Stress Management for

Teams

Prof.Dr.Aung Tun Thet

Introduction

Stress

• An important part of daily living for everyone

• All need it to survive

Teams

• Need stress to perform well

• In right doses, stress very healthy, or even enjoyable

Stress

• When excessive, very damaging

• Harm: health happiness work performance team spirit and co-operation relationships personal development

Stress Management

At the simplest level

1. recognising the symptoms of stress

2. identifying the causes

3. taking action to address the causes and reduce the symptoms

4. taking interim steps to relieve the symptoms until the underlying causes addressed

“Trap”

• Neglecting steps 2 and 3 - only relieving the symptoms

• Important to recognise and address the underlying causes of stress, or the experience of stress never goes away

“Trap”

• For e.g., ‘Overwork' causing stress, resulting in headaches

• If you only address the symptoms by taking pain killers to reduce the headaches, the stress remains, and the headaches return

• If you restructure your work so you are not overworked, the headaches disappear without the need for pain killers

‘Learned’ symptoms

• Removal of the underlying causes do not always relieve the symptoms

• In the overwork example, the headaches might continue long after the problem of overwork addressed

Signs of stress

irritability headaches illness (particularly at weekends or

during holidays) insomnia tiredness/lethargy and many more ....

Hidden Stress• Experiencing it but your mind and body hiding it from

you and you are unaware of it

• Symptoms more subtle and difficult to recognise:

working endlessly without tiring having little feeling or emotion (except the occasional

outburst of anger) increased use of alcohol, caffeine, cigarettes or other

drugs (which may suppress feelings of stress) behaviour that is 'out of character' an inability to relax

Hidden Stress (cont’d)

• Catch up with you eventually• Causing more serious symptoms:

stomach ulcers heart problems minor illness (allergies, skin disorders,

migraine) serious illness (e.g. arthritis, cancer, diabetes) mental problems (e.g. depression)

“Be Strong”• Cultural or social pressures

• To acknowledge that you are under stress a sign of weakness and damage your career prospects

• Tempted to suppress your feelings of stress - a strategy of stress denial rather than stress management

Excessive stress on teamwork

• Harmful, and • Damage:

individual work performance team performance working relationships cooperation between team members team spirit

STRESS

PER

FO

RM

AN

CE STRESS/

PERFORMANCE CURVE

The more effort team members expend in managing their own stress, the less they contribute to teamwork and mutual support

Causes of stress

Factors

• Many and varied

• The “Analysis Wheel” - useful overview of causes

• Six different perspectives

Analysis Wheel

Rat

iona

l

Social/CulturalP

sycho

-

dyn

amic

Spiritual

Experiential

Bio

logi

cal

Biological • Lie in the biological make up of

your body, or the interaction of your body with the food you eat or environment you live in

• Examples: • Lack of fitness • Poor diet (e.g. deficiency of

vitamins; too much caffeine) • Allergic reaction to chemicals in

food • Genetic disorder resulting in

chemical imbalances in the body

• Changes in bodily functions, such as pregnancy, puberty, menopause, PMT or ageing

Rat

iona

lSocial/CulturalP

sycho

-

dyn

amic

Spiritual

Experiential

Bio

logi

cal

Social/Cultural • Change of social

circumstances • Pressure to conform to

social patterns of behaviour (e.g., demands on an introvert to behave in an extrovert manner)

• Conflict in relationships, absence of praise and being valued by others

• Lack of support, time to be listened to, and time for relaxation

• High-pressure job

Rat

iona

l

Social/CulturalP

sycho

-

dyn

amic

Spiritual

Experiential

Bio

logi

cal

Psychodynamic • Subconscious thoughts and

feelings, arise from childhood experiences

• Examples: • Inner conflicts not

addressed, but repressed • Encountering situations that

evoke stressful feelings experienced in childhood

• Expending effort to maintain defences in situations that threaten self-esteem

• Lack of self-awareness • Increasing self awareness

and personal growth

Rat

iona

l

Social/CulturalP

sycho

-

dyn

amic

Spiritual

Experiential

Bio

logi

cal

Rational • Interpret and evaluate the world

around; events interpreted in many ways, and influence the level of stress felt

• Examples: • Perceiving the consequences of

actions as being dangerous or threatening

• An inaccurate perception of self. • Setting standards and expectations

too high, and falling short of them• Misinterpreting the actions of others • Not having the skill or knowledge to

cope with certain situations

Rat

iona

l

Social/CulturalP

sycho

-

dyn

amic

Spiritual

Experiential

Bio

logi

cal

Experiential • What you experience, and how you

personally, react to it? • One person find a situation highly

stressful, whilst another find it stimulating or enjoyable

• Many instant pressures cause an individual to experience stress:

• Too many simultaneous demands from different people

• Environmental stresses, such as noise, cramped conditions, or cluttered surroundings.

• Needs unmet or frustrated. • The appearance of a threat to survival,

self-esteem, or identity. • Change in patterns of eating, sleeping,

time zone, relationships etc..

Rat

iona

l

Social/CulturalP

sycho

-

dyn

amic

Spiritual

Experiential

Bio

logi

cal

Spiritual

• Spiritual side to the individual• Include: • Violation of personal or

religious moral code, contravention of accepted group practice, or violation of laws ("sin")

• Lack of spiritual development • An absence of truth (e.g. self-

deception and deception of others)

• Lack of a sense of personal agency

• Lack of forgiveness

Rat

iona

l

Social/CulturalP

sycho

-

dyn

amic

Spiritual

Experiential

Bio

logi

cal

Addressing the causes of stress

Addressing stress

Cause of stress Action that can be taken to reduce stress

Need for time of privacy and solitude not being met

Find a place and a time of day when you can be on your own, or go on a retreat

Lack of fitness Engage in sport or fitness activity

Unexplained inner feelings of stress

Consult a doctor, and get referral to an appropriate specialist

Lack of skill to resolve conflict or manage demanding workload

Attend training courses in assertiveness, conflict resolution or time management

Stressful job circumstances Negotiate different working schedules

Conclusion

Analysis wheel• Useful in both

recognising the causes of stress and in planning how to address them

• Each perspective offers a different way of explaining the origins of stress

• Do not necessarily provide 'either..or' explanations

Rat

iona

lSocial/CulturalP

sycho

-

dyn

amic

Spiritual

Experiential

Bio

logi

cal

Complementary and different views of the same cause

• For e.g., if someone looking after a large number of children find it stressful, the different perspectives offer complementary explanations:

• Psychodynamic: Children invoking unpleasant memories from childhood (e.g., bullied by a large group of children)

• Experiential: The person an introvert, and find external demands difficult to cope with

• Rational: The person fearful that they are not able to cope • Biological: Chemical imbalances in the brain causing

unpleasant feelings • Social/Cultural: No support from others in the difficult

period, or a lack of skill in dealing with large groups of children

• Spiritual: Unable to find an inner peace, and in inner turmoil

Different Explanations

• Not totally independent• Integrated or intertwined

Like several strands of spaghetti on the same plate - you cannot alter one without moving the whole plateful

Example• The person, naturally an extrovert, become introverted as a result of

bullying in childhood

• Inner preference for extroversion in conflict with a self-perception of introversion, which contributes to a lack of inner peace

• The person fearful that they cannot cope because they do not have inner peace.

• The individual feelings of not coping based in past feelings that he/she did not cope well when bullied in childhood

• A relationship between the defence mechanisms formed whilst being bullied, and chemical imbalances in the brain

• Because the individual behave in an introvert manner, a network of

friends to provide support not built up

Stress Management

• Bear the Analysis Wheel in mind

• Consider stress from a number of perspectives

Rat

iona

l

Social/CulturalP

sycho

-

dyn

amic

Spiritual

Experiential

Bio

logi

cal

Summary

Stages involved in managing stress

1. Recognising the symptoms of stress

2. Identifying the causes 3. Taking action to address the

causes and reduce the symptoms

4. Taking interim steps to relieve the symptoms until the underlying causes addressed

Analysis Wheel

• Helps identify the causes,

• and solutions of Stress

Rat

iona

l

Social/CulturalP

sycho

-

dyn

amic

Spiritual

Experiential

Bio

logi

cal