Unit - 4
Work-Place Skills
Stress is the way human beings react both physically and mentally to changes, events, and situations in their lives. People experience stress in different ways and for different reasons.
The reaction is based on the perception of an event or situation. If it is viewing a situation negatively, you will likely feel distressed—overwhelmed, oppressed, or out of control. Distress is the more familiar form of stress. The other form, eustress, results from a “positive” view of an event or situation, which is why it is also called “good stress.”
Managing Stress
As noted in the Introduction, you can learn to manage stress. The first step is understanding yourself better—how you react in different situations, what causes you stress, and how you behave when you feel stressed. Once you’ve done that, take the following steps:
Set priorities. Use the time-management tips. Make a To-Do list. Decide what is really important to get done today, and what can wait. This helps you to know that you are working on your most immediate priorities, and you don’t have the stress of trying to remember what you should be doing. Practice facing stressful moments. Think about the event or situation you expect to face and rehearse your reactions. Find ways to practice dealing with the challenge. If you know that speaking in front of a group frightens you, practice doing it, perhaps with a trusted friend or fellow student. If the pressure of taking tests causes you to freeze up, buy some practice tests at the school bookstore or online and work with them when there are no time pressures.
Examine your expectations. Try to set realistic goals. It’s good to push yourself to achieve, but make sure your expectations are realistic. Watch out for perfectionism. Be satisfied with doing the best you can. Nobody’s perfect—not you, not your fellow Cadet, nobody.
Allow people the liberty to make mistakes, and remember that mistakes can be a good teacher.
Live a healthy lifestyle. Get plenty of exercise. Eat healthy foods. Allow time for rest and relaxation. Find a relaxation technique that works for you—prayer, yoga, meditation, or breathing exercises. Look for the humor in life, and enjoy yourself.
Learn to accept change as a part of life. Nothing stays the same. Develop a support system of friends and relatives you can talk to when needed. Believe in yourself and your potential. Remember that many people from disadvantaged backgrounds have gone on to enjoy great success in life.
At the same time, avoid those activities that promise release from stress while actually adding to it. Drinking alcohol (despite what all those TV commercials imply), drinking caffeine, smoking, using narcotics (including marijuana), and overeating all add to the body’s stress in addition to their other harmful effects.
Here are some other strategies for dealing with stress:
• Schedule time for vacation, breaks in your routine, hobbies, and fun activities.
• Try to arrange for uninterrupted time to accomplish tasks that need your concentration. Arrange some leisure time during which you can do things that you really enjoy.
• Avoid scheduling too many appointments, meetings, and classes back-to-back. Allow breaks to catch your breath. Take a few slow, deep breaths whenever you feel stressed. Breathe from the abdomen and, as you exhale, silently say to yourself, “I feel calm.”
• Become an expert at managing your time. Read books, view videos, and attend seminars on time management. Once you cut down on time wasters, you’ll find more time to recharge yourself.
• Learn to say “no.” Setting limits can minimize stress. Spend time on your main responsibilities and priorities rather than allowing other people’s priorities or needs to dictate how you spend your time.
• Exercise regularly to reduce muscle tension and promote a sense of well-being.
• Tap into your support network. Family, friends, and social groups can help when dealing with stressful events.
When we feel the effects of stress weighing us down, it's like lugging a backpack that's becoming heavier by the minute. Too much stress can make our journey through life difficult.
Happy events, such as a wedding, as well as unhappy events, such as overwork, can cause stress. When your stress level exceeds your ability to cope, you need to restore the balance by reducing the stressors or increasing your ability to cope or both. Try using one of the four A's: avoid, alter, accept or adapt.
Avoid
Believe it or not, you can simply avoid a lot of stress. Plan ahead, rearrange your surroundings and reap the benefits of a lighter load.
Take control of your surroundings. Is the traffic insane? Leave early for work or take the longer, less traveled route. Hate waiting in line at the corporate cafeteria? Pack your lunch and eat at your desk or in a break room.
Avoid people who bother you. If you have a co-worker who causes your jaw to tense, put physical distance between the two of you. Sit far away at meetings or walk around his or her cubicle, even if it requires some extra steps.
