IT Managers Inbox

Quality Management System Principles For IT

Sam — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 07:19:47 +0000

For IT quality of service is not just for networks anymore. IT is now a service based organization. IT should follow quality management system practices and principles for the products and services it provides since they are vital to the performance of the business.

Most best practices used in IT today define a quality management system (QMS). A QMS defines the standards of quality used within the organization. Regardless of what best practice you follow there are certain quality management principles you should use as a guide.

ISO (International Organization for Standardization) is the world’s largest developer and publisher of International Standards. The ISO 9000 family of quality management standards and guidelines are used by companies around the world to establish and improve their quality management system.

You do not need to fully implement the ISO 9000 standards to have a QMS in your IT department. However these eight principles can be guides to set up or improve your present quality management system.

ISO 9000 Quality Management Principles

This eight part series will look at the ISO 9000 quality management principles that can be used as a foundation upon which you can build your quality management system. Here are the eight ISO 9000 quality management principles.

1. Customer Focus

Organizations depend on their customers and therefore should understand current and future customer needs, should meet customer requirements and strive to exceed customer expectations.

2. Leadership

Leaders establish unity of purpose and direction of the organization. They should create and maintain the internal environment in which people can become fully involved in achieving the organization’s objectives.

3. Involvement of People

People at all levels are the essence of an organization and their full involvement enables their abilities to be used for the organization’s benefit.

4. Process Approach

A desired result is achieved more efficiently when activities and related resources are managed as a process.

5. System Approach to Management

Identifying, understanding and managing interrelated processes as a system contributes to the organization’s effectiveness and efficiency in achieving its objectives.

6. Continual Improvement

Continual improvement of the organization’s overall performance should be a permanent objective of the organization.

7. Factual Approach to Decision Making

Effective decisions are based on the analysis of data and information.

8. Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

An organization and its suppliers are interdependent and a mutually beneficial relationship enhances the ability of both to create value

Eight Part Quality Principles Series

Read our eight part series on the quality management principles your quality management system can be based on.

Customer Focus
Leadership
Involvement of People
Process Approach
System Approach to Management
Continual Improvement
Factual Approach to Management
Mutually Beneficial Supplier Relationships

5 Ways to Stay Positive in Negative Situations

Sam — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 10:30:45 +0000

We all face negative situations in our life. Someone may say something bad about you, or something you’ve worked hard on is rejected.

During these situations it is difficult to keep a positive attitude, but we are judged by our communications so staying positive is the professional way to react to an adverse situations.

Your natural inclination is to release your inner Hulk and bash. This type of negative reaction will only make the circumstances worse with the those who caused it and you will end up filled with disappointment and anger.

You can beat negative situations by maintaining a positive attitude. The attitude you take when faced with a negative situation is a choice. In the business world maintaining a positive attitude in negative circumstances is a valuable skill to learn. It will keep your professional reputation intact and should you can handle any negative situation.

5 Rules to Help You Stay Positive

The way to beat a negative situation is to maintain a positive attitude. It is not easy and requires discipline on your part, but you can do it.. At first you may not succeed every time so consider it a training program. Eventually you will learn to control your reactions out of habit.

Rule # 1 – Control Your Response

The golden rule of staying positive in a negative situation is to control your response. Take a deep breath, count to 10, do whatever it takes to remove yourself from the negativity. Wait until you have calmed down and thought clearly about your response.

If you respond out of emotion you will only make things worse. Remember Thumper’s rule. “If you can’t say anything nice, then don’t say anything at all.” This is good advice when you find yourself in a negative situation.

Negative situations are compounded when they cause you stress. Learn how to deal with stress to eliminate the extra negativity.

Rule # 2 – Learn From Negative Situations

Look at a negative situation or event as an opportunity to learn and grow personally. Albert Einstein said “In the middle of difficulty lies opportunity.” Don’t channel your energy into a negative reaction, but into something positive that will make the situation better, not worse.

