Stress – Above the Rainbow Northern Style

Leading a Programme or Project I am often told how calm, relaxing and in control I am. Believe me at home it is not quite the same. One of the things I have learnt at home is that there is not a one best way approach. An 11 year is different to a 14-year-old, and mine are different from yours. Telling a 14-year kid “No” is for me a very stressful situation especially when they are screaming shouting banging doors or just walking out and ignoring you as a result. Doing the same thing and expecting different results is the definition of Insanity. Quite often I catch myself using these type of expressions as ways to change behaviour in others

“It’s not what you say but how you say it”

“You have the right to be angry but not express it the way you are”

“If worrying will change it, then worry”

Whilst these are sage advice the key to dealing with Stress for project management is to understand it and use it to help the Project Manager achieve the mix between organisation, resources and personal goals.

So What is Stress

Stress within families or stress at work is normal. When talking about stress as a Project Manager, not all stress is bad. The traditional view of stress is fight or flight but in reality, a third type can occur that is freeze. People who are rooted to the spot, don’t speak up etc., we have all done that. Good stress can often help a Project or Programme succeed with results and ideas coming out, some people produce their best under stress, others go to pieces. A brain storm session which is a full 2-day workshop and out of it are expected results, a, b, and c. Can lead to good stress.

How to understand and recognise it

Being able to identify and recognise personal and team negative stress is a key requirement of being a Project Manager and is not in any frameworks that I have come across. At home where the kids won’t leave me alone or I am too busy to have time to think, I call it “relentless parenting” at work it can be the same “relentless working” normally caused by traditional 3 benefits that firms try to achieve Faster, Better, Cheaper. In a project, there are loads of reasons why the PM gets stressed and it is the level of stress that is key to understand. Many causes of stress are due to the following

• Unrealistic timeline
• Working in a matrix system which PM does not have the full control of the resources
• Lack of resources – human and/or equipment
• Proliferation of virtual teams and cross cultural influences
• Inter-group conflict in organization
• Project environment
• Long hour work culture
• Demanding clients or demanding executives can cause stress
• Horrible People
• Blame culture
• Risk Adverse Firms
• Lack of support or sponsorship
• New Role and Uncertainty
• Being asked to do unethical things such as lie
• Personality type such as worriers

Whilst individuals may view stress as personal. It is critical for a firm to keep an eye on levels of stress especially in PMs and their teams, and even more so when the Project is off strategic importance. Stress can often manifest itself by high staff turn over or time off sick with indicator of how many absence days per employees. Firms should monitor number of directly attributable stress breaks from works, mental and emotional breakdowns and use it as an indicator that something is wrong and that the culture of the firm needs to change. Over 20 years I have only ever lost one person through stress related illness whereby I gave someone too much work too quickly. I was offered the chance to bring him back in. I did it and made sure I built him up, supported him. He ended up delivering more than expected for a PM and I became personal friends with him. That chap has now gone on to bigger and better things and I learnt how important it was to read the signs rather than deal with the consequences. Typical things to watch for are

• Employees not turning up for work, this can be a showstopper for a project, if it is more than a couple of days.
• Staff not taking full holiday entitlements
• Holiday Sickness – first week of Xmas and Summer holiday colds and flus. It has to come out somewhere.
• Number of Smoking breaks
• Staff Crying or not being themselves
• Changes in weight up or down
• Change in temperament – just being short tempered
• Personality changes - for example was talkative now quiet

 Stress Coping Mechanisms

Personal Strategies for dealing with Stress

It is quite sad that in the often perceived world of macho Project Management negative stress is often seen as a sign of weakness and is a stigma, not spoken about. Hence coping strategies are well announced or given blaze treatment. Hence the most important coping strategy is too realise you're not on your own and we all need to address personal stress.

You are responsible for what you eat, make it balanced, and what you eat affects the mental and body health

Get a good nights sleep, easier said than done. Drinking caffeinated drinks all day may affect quality of sleep

Practise relaxation techniques such as deep breathing or mediation. Lots of articles on mindfulness

Drink lots of water to keep hydrated. I am told the body absorbs it better if your drinking sitting down.

Look after your health and don't let things go. Why do Project Managers tend to get ill over Xmas and Summer Holidays, they relax and body catches up.

Regular exercise, famous stress reliever, I like hiking in the lake district

You can only achieve what you can achieve, given the time available

Saying "No" with a reