Take charge of your job - reducing job stress

Take Charge Of Your Job

Pat Nickerson thrives on solving other people's problems. She specializes in the kinds created by bosses, clients, and co-workers. Problems such as these:

* Your "in" box is overflowing. Your phone won't stop ringing. And your boss just handed you a rush project to finish by the end of the day. What are you going to do?

* You've been working late for three weeks, and there's no end in sight. Is there something wrong with the way you are handling your job?

* Your concentration is broken continually by walk-in visitors and telephone interruptions. How do you g et your work done and still help the people who count on you?

Business people have such a high interest level in finding answers to those questions that they have been packing hotel conference rooms throughout the West for Nickerson's daylong workshops. A recent session spotlighted that interest--94 business owners, managers, and just plain harried employees turned ot at the Denver Airport Hilton for a recent session titled "Managing Multiple Priorities." The event was sponsored jointly by Nation's Business and Dun & Bradstreet.

Nickerson quickly establishes herself as a missionary to those afficted with demand overload. "What we are talking about here today is the conflict among legitimate demands," she explains. "I won't give you one good idea for coping with competing demands; I'll give you 25 and hope you can pick four or five that work for you."

Each person attending her workshop receives a 60-page handbook that supplements her presentation, which is a special blend of business savvy and wit.

The first step in managing a work overload is coping with the stress it creastes, Nickerson says. Sudden stress attack that the brought on by unpleasant encounters with a bossor a client can be soothed by a simple deep-breathing technique. Inhale deeply through your nose for four seconds, and exhale through your mounth for four seconds. Concentrate on your breathing, and repeat this exercise several times.

Nickerson suggests another exercise for staying calm under pressure. It's called framing. Simply draw a two-inch-square box, and think to yourself, "I am competent." Now draw another box inside the first, and think, "I am prepared." Continue drawing boxes within boxes and thinking positive thoughts about yourself. What looks like doodling to others is actually an effective way to put distance between yourself and the source of your tension.

Some stressful situations aren't as harmful as they might appear. For example, she says, according to some researchers, 16-hour workdays can be tolerated by most people for up to three weeks with no harmful side effects.

The worst kind of stress is produced by a constant feeling of frustration, which leaves people drained and exhausted at the end of the day. This is not the kind of problem that yields to relaxation techniques. It demands changes in the way you work. Says Nickerson: "Behavior change is what this seminar is all about."

She devotes most of the workshop to various approaches to remove frustration from your daily routine. The most important is to master the skill of setting priorities, which is not the same as scheduling, she says. Scheduling determines when something is to be done; setting priorities involves determining whether to do it in the first place.

One of the best ways to think about priorities is to list in descending order of importance your boss's to eight tasks for the year. Then have your boss do the same. Next, compare the lists. Your might be surprised at how different they are. One study showed that company presidents and vice presidents differed by 40 percent when they compared assumptions about priorities for the year. "Your gap could be worse, andit could hurt you [on the job]," says Nickerson.

Once you understand the big picture, what about handling daily pressures on your time? Nickerson advises sorting your tasks by value into three categories: high, medium, and low. Concentrate on the high-value tasks, delegate the medium-value tasks, and ignore the rest. Nickerson paraphrases management expert and author Peter Drucker to make her point: "Stop trying to do everything right; do only the important things supremely right."

Once you have set priorities, you're in a better position to handle unexpected demands from a supervisor or a client. When someone asks you to take on a new taks, always ask its priority and deadline. Then draw a diagram to show which tasks will be delayed if you take on a new one. Let the person making the request see its consequences. If you must say no, work with the person to find an alternative. A flat rejection may make you appear uncooperative.

Nickerson's advice is drawn from years of wide-ranging experience as a consultant in the training field. She has managed the London office of a major training company and she now is managing director of Education for Business and Industry, a San Diego consulting firm that she and her husband operate. Her clients over the years, in addition to Dun & Bradstreet, have included IBM, American Airlines, AT&T, and units of the armed forces.

Whether her workshop students actually attempt to practice what she preaches is difficult for Nickerson to know, of course. But at the Denver session, most appeared determined to try.

Charlene Malson, an administrative coordinator for Ryder Truck Rentals, figured she learned enough about focusing on key tasks to justify asking her boss to hire a temporary employee to help clear a backlog of work.

Pam Wilson, coordinator of a merchants' association in suburban Denver, said she often left work at the end of the day "not sure that I got the right things done." She now plans to set priorities among the competing demands of 13 board members and 70 association members. From now on, she said, "the really valuable tasks come first."

That's just the kind of talk Pat Nickerson loves to hear.

For More Information

To learn more about the Nation's Business/Dun & Bradstreet seminars, or to arrange for a program at you chamber of commerce or at your company for groups of 15 or more, call 1-800-972-6900.

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