If you do react in a negatively, note it and the circumstances that caused it. Learn from it by identifying the triggers that caused your reaction so you can watch for them in the future. Train yourself so you control the situation instead of the situation controlling your actions.

Rule # 3 – If You Make a Mistake, Admit it

We are human so we all make mistakes from time to time. When you do you need to step up and admit it. One thing I told my boss a long time ago was that if I ever made a mistake he would hear it from me first. If you make a mistake that leads to a negative situation, admit to it, learn from it and move on.

Rule # 4 – Maintain a Positive View

Don’t allow your opinion of someone to become jaded by a negative situation. Keep a positive view about a person or a situation and don’t jump to conclusions. Be proactive in dealing with adverse circumstances, not reactive. If the negativity is true see rule # 3. If not then affirm what you already know about yourself and your work.

When you are working under pressure it is hard to keep a positive attitude, but often pressure is part of the job as a manager. Learning how to work under pressure will help you overcome a source of negative situations.

Rule # 5 – Accentuate The Positive.

Remember that scene in The Jungle Book where Baloo breaks into a song about staying positive?

You’ve got to accentuate the positive
Eliminate the negative
And latch on to the affirmative
Don’t mess with Mister In-Between

Words of wisdom from a dancing bear.

Emphasize you positive attitude by your actions and in your words.
Eliminate any negative thoughts generated from a negative situation. Nothing good is gained from a negative reaction.
Affirm the positive truths you know to be true about yourself and your work.
Don’t flip-flop between positive and negative. When negativity comes to you remove yourself from the situation, flip to the positive side and stay there.

Take Away

In the middle of writing this piece I had to put this into practice when the power went out for 2 1/2 hours during a thunderstorm. Rather than get mad because I had lost my writing time, I grabbed a notebook and started writing my to-do list for work tomorrow. A negative reaction to something beyond my control would have wasted time and energy.

Life will continuously present you with negative situations. You choose how you react to them. Rather than waste energy and your reputation by reacting negatively, learn to turn a negative situation into a positive. Don’t let the actions of others or circumstances turn you to the dark side of the workforce.

Keeping a positive attitude in a negative situation is hard, but if you work at it you will learn to overcome your emotional reactions. Doing so will enhance your professional appearance and show that even under negative circumstances you can control yourself and deal with an issue in a positive way.

As a manager you need to teach these rules to your reports. If you have negativity coming from team members, learn how to deal with team member personalities. Team members with a positive attitude are far more productive

Whiteboard Monday – To-Do List of Tasks, Objectives and Goals

Sam — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 10:50:50 +0000

As a manager one of the best tools you can use is a to-do list. A list of any task, objectives and goals you need to prioritize and complete. They help keep your management tasks organized and on track.

Humans are visual creatures so it is not surprising that we use so many visual tools to communicate with. One of the best visual tools in your office is a dry erase whiteboard. Since it is large and visual it makes a great place to put your to-do list.

If you are often overwhelmed by the amount of tasks, objectives and goals you have to complete, deadlines or other important items that you need to remember a to-do list can help you put it all together. If you do not use one learn how to get started using to-do lists to prioritize your management tasks, objectives and goals.

Whiteboard Monday

Every Monday you can get your week off to a good start by writing every task, objective and goal for the week on your whiteboard. I use a column taking up one-third of my whiteboard for this purpose. The top third is for goals since they are usually smaller and the bottom two-thirds are for task and objectives.

To help you better visualize and prioritize use different colors for emphasis. For instance use red for high priority and blue for everything else. You can also use numbers or symbols to prioritize.

During the week check off each task, objective or goal as they are completed. You can use a pocket list to add any new additions during the day. All through the week you will find your eyes drifting to the board which makes it such a great tool. It is large and hard to ignore.