Learn to say no. You have a lot of responsibilities and demands on your time. At a certain point, you cross the line between being charitable and being foolish. Turn down the neighborhood sports league. Pass on coaching T-ball. Those around you will appreciate more time with a relaxed you. And you'll have time to enjoy them, too.
Ditch part of your list. Label your to-do list with A's, B's and C's, according to importance. On hectic days, scratch the C's from your list.
However, some problems can't be avoided. For those situations, try another technique.
Alter
One of the most helpful things you can do during times of stress is to take inventory, then attempt to change your situation for the better.
Respectfully ask others to change their behavior. And be willing to do the same. Small problems often create larger ones if they aren't resolved. If you're tired of being the target of a friend's jokes at parties, ask him or her to leave you out of the comedy routine. In return, be willing to enjoy his or her other jokes and thank him or her for humoring you.
Communicate your feelings openly. Remember to use "I" statements, as in, "I feel frustrated by shorter deadlines and a heavier workload. Is there something we can do to balance things out?"
Manage your time better. Lump together similar tasks — group your phone calls, car errands and computer-related tasks. The reward of increased efficiency will be extra time.
State limits in advance. Instead of stewing over a colleague's nonstop chatter, politely start the conversation with, "I've got only five minutes to cover this."
Accept
Sometimes we may have no choice but to accept things the way they are. For those times try to:
Talk with someone. You may not be able to change a frustrating situation, but that doesn't mean your feelings aren't legitimate. Phone or schedule a coffee break with an understanding friend. You may feel better after talking it out.
Forgive. It takes energy to be angry. Forgiving may take practice, but by doing so you will free yourself from burning more negative energy. Why stew in your anger when you could shrug and move on?
Practice positive self-talk. It's easy to lose objectivity when you're stressed. One negative thought can lead to another, and soon you've created a mental avalanche. Be positive. Instead of thinking, "I am horrible with money, and I will never be able to control my finances," try this: "I made a mistake with my money, but I'm resilient. I'll get through it."
Learn from your mistakes. There is value in recognizing a "teachable moment." You can't change the fact that procrastination hurt your performance, but you can make sure you set aside more time in the future.
Adapt
Thinking you can't cope is one of the greatest stressors. That's why adapting — which often involves changing your standards or expectations — can be most helpful in dealing with stress.
Adjust your standards. Do you need to vacuum and dust twice a week? Would macaroni and cheese be an unthinkable substitute for homemade lasagna? Redefine success and stop striving for perfection, and you may operate with a little less guilt and frustration.
Practice thought-stopping. Stop gloomy thoughts immediately. Refuse to replay a stressful situation as negative, and it may cease to be negative.
Reframe the issue. Try looking at your situation from a new viewpoint. Instead of feeling frustrated that you're home with a sick child, look at it as an opportunity to bond, relax and finish a load of laundry.
Adopt a mantra. Create a saying such as, "I can handle this," and mentally repeat it in tough situations.
Create an assets column. Imagine all of the things that bring you joy in life, such as vacation, children and pets. Then call on that list when you're stressed. It will put things into perspective and serve as a reminder of life's joys.
Look at the big picture. Ask yourself, "Will this matter in a year or in five years?" The answer is often no. Realizing this makes a stressful situation seem less overwhelming.
What Is Resilience?
Resilience empowers people to accept and adapt to situations and move forward.
What is resilience, why is it so important, and how do you know if you’re resilient enough?
Resilience is typically defined as the capacity to recover from difficult life events. “It’s your ability to withstand adversity and bounce back and grow despite life’s downturns.
Resilience is not a trampoline, where you’re down one moment and up the next. It’s more like climbing a mountain without a trail map. It takes time, strength, and help from people around you, and you’ll likely experience setbacks along the way. But eventually you reach the top and look back at how far you’ve come.
What does it mean to be resilient?
Resilience is the ability to withstand adversity and bounce back from difficult life events. Being resilient does not mean that people don’t experience stress, emotional upheaval, and suffering. Some people equate resilience with mental toughness, but demonstrating resilience includes working through emotional pain and suffering.
Why is resilience important?
Resilience is important because it gives people the strength needed to process and overcome hardship. Those lacking resilience get easily overwhelmed, and may turn to unhealthy coping mechanisms. Resilient people tap into their strengths and support systems to overcome challenges and work through problems.
