are they aware they have certain behaviours and  preferences for how they interact with colleagues. Do they realise they have to adapt thier style depending on the situation and the individuals. This is where training and development can be so important.

For more information on emotional intelligence visit the Call of the Wild website

 

 

 

 

Increasing Importance of Staff Assessment Centres

 Management and staff assessment centres and development centres offer a robust method of selecting and developing new or potential managers and staff within an organisation. The aim of such centres is to present the selected individuals with an environment that reflects the reality of the roles they have applied for and therefore should provide the individuals with a wide range of opportunities to demonstrate the competencies required.

This was reinforced again last week with a programme we ran. It could clearly be seen that an assessment before employing people would have proved extremely valuable, especially when times are difficult with training budgets being squeezed.

In view of the current state of the economy we undertsand that it is more important than ever to develop  and recruit the right people to ensure they provide a return on your investment in them at the earliest opportunity. Call of the Wild have therefore now developed a programme to assist clients with recruitment and development of new and existing staff. The aim is to reduce costs for the client through the selection of individuals with approprite skill sets and behaviours best suited to the needs of the job. This avoids costly probabtion periods during which it is discovered that the individuals are not appropriate for the position.

A well-designed assessment or development centre starts with a list of competencies required within a specific role and breaks these down into observable and measurable behaviours. A programme can then be developed which utilises a variety of inputs, allowing individuals to be fairly assessed against a set criteria by trained observers.

 For an assessment centre to be fair it is essential that a number of different inputs be built in allowing delegates a number of opportunities to demonstrate or develop the required behaviours. A typical assessment centre programme may include the following inputs;

• Interviews
• Behavioural profiling
• Experiential learning tasks
• Role Playing
• Presentations
• Data Analysis
• Group Discussions

 At Call of the Wild Experiential learning lies at the heart of our programmes. Carefully selected team tasks are utilised, allowing observers to assess the behaviours of each participant in a real (not realistic) situation. Facilitated review of each task allows further exploration of management style, behaviours, decision making, team working , problem solving and  and adds depth to the assessment of each individual.

 

For more information visit our website on team building, development, leadership and personal development including apprentice key skills, recruitment assessment, and graduate training

Stress Management Techniques

Just in case you are having a rough day, here is a stress management technique recommended in all the latest psychological journals...

Just follow the 7 steps below. The funny thing is that it really does work...


1. Picture yourself lying on your belly on a warm rock that hangs out over a crystal clear stream.

2. Picture yourself with both your hands dangling in the cool running water.

3. Birds are sweetly singing in the cool mountain air.

4. No one knows your secret place.

5. You are in total seclusion from that hectic place called the world.

6. The soothing sound of a gentle waterfall fills the air with a cascade of serenity.

7. The water is so crystal clear that you can easily make out the face of the person you are holding underwater..!!

let us know if you try this technique and it works for you!

Understanding Emotional Intelligence

Emotional Intelligenc or  EI is a relatively recent behavioural model, rising to prominence with Daniel Goleman's 1995 Book called 'Emotional Intelligence'.

Many people work with a distinction between logic and emotion. Logic is good. Emotion is bad. Business is supposed to run on logic and emotions (especially in others) should be ignored, allowed to pass or patiently endured.

The concept of emotional intelligence brings feelings into the centre of business life. Now, in fact, we have long known that they are central. A person with intelligence as usually defined, is someone who knows things, can work out things, can see connections, can analyse in a logical way. We tend to use the word in an intellectual sense but there are many other forms of intelligence.
People said to have emotional intelligence can control and understand their own emotions and more importantly are able to connect with others' feelings, to comprehend them, to reflect them and to treat them as important.

The early Emotional Intelligence theory was originally developed during the 1970's and 80's by the work and writings of psychologists Howard Gardner (Harvard), Peter Salovey (Yale) and John Mayer (New Hampshire). Emotional Intelligence is increasingly relevant to the development of people and organisations because  EI  provides a new way to understand and assess people's behaviours, management styles, attitudes, interpersonal skills, and potential.

Why Is it Important

Emotional Intelligence is an important consideration in human resources planning, job profiling, recruitment interviewing and selection, management development, customer relations and customer service, and more.

Emotional intelligence - the five domains

Goleman identified the five 'domains' of EQ as:

1. Knowing your emotions.
2. Managing your own emotions.
3. Motivating yourself.
4. Recognising and understanding other people's emotions.
5. Managing relationships, ie., managing the emotions of others.

Further reading

1.Emotional Intelligence on Wiki

2. Daniel Goleman

3. Call of the Wild and Emotional Intelligence

Transactional Analysis - Ego States

Dr Barrie Kennard discussing Transactional Analysis with Hasbro for Call of the Wild.