If you do not have a whiteboard ask for one or buy it yourself. It is one of the best investments you can make for your office. A standard office size is four-foot by three-foot. Six foot by four-foot is nice. Eight foot by four-foot is even better! I like them big so I have more room for other uses.

Other good uses for your whiteboard include:

Short-term goals
Long-term goals
Mind mapping
Brainstorming
Project planning
Important reminders
A visual aid for conversations
Quick notes and reminders

Regardless of what media you use you can learn how to get things done with smarter to-do lists so they are more usable and efficient.

Whiteboard Friday

It’s Friday, the end of a hard week and your mind is already drifting into the weekend. Before you drift away take a few minutes to check your whiteboard and write down anything you need to remember next week.

I always leave a section blank for quick use. On Friday I use this section to write down all the things I want to remember the next week.

On Monday I clear off my completed goals, objectives and tasks and start my new list adding in anything I wrote on Friday that is a task, objective or goal for the new week. If you have an important email you need to follow-up on Monday learn how to convert an email into an Outlook task so you don’t forget.

Take Away

If you are a busy manager with a lot of tasks, objectives and goals to keep track of a to-do list will help keep them organized. A great way to start of your week is to write all of your tasks, objectives and goals you need to prioritize and complete for the week on your whiteboard every Monday. It is a large visual reminder that is impossible to ignore.

During the week check off items as they are completed and add new ones. Since it is large and visual you will find your eyes drifting towards it many times during the day. This is why a whiteboard works so well at keeping your tasks, objectives and goals on your mind.

If you are not a Monday morning person learn 10 ways to motivate your mind on Monday.

How To Prevent Social Loafing In The Workplace

Sam — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 10:16:00 +0000

Do you have social loafers? People who come into work each day and hook up with their friends to chat about what they did last night or over the weekend? Social loafing in the workplace is a problem that can spread and will eat away at the morale of your productive employees.

The concept of social loafing in the psychological world is when a couple of team members do all the work while others do little. The concept I want to discuss here is along those lines, but more on an individual basis. The social loafers who disrupt a productive work environment and drag other employees in with them.

Humans are social by nature so social interaction in the workplace is normal and good for morale. Your goal is to get your employees to change their behavior so they do their social loafing at the proper times, off the clock, on their breaks and their lunch.

Social Loafing In The Workplace

You come into work, fire up your computer and get started. From you office you hear conversations not related to work. You walk out and see a few employees standing around talking about what they did last night or any number of topics. What they are not doing is productive work and this becomes a problem when you see it day after day.

While social interaction is good for building relationships among employees when this type of behavior occurs daily and often you need to address the issue. It eats into the employees productivity and can lead to morale issues from coworkers who are engaged in their work.

It is likely social loafing goes on far more often than you are aware of. It becomes a habit with some employees that when the boss is not around the social loafers flock. To correct this behavior you need to change the culture in the workplace so employees know this type of behavior is not acceptable. It is time to get out of the office and get your Gemba in order.

How To Address Social Loafing

First understand that what the employees are doing is normal human behavior in the workplace. The problem is they have a misconception that when they are doing it is acceptable. You do not want to discourage employee interactions since it helps build employee relationships and build morale. What you want to do is get them to do it during the right time, off the clock, on their breaks or during lunch.

One way to correct social loafing is to use management by walking around. Just getting up out of your office and walking around your department can break up the social loafers. If you make this a practice they will learn that you will be coming around so they will be less likely to engage in social loafing.

Another way to address the issue using the management by walking around method is to engage them about the work they should be doing. This is a key part of management by walking around so it fits right in. Walk around to each employee and ask how they are doing or if they are having any issues with their work.

This lets the employee know two things. One you will be coming around and two you expect them to be engaged in their work. Do this long enough and social loafing will drop off dramatically. It is a win-win for you. You cut down on the social loafing and gain the benefit of having a better idea of the work being done and building your own relationships with your employees.

What If It Doesn’t Work?

