10 Ways to Monitor Corporate Stress Levels

Good military leaders work hard to balance the positive and negative stress. Positive stress encourages high performance. Negative stress degrades individual and unit capability. The best leaders know how to use positive stress to get the most out of their personnel. And they know how to tone things down to when negative stress threatens productivity The Army is fanatic about training officers and sergeants to take care of the troops. And these well-trained leaders are fanatic about carrying out their responsibilities.

The soldiers in their command don't always realize why these leaders are so focused on having everything ready personnel, equipment, and training 100 percent ready. Even the most personable leaders are sometimes accused of managing "by the book" or of being too concerned with their own personal recognition and promotion. But those who make these allegations, miss the point. Just the opposite is true. These "fanatic" leaders are primarily interested in the welfare of their troops. They want to complete the unit mission with minimum personnel loss.

Strict discipline, intensive and complete training, and numerous inspections are essential for combat readiness. Failing to enforce regulations, conduct detailed inspections, or practice combat readiness is tantamount to dereliction of duty. The extra effort that goes into intensive training programs creates additional stress in the unit, but less persistent commanders actually endanger their troops and their mission when they fail to schedule training that teaches troops how to deal with stress. Detecting Stress, Some corporate jobs are just as stressful as military assignments. And some ongoing business situations are as stressful as armed combat. You can find the stressed employees by monitoring the frequency of the conditions such as:

1. Anxiety

2 Indecisiveness

3. Irritability

4. Complaining

5. Forgetfulness

6. Loss of self confidence

7. Argumentativeness

8. Insomnia

9. Rapid emotional shifts

10. Physical exhaustion

--- How to objectively measure stress ---Privacy laws prevent accumulation of specific medical histories. But there are ways to get a handle on what's going on in your company.

Here are some practical ways to bench mark current levels and monitor future stress related conditions.

1. Absences - require strict reporting. Watch for changes or trends; The more absenteeism, the greater the chance that stress is a factor.

2. Tardiness - Develop a daily report and weekly summaries. Are some departments worse than others? Are people arriving late because they dread the upcoming stress?

3. Medical claims - Seek generic information from your health insurance company on the number and expense of medical claims. Categorize information by type of ailment and observe how the frequency of visits compares to major corporate activities or stressful times of year. You might find that stressful periods coincide with or precede an increase in medical claims.

4. Professional assistance - Experts can analyze the ways stress might be at the root of physical ailments. They can help you examine the cause-and-effect relationships that escape the attention of those who aren't as well trained in stress control.

5. Complaints or grievances - Keep records by department. Those with a greater numbers of complaints are probably ready for some stress-control strategies.

6. Accident reports - Analyze accident reports from the perspective of stress involvement. Research how stress might have been the root cause of accidents.

7. Errors in judgment or misstatements. Develop a log of individual errors in judgment and misstatements. If certain employees are prone to making misstatements, they are prone to errors in judgment. Monitor their decision making to evaluate the cost of stress for your company.

8. Personal relationships - Note changes in the way people relate to each other and the types of action that cause some people to become more argumentative. You can use this information to control stress for the entire organization or for specific individuals who are more sensitive to stressful situations.

9. Customer service problems - Review customer service problems from a stress perspective. Determine whether some kind of stress reduction could improve relations with customers or reduce the number of errors involved with order taking, preparation, shipping, or invoicing.

10. Quality problems - Include in your quality reports a description of stress-related activities occurring before and during the period in question. Watch for trends among certain employees or departments. Try to find the causes of stress and what can be done to control the stress reactions. Corporate leaders and managers sometimes try to manage the stressed people by using increased demands and closer supervision. Instead, you should use stress-reducing techniques to manage the stressors. While the demanding remedies of dictatorial managers might get short-term improvement from stressed employees, such relief is usually only temporary. The increased urgency and focus on details typically generates even more stress, and the problems shift from slight distractions, such as back pain, headaches, and inattention, to more drastic reactions such as absenteeism and medical problems, both good indicators that stress levels need attention. Just as in the Army, most leaders must be taught to manage stress and to observe for negative stress reactions. All managers need to understand the importance of positive stress in maximizing accuracy and productivity. And they need to know how to control the negative stress for the benefit of those involved and the bottom line. If you don't have qualified staff in your company, outside consultants and trainers can help you evaluate current stress levels and train everyone involved.

Remember, stress control is a leadership responsibility.

Dale Collie - professional speaker, former US Army Ranger, CEO, and a Fast Company top 50 innovative leader. Author of "Winning Under Fire." (McGraw-Hill) collie@couragebuilders.com