For more on leadership development visit the Call of the Wild website

How to Apply Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs to the Workplace

Many of you will be familiar with Abraham Maslow's theory - Hierarchy of Needs. Maslow argued that people motivate themselves as a result of a desire to satisfy various needs. At the most basic level they have physiological needs such as food, drink and sleep. Next comes "security". As a leader today you are not likely to be faced with employees motivated by these very basic needs.

As leaders what are more relevant are what Maslow defines as the higher needs which influence behaviour. These he divides into 3 groups

Social Needs

• Sense of belonging
• Social activity
• Affection

Self-Esteem Needs

• Self-respect
• Status
• Esteem of others

Self-Fulfilment Needs

• Growth
• Personal development
• Accomplishment
• Creativity

1.Applying Sense of Belonging

This realtes to having a consistent and professionalism approach to the induction of employees. A ggod induction process is key to making people feel part of the operation. Things such as Company ethos and mission statement are of fundamental importance moving forward for new staff. A poor induction or no induction can result in demotivation and an early departure.

2. Applying Social Activity

You don't have to go drinking with your staff every night! This requires you to create opportunities for shared time in a social environment even if this is just a place where they can have their lunch together. The importance of social events cannot be underestimated as they provide an opportunity for shared experiences and the building of relationships which have value back in the workplace. Every opportunity should be taken to reward staff and celebrate success. This develops that sense of belonging to the group rather than being an individual outside the group

3. Applying Self-Respect and Status

These can be enhanced by using the right communication techniques. Respect commands respect so adopt a courteous and respectful attitude. Respect also encourages self-respect.Praise and support can also help.

4. Applying the Principle of Self-Fulfilment Needs

This can be achieved by preparing personal development plans.

For more information on personal development visit the Call of the Wild website.

 

 

 

Coaching Your Employees - Why You Should Do It

The success of managers depends on the performance of their staff and there are many situations in the workplace where coaching can be used:

• To improve performance in the day to day job role
• To raise an individuals awareness of themselves and their capabilities
• To empower individuals take on more responsibilities
• To deal with an underperformance issue
• For career planning/personal development purposes
• To support traditional training interventions and help maintain good performance
• To reduce the cost of sending staff on external training (from both a cost and time perspective)
• To motivate the staff member
• To facilitate and support an organisational change
• To improve staff retention by providing tailored and focused development

Coaching should be seen as an investment, like buying a new computer system, and this investment should lead to success for the individual and organisation.  If, as a manager, you invest time in coaching your staff properly, then the benefits you will gain will include:

• A more productive and efficient department/team
• Development of your own management skills
• Greater awareness of your team’s strengths and weaknesses
• A reputation as a good ‘people manager'
• Less time on time consuming fire fighting and more time to develop yourself

Now, some staff members may not want to be coached, they may feel that you are interfering and are expecting more work from them.  They may feel demotivated by it, which if done incorrectly or for the wrong reasons, could be a possibility.  However, coaching is a skill and if done correctly should do the opposite.  Very few staff want to do a bad job, so any help provided to help them perform better, can only be positive.  In some organisations performance is linked to pay, so why would staff not want to be coached as part of their own self development?

Coaching requires a different type of management approach and those with a naturally autocratic style may not find it easy, thinking that it is easier just to tell staff what to do rather than all this coaching stuff!  However, if done properly, coaching is good for business.

For more information visit our website

Related Themes

Assessment & behaviours

Listening Skills

Behaviours and Psychometric Testing

One of the objectives of psychometric testing has been to predict performance based upon psychological characteristics. Two major categories of psychometric instruments are:-

•  tests of intelligence ;and
•  personality.

Both of these have a long history of predicting behavioural outcomes.

Intelligence tests, for example, were originally used to identify learning disability among school children while personality tests were geared primarily toward the prediction of dysfunctional behaviour. Following their broader adoption during the two world wars, these techniques gained prominence as tools for assessing performance ability and facilitating job placement.

While psychometric testing and performance prediction have evolved considerably over the past 100 years, their value is often underappreciated. This article highlights a lesson from this broad field – that research on performance prediction has taught us the importance of (a) choosing the right people and (b) using the right tools to do so.

Price’s Law & The Right People

Most people would agree that in a competitive environment, the most qualified individual should be chosen for a given position. However, there are many obstacles to the real-world implementation of this meritocratic ideal. One such obstacle is the fact that people tend to underestimate the massive performance and productivity differences that exist between individuals.

A powerful illustration of this is codified in ‘Price’s Law’ which describes the unequal distribution of productivity in any creative domain. According to this formula:

the square root of the number of people working in field produce 50 percent of the total output.

For example, if there were 100 scientists working on a problem, the 10 most productive would produce the same amount of material as the remaining 90.

This concentration of creative work becomes even more pronounced at the highest ends of the productivity distribution. The most prolific individuals within a domain generate disproportionately larger shares of the total output.

Although Price’s Law was originally used to describe the unequal distribution of creative output, its message extends to non-creative work as well.