If management by walking around does not work address then it is time to discuss the issue face-to-face. Explain to them while they are on the clock they are expected to be engaged in their work and that they need to save their social interactions for breaks and lunches. Dig a little deeper to see if there are other problems such as dissatisfaction with their job or another issue that goes beyond social loafing.

As long as the issue continues record each coaching session you have with them in their performance log. If all attempts fail consider moving into progressive discipline starting with an oral warning. This should be enough to jolt them into the reality that their social loafing habits will not be tolerated.

13 Sites to Download Free eBooks

Sam — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 17:41:00 +0000

eBooks have become very popular with devices such as the Kindle and the new iPad. You can get applications for your smart phone to read PDF files and eBooks from most popular book sites. There are a large selection of eBooks and many are free.

Amazon has a collection of free eBooks for their Kindle reader so be sure and check their site. You don’t have to buy a Kindle to read them. They have applications you can download for your computer, iPhone and certain smart phones that are free.

A lot of eBooks are standard PDF files so all you need is a PDF reader on your computer or port them to your Kindle or iPad and many other devices.

You can also check out a list of free eBook sites by visiting this XMarks link for free ebooks.

Sites To Find Free eBooks

Ebookee – Books you will find: Almost any book, magazine, even audio books you can imagine. Not all links work, but fresh ones usually do.
E-Books Space – Books you will find: “Computer IT, Programming Language, Software Development, Tutorial, Database Design in PDF-CHM file format.”
Ebooks Download Free – Books you will find: Management, Business, Technical, Fiction, Non-Fiction, Medical, Programming and more.
Free Book Centre – Books you will find: “Freebookcentre.net contains links to thousands of free online technical books. Which Include core computer science, networking, programming languages, Systems Programming books, Linux books and many more”
Free Computer Books – Books you will find: “Free Computer, Mathematics, Technical Books and Lecture Notes, Etc.”
Download Free PDF – Books you will find: “You’ll find a huge collection of Ebooks on various topics. Abap, Adobe, Ajax,Java, Asp, Calculus, C++, Cisco, Dream Weaver, HTML, J2ME, MBA, Networking, Oracle, PHP, Microsoft Windows, VBA, XP”
ebook 3000 – Books you will find: Business, Database, Graphic Design, Hardware, Internet, Microsoft, Web Development, Programming, Engineering, Magazine, Personality.
E-Books Directory – Books you will find: “3663 free books in 414 categories.”
Free Book Spot – Books you will find: A wide variety including Technical, Do-It-Yourself, Cooking, Dictionaries, Fiction, and more.
Free Ebooks – Books you will find: A wide variety and selection. A virtual bookstore on many topics.
Get Free Books – Books you will find: “The ebooks which you find within this site are collected from all over the net.” Including a lot of magazines, articles and white papers, but most require you to register.
Free Tech Books – Books you will find: “This site lists free online computer science, engineering and programming books, textbooks and lecture notes, all of which are legally and freely available over the Internet.”
Zillr.org – Books you will find: Mainly technical, but also a lot of links to a variety of magazines.

Disclaimer: Free does not always mean the eBooks were written and intended for free distribution. Some of these sites traffic in books, magazines and other documents that are copyrighted and not intended for free download.

Salary Calculator For IT Professionals

Sam — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 10:29:49 +0000

Have you ever wondered how your salary ranks among fellow professionals in your area? Robert Half Technology has added a salary calculator for information technology professionals. Knowing the average starting salary and salary range for a specific position is useful information.

Enter your zip code, select your area of IT, then select professionals to find salary data for you or employers to find data for your current employees and new hires.

You will be shown the average starting salary range for that position in your area. Any available jobs in your area for that position. Salary ranges in surrounding areas. Additional details such as which skills add value to the position. And an explanation of the method used.

Skills Add Value to Your Position

One interesting aspect of the results is it shows you what percentage to add to the salary range for certain IT skills. This is a good indicator of where you can invest in your training to improve your career and your earning potential. Adding to your skill sets not only make you more valuable to the company, but they can actually pay off in your salary.

