How To Keep Your Cool In A Heated Working Environment
Working in general is not easy. If you work as a manager, you have the added stress of supervising others, and being responsible for their behaviour at work. Although certain employees or situations can cause you to stress out, it is never wise to lose your temper in a work setting. Follow these tips to keep your cool at the workplace. 1.Think Before Reacting – It is so easy to raise your voice at an employee that has just made a huge mistake at work. Managers often find it exasperating that staff members don’t ask enough questions, make improper assumptions, and turn in incomplete work. However, it is never a good idea to speak out of anger. Instead, good managers need to practice restraining themselves from immediate replies and taking the time to think about the best possible answer in any given situation. Psychologists always recommend closing your eyes and counting to ten in any stressful scenario. This will give you just a few seconds to calm yourself down and rationalise the situation at hand. Then, you can excuse yourself, and take the time you need to think about how to move forward. 2. Don’t Overdramatise – While all employees need to worry about their own jobs, managers have the additional responsibility of worrying about the jobs of their staff, their own bosses, the owners of the company, and possible customers or clients. That is why when staff members underperform at work, it really stresses out their managers. They are the ones that usually see the bigger picture, and will worry about how this failure can affect sales goals, launch dates, and client pitches. However worrisome a situation is, managers need to remember not to over-dramatise every failure. Don’t stress out your employees by constantly telling them that their jobs are on the line, or the company will fail due to their inefficiency. Remember that accidents, missed deadlines and screw-ups happen in every organisation, so expect the unexpected and plan for the worst. 3.Vent to Someone Else – Although you need to remain a professional at work,it is important to share your own frustrations with someone. Therefore, if you were able to keep your cool in a stressful situation, make sure to air out your grievances outside of the office. Perhaps you are friends with another supervisor at work who can commiserate with you about the stressful workload or the angry clients. If not, share your feelings with a significant other, a friend or a family member. You may also consider visiting a professional therapist once a week to air out your grievances. This will not only provide you with a safe place and a trusted party to discuss stressful situations at work, but can offer you insightful information about ways to combat stress at work. 4. Take an Anger Management Course – If you have attempted to control your temper at work, but just cannot seem to keep your cool, consider taking an anger management course. Many successful managers have done so, and reported life-changing results. These courses usually last a day or several days, and provide intensive training with various ways to deal with stress. These classes can truly transform the way you deal with other people and handle stress, in general. Although stressful situations often occur at work, managers need to take steps to keep their cool and not lose their temper. An angry boss will create a culture of fear at work, causing employees to be scared of their manager. A supervisor that takes the time to assess the real situation and then responds in a fair and calm way will promote a calm working environment, which the staff will surely appreciate. Take the steps above to learn to deal with stress at work.