Cognitive (Thought) and behavioral flexibility permit the appropriate adjustment of thoughts and behaviour in response to changing environmental demands. Brain mechanisms enabling flexibility have been examined using non-invasive neuroimaging and behavioural approaches in humans alongside pharmacological and lesion studies in animals.
Flexibility of thought 'allows us to imagine situations outside our immediate daily routine' (National Autistic Society). Differences with flexibility of thought can manifest themselves in obsessive, repetitive routines and behaviors. Behavioral flexibility refers to the adaptive change in the behavior of an animal, in response to changes in the external or internal environment. Ongoing behavior (which might include inactivity) is stopped or modified and new behavior is initiated.
Behavioral flexibility refers to the adaptive change in the behavior of an animal, in response to changes in the external or internal environment. Ongoing behavior (which might include inactivity) is stopped or modified and new behavior is initiated.
Tolerance and Self-belief
Tolerance
Tolerance means accepting everyone's opinions without fighting. Its Importance is very necessary for a peaceful and loving environment. Those people who do not have the ability of tolerance often get angry on conflicting issues and destroys the tranquility of the place. Tolerance is being patient, understanding and accepting of anything different.
An example of tolerance is Muslims, Christians and Atheists being friends. The ability of an organism to resist or survive infection by a parasitic or pathogenic organism.
What is Self-Belief?
Fig 1 Self belief
Self-belief (or self-efficacy) is a person’s belief in their ability to complete tasks and to achieve their goals (Bandura, 1995).
Self-belief motivates people to explore their potentials and this motivation may lead to the achievement of goals and aspirations. Self-belief means that a person should have enough self-confidence to change, but not over-estimate the abilities, as that could become a fixed mindset attitude.
An individual should be willing to grow and adapt but still have ideas about the strengths and weaknesses so that one can work on the weaker areas.
Fig 2 Team Communication
Communication affects teamwork in positive and negative ways. The quantity and quality of communication within a team and from leadership affects teamwork.
For there to be efficient teamwork, communication has to be at its best. A team is able to work well together through good communication. If communication between team members is poor, there is likely to unnecessary tension and anxiety. This is one of the most important reasons why businesses should encourage their employees to clearly communicate with one another when working together.
When a team is able to communicate well, it saves time that may have otherwise been lost to misinterpretation. A breakdown in team communication can be very detrimental leading to taking of incorrect actions. The downside of this is that the team has to stop to address the problem before carrying on. When correct messages are sent and received through and effective team communication network, proper actions can be taken and tasks completed on or even ahead of schedule.
It is important for a team to keep up with changes in the working environment as the business world is constantly changing. Effective team communication enables team members to keep up with the changes as information is shared efficiently. Each member of the team is well informed of any changes in time to make necessary adjustments.
In the presence of an effective communication network, team members feel important and confident that their opinions count. This is a great source
of motivation and satisfaction that encourages team members to continue adding input for the achievement of joint objectives. In the long run, the team is able to utilize all its resources to complete tasks and projects.
An efficient communication system brings together people from different backgrounds with varying ideologies. This creates understanding among teammates for the greater good. The diversity is easily converted into an advantage based on mutual understanding that facilitates progress. Eventually, the entire network is able to benefit from synergy.
Effective teams need to work together towards the achievement of organizational objectives. A team leader will need to work with the team so as to establish ground rules on how to bring the team together. This is an essential step of helping the team build relationships and work together. When communication skills are strong, there are higher chances that good ideas and best practices will be openly shared among team members. Teams that establish a supportive environment among them are in a better position to learn from the best practices of the group.
Compassion:
Compassion is being able to be with someone or a situation without judging it. It is about creating and holding the space for what needs attention. It is about being there as a resource that might help, but not necessarily needs to fix things.
Compassion is also not the same as sympathy or empathy, which usually weakens one of the involved parties. Compassion is not having pity, but seeing the strength of others and keep the focus on it.
Compassion is about being equal as human beings. In the workplace this means that we make a distinction between having different roles (with different tasks and decision-making responsibilities) and being equal as a human being.
Compassion is the quality of having positive intentions and real concern for others.
Leadership is having a vision, creating energy, inspiring others, being a change agent, a coach and a facilitator.
So, it is something else that managing a team or an organization. Managing means getting results with the available resources. It is about organizing, planning, processes and procedures.