Read 10 Certifications to Improve Your IT Career for more.

7% – Basic administration skills

9% – Cisco network administration skills

8% – Linux/Unix administration skills

6% – Windows 2000/Windows 2003/XP/Vista skills

7% – Windows Server 2008 skills

7% – Virtualization skills

To use the salary calculator visit the Robert Half Technology web site. Click on the Salary Center menu item and then the Robert Half Technology Salary Calculator widget. Be sure and look around the rest of their very good web site.

Knowing what your position and skills are worth in the current job market is a valuable tool for salary negotiations. If you go in with accurate data you will be more likely to come out with a better salary. This applies to those looking for work as well as those who are looking to increase their salary.

How To Manage Topic Specific Paperwork

Sam — Thu, 27 May 2010 10:30:00 +0000

As managers we must deal with a lot of paperwork and information from a variety of sources. Without a good information management system you can have a hard time finding something when you need it. The system detailed here will take all of the data on a specific subject and put it in one easy to access and portable place.

Project meetings, staff meetings, vendor meetings. Think of all of the meetings you go to and all of the paperwork that you have that deal with a specific topic. Do you ever find yourself scrambling to find notes from a meeting? Wouldn’t it be nice to pull out one folder pocket containing all of the information on a topic before you make an important phone call?

This is where a good information management system comes in. While some of our data is electronic and there are many ways to easily organize it, there are drawbacks. For one electronic data is not always portable so you can’t easily carry it with you to meetings. Regardless of how much we try to be green and go paperless, we still end up with a lot of information on paper we must deal with.

A Folder Pocket Based Information Management System

A folder based information management system works well for managers who deal with a number of projects and tasks. It allows you to consolidate all of the information you have about a particular subject in a set of folders which is then placed in one expanding file pocket.

A file pocket is expandable so it can hold all of your file folders and loose pieces of paper about a single subject. You can store it in your regular file cabinet and grab it on the way to a meeting or when you need to quickly access all of your information on that subject.

Think of all of the information you have about different projects and tasks.

Important emails
Notes from meetings
Contact lists
Documentation
Technical specifications
Meeting handouts

For example let’s use a vendor selection process to replace your current router. You will create different folders that will hold different types of information.

Folder 1 – Emails and correspondences
Folder 2 – Meeting notes and meeting handouts
Folder 3 – Contact lists and vendor information
Folder 4 – Documentation and technical specifications
Folder 5 – Requirements and SLA’s/OLA’s
Folder 6 – Everything else related, but does not belong in one of the other folders

All of these folders are placed in a folder pocket named “Replacement Router Project”. Now whenever you go to a meeting, take or make a phone call, create an email or need any documents related to this project you have all of your information in one place.

A green note here. This is a system that is paper based. You should only print out documents you need to be portable. Whenever possible use the electronic version if one is available. Any important documents that do not have electronic versions should be scanned so they can be archived.

Benefits

A folder pocket based information management system has many benefits.

All of your paper information on a specific topic is in one place
When you head out to a meeting just grab the pocket and you have all of your information
When you return from a meeting tear out the meeting notes and put it in the folder
Since they can be filed you can quickly find them when you need them
When someone calls or comes to you about a topic just open your cabinet and you have all of your information about that topic
When a project is complete or the topic is no longer needed you can file it away for future reference
No more hunting for paperwork!

This is a very simple solution to an often frustrating problem. You may already have folders with such documents in your filing system. Using a folder pocket both consolidates and makes it portable.

Do You Manage Like an Out of Control Bus Driver?

Sam — Tue, 25 May 2010 10:30:29 +0000

To reach your goals or your vision of success you need to get people onboard your bus, not run them over on the way. Don’t be so hard-charging that you actually run over your employees and colleagues on the way to your destination.

In the movie “Speed” they could not slow down or the bus would blow up. If you are a motivated and driven manager or leader you may feel this way about your goals and your own personal success. Nothing can slow you down and you will run over anyone who gets in your way.

The problem with this is two key important factors you need to help you reach your goals and achieve your vision of success are your employees and your colleagues. Not only do you need them now, but you will need them in the future. Run them over and you have a bumpy ride and will find few allies in the future.

Keep Your Employees On Your Bus

It does not matter how good of a manager or leader your are, your success is directly linked to the success of your employees. In fact you should coach your employees because their success is your success. Without them you will have a hard time meeting your goals or vision of success.

Rule #1 – Don’t throw your employees under your bus, get them onboard.

If you want to get your employees onboard there are three essential things you need to do.

Care About Your Employees – Many employees feel their manager does not care about their issues. To show you care about your employees sit down and talk with them. Engage them just as you would a friend to find our if they have any issues with their work, their co-workers and anything else. You must take care of the basic needs of your employees. This will show you care and it will open and enhance communications.
Develop a Relationship With Your Employees – Your employees don’t have to be your best friends, but you should have a good relationship with them. Sit down and ask about their family and learn what is going on in their life. You will learn things that will help you better manage and understand them and it develops that essential bond of trust.
Show Your Employees You Appreciate Them – The number one complaint employees have is the feel their work is not appreciated by their boss or their company. You should give honest praise to your employees when they do good work so they will know that their work is appreciated. It raises their morale and their productivity.

You want to inspire, encourage and empower your employees. To help get your employees onboard and keep them there learn “What Makes Employees Happy” and “Ten Things Your Employees Want”.

Don’t Run Over Colleagues

In the same way you need to get your employees on your bus to reach your goals and vision of success, you also need the help of your colleagues. Getting fellow managers and leaders onboard gives you people who can advise you and come to your aid when you need it.

Rule # 2 – Don’t run over your colleagues on the way to your destination.

Your colleagues also have goals and ambitions as well as a long memory. If you use them and abuse them they will remember and be less likely to help you now and in the future. Engage your colleagues to build a network of support for your journey.

Thank them when they give you help. Acknowledge them when their work benefits you. Build solid working relationships with them so they will be there when you need them. Having a network of colleagues onboard will help speed you to success.

Stop the Bus, Get Out and Engage

Take the time now to stop your bus, get out and engage your employees and your colleagues. Get them onboard and your bus will run smoother and you will reach your goals and your vision of success.

When you take the time to do this your employees and colleagues will be more likely to stay on your bus, work harder, give you more loyalty and extra effort as well as the positive energy you need to fuel your bus for a successful ride.

To learn more about how you can do this read “Management By Walking Around MBWA”. It will show you how to get out of your bus drivers seat and build the relationships you need to reach your goals and your vision of success.

How To Improve Your Employees Using Delegation

Sam — Mon, 24 May 2010 10:30:00 +0000

One of the best ways to develop your rising employees is to delegate tasks that will improve them. They benefit from learning new skills and overcoming a challenging task. You benefit from an improved employee who can help you with your own workload and further the career of a rising star.

One of your goals as a manager is to develop your rising stars. You can delegate tasks to help them that will help them develop new skills and expand their capabilities. Don’t delegate a menial task, make it one that challenges them. Your goal is not to offload work, but to develop your employees.

Improving your employees makes them more production and able to handle larger challenges in the future. The goal for every manager is to have a high performance team. Improving an employee using delegation is one tool you can use in this pursuit.

Know Their Skills and Capabilities

First evaluate the employee you want to develop through delegation. Use a skills matrix such as the one outlined in “Why You Should Cross Train Employees” to rank their proficiency in a variety of soft skills and technical skills. This will give you a clear idea where the employee needs development.