Compassion in leadership creates stronger connections between people. It improves collaboration, raises levels of trust, and enhances loyalty. The people who have increased both their compassion level and leadership skills, are called Compassionate Leaders.
What are communication skills?
Communication skills are the abilities you use when giving and receiving different kinds of information. Some examples include communicating new ideas, feelings or even an update on your project. Communication skills involve listening, speaking, observing and empathizing. It is also helpful to understand the differences in how to communicate through face-to-face interactions, phone conversations and digital communications like email and social media.
The ability to communicate effectively with superiors, colleagues, and staff is essential, no matter what industry you work in. Workers in the digital age must know how to effectively convey and receive messages in person as well as via phone, email, and social media.
Listening and Responding
Listening is the ability to accurately receive and interpret messages in the communication process.
Listening is key to all effective communication. Without the ability to listen effectively, messages are easily misunderstood. As a result, communication breaks down and the sender of the message can easily become frustrated or irritated.
The importance of listening extends far beyond academic and professional settings. Understanding how to practice good communication even in your day-to-day life, among friends, family, and significant others, is important for a number of reasons: fostering good self-esteem, maximizing productivity, improving relationships, and even becoming a better speaker.
It’s easy to mistake listening as a simple, passive task, but it requires more than just the ability to absorb information from someone else. Listening is a process, and an active one.
LISTENING AND RESPONDING
Responses
How communicator and other members of the group respond to questions or statements will either foster or fizzle discussion. Here are some tips on how to respond appropriately to questions or comments made by group members.
Affirming Responses
These responses acknowledge each person’s value. They promote intimacy and openness. Such responses send a strong signal to group members, telling them they have been heard, understood, and respected.
Examples:
“I understand this sharing is painful for you. I am feeling very sad for the way you were treated by that person this week.”
“Bill, I realize you want to talk, but it important that we listen to what Steven has shared, and attempt to support and encourage him during this time of great decision.”
Participatory Responses
These responses invite others to join in the discussion. They not only affirm a participant’s sharing, but also invite others to engage in the process. Participatory responses do not isolate group members by shaming, embarrassing, or lecturing them.
Examples:
“Sam, that was terrific insight; could you share how you came up with that.”
“Bill has shared some deep feelings today. How would others of you have responded if you were in his shoes?”
Paraphrasing or “Going Deeper” Responses
Paraphrasing allows you to repeat the thoughts of others and enables them to share more deeply. It summarizes what has been heard and allows the group to explore personal feelings, thoughts, and actions.
Examples:
“That was a very painful episode in your childhood, wasn’t it, Greg? How did you deal with it? How do you face it today?”
These kinds of responses—affirming, participatory, and paraphrasing—will enable to value members while encouraging to express feelings, thoughts, and personal concerns.
What are speaking skills?
Speaking skills are defined as the skills which allow us to communicate effectively. They give us the ability to convey information verbally and in a way that the listener can understand.
Speaking is an interactive process where information is shared, and if necessary, acted upon by the listener. So, it’s important to develop both speaking and listening skills in order to communicate effectively.
Speaking skills are one of the most important skills that is learned, as it allows to communicate with others and to express thoughts and feelings. Speaking skills can be separated into formal and informal speaking skills, as both types of speaking skills are useful in a variety of contexts throughout life.
THE FOUR SPEAKING SKILLS
Fig 3 Speaking skills
It is a common desire for all of us to speak a second language well. To do this we need to know what skills are required to become a good speaker. The four important skills that are needed to develop:
Positive Thinking
Positive thinking, or an optimistic attitude, is the practice of focusing on the good in any given situation. It can have a big impact on your physical and mental health.
Positive thinking is a way of processing information with an optimistic outlook. Great positive thinkers understand that life can be challenging, but they approach challenges with determination rather than defeat. They move forward decisively and seek help when they need it to get the job done. Since they believe in themselves and their abilities, as well as the abilities of others they work with, positive thinkers feel confident that they can conquer whatever obstacles they encounter.
Positive thinking has several great benefits for your career. It impacts the way to think about the work and the way the colleagues and customers are perceived.
The human brain is a complex network that supports mental function.
Mind control, or brainwashing, is the concept that the human mind can be altered or controlled by certain psychological techniques.
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