You want the delegated task to not only improve on or give them a new skill, but to push their capabilities. Sometimes even rising stars grow comfortable in their position and do want to push beyond their current comfort level. Delegating a task to them that will force them to stretch their abilities will give them confidence to move outside of their comfort zone.

Make The Task a Stretch

The goal is to improve your employee so you want to give them a task that will stretch their capabilities. It should be something that will challenge them and force them to learn a new skill or further develop one they need to improve on. You want to give them a task that will help push them to the next level.

Your employees with a high degree of technical skills may lack good soft skills such as communications or interpersonal skills. If so give them the task of preparing and giving a presentation at a meeting. Look at your tasks and see which ones will help develop their skills. If you do not have a task to fit the need create one such as developing a new strategy for dealing with a particular issue.

Communicate Clearly

An important communications skill for any manager is “How to Be Specific” when communicating your expectations to the employee. When you give an employee a challenging task it is important that you clearly communicate to them what the task is and that you are very specific on the expectations.

What it is they are supposed to do
How they should do it
What are the expected results
When should the task be completed
Designate specific times when you will meet to follow-up on their progress

Provide Support and Time

Time is a resource and if you want to delegate to improve an employee you must give them time to do the task. Don’t pile on more workload, instead take a task they do now and delegate it down to another employee who will benefit from that task.

The employee needs to know you are there to support them. From the very first meeting make sure they know they have your support. That if they have any questions your door is always open. Follow-up often to be sure they are on track. Along the way give them a shot of support by offering encouragement and showing your confidence in their ability.

Take advantage of status updates and follow-up meetings to fine tune their training. You may spot a need for improvement in another area that you did not find in their skills assessment. Either note it for future development or include it in this development task.

Take Your Rising Stars To The Next Level

Using delegation as a method of training and development is only one way to push your rising stars to the next level. Use the skills assessment to development a training plan for their improvement. Sit down with them explain to them how to develop a career plan and why they need to do it. Then help them to reach their career development goals.

While you want to concentrate your development efforts on your rising stars don’t forget about your diamonds in the rough. Your employees who with the proper coaching, training and skills development could also becoming rising stars.

How To Deal With Stress At Work

Sam — Wed, 19 May 2010 10:26:01 +0000

Stress at work is a killer. Many studies have shown stress can have a detrimental affect on your health. When you are stressed at work you are less productive and more likely to make mistakes. Stress can not be eliminated, but it can be controlled. Learning what causes and stress management is the key.

The main causes of stress are work, home, and personal problems. Some stress is actually good for us. Pressure to complete a task can help us focus on it. But if you are under stress each day you need to take steps to cut it or eliminate it.

What is Stress?

There are tons of books, seminars, and self-help gurus that say they will help you find stress relief in your life. Many are good, some are preying on those who need help for their own monetary gain. I’ve never written a book on it and am not a self-help guru, but I am very familiar with stress and have found some ways to deal with it.

For me it helped to learn what stress is from a physical perspective.

Stress is part of life, it is part of being human. Stress comes from the primal “fight or flee” instinct in each of us. When your body is under stress it produces hormones that are meant to alert you to something that is wrong. This causes the physical symptoms that we feel when we are under stress. Stress is far worse on your body than you may think.
There is no way you will eliminate all the causes of stress from your life. What you can do is develop ways to manage stress. It is easy to say “it is all in your mind”, but the truth is it really is. How our mind perceives an event determines if we consider it stress or not. Controlling how we perceive such events is how we control stress.

How To Effectively Manage Stress At Work

The most common stress in our lives comes at work. Learning how to recognize what causes you stress and using various methods to reduce it can help you better deal with it. In fact, you may eliminate some of the sources of your stress once you learn the cause and find a solution for it the next time it occurs.

Here are some methods to use to help you identify, eliminate and make good use of stress.

Identify when you are stressed so you can learn what causes you stress. One method for doing this is by keeping a stress diary. Anytime something comes up that causes you stress write down the date, time and what caused the stress.
At the end of the day or end of the week review the diary and look at what caused you stress. Do you see common triggers? If so look for ways to eliminate them. If driving to work causes you stress take a different route or leave earlier.
Look at what caused you stress and ask yourself was it really that big of a problem? Removed from the stressful situation you can think of ways to deal with a problem. The next time a problem comes up you will know how to deal with it and eliminate the stress.
Learn to turn stress into “good stress”. Deadlines and tasks can cause stress at work. These are situations where you can draw energy from those hormones released when you are under stress to focus and complete a task. Don’t perceive these as bad stress. Channel the stress to make you more productive. Look for ways to motivate your mind.
Get help. Talk to others when you are stressed about something. Sometimes just getting it off your chest will eliminate it. They may point out something you never saw because they are looking at it from a different perspective. If you are stressed by your workload delegate or find someone who can help you with it.
Remember that how we perceive an event often determines whether we are stressed by it. Sometimes you just have to learn to accept that there are some things you can do nothing about so why stress out over them? For these times just accept, “it is what it is” and it is not worth the stress.
Working under pressure can lead to stress. Learn how to work under pressure and you will eliminate this source of stress.

Did you ever watch a war movie where the character runs into battle taking heroic action without concern for himself? He is not superhuman. He has learned to control his stress and channel the natural energy stress produces to help him get the task done.

He does not fall to the ground or crawl in a hole saying woe is unto me. He sees stress for what it is, the human body’s reaction to an emotional event. Without doubt he is still stressed, but.he does not let it debilitate him. Instead he takes those natural hormones and channels them to give him more energy to complete the task.

Take Care of Yourself

Since stress acts on your body you need to take steps to take care of yourself as part of your overall plan to deal with stress. There are many things you can do to relieve the effects of stress on your body. There are also things you can do to help your body be better able to deal with stress.

SLEEP. If you are only getting 4-6 hours of sleep on work nights you are stressing your body before you even get to work. You need at least 7, preferably 8 hours of good sleep each night. Sleep deprivation is a known cause for increased stress because your body and mind are not working at 100%.
Eat healthy, not just for the health of your body, but for the health of your mind. When you skip or skimp on meals you are denying your body the nutrients it needs to fight off and deal with stress. Many studies have shown reduced levels of certain vitamins and minerals can increase stress.
Exercise has long been shown to be a great relief for stress. When you exercise your body produces natural “feel good” chemicals that counteract stress. You feel better, your body is healthier, better able to deal with stress, and you will sleep better. Exercise that uses you whole body has been shown to work best at relieving stress.
Learn relaxation techniques. Breathing techniques, muscle relaxation techniques, mental “thought stopping” techniques are all methods you can use when stress strikes. My favorite is if possible removing myself from the situation, also known as taking a break. Just breaking your mind and body out of a stressful situation for 10 minutes can do wonders to lower your stress level. Have a problem you can’t solve? Take a break. Suffering from work overload? Take a break. When you come back you will be better able to deal with it than if you try to stick it out.

Take Away

Stress is a natural part of being human. Stress is caused by a release of hormones due to how we perceive and event. While we can not totally eliminate stress, knowing how we perceive it can determine if an event is stressful or not gives us a method to deal with it.

Learning what causes you stress will help identify triggers to your stress. Once you identify them you can come up with ways to deal with them the next time they arise. Sometimes stress can be useful when you channel that natural energy caused by the release of hormones to focus on completing a task.

Other ways of dealing with stress at work include delegating when you can and asking for help with a task. Sometimes just talking to someone about an issue helps relieve the stress. Taking care of your body and your mind is the most proactive thing you can do to deal with stress. A healthy mind and body can handle stress far better than a tired and undernourished one.

Sometimes the best way to deal with stress is acceptance that there is nothing you can do about the particular event. Doing so allows you to let go of some of the stress related to it. After all there is no sense in stressing out about something you have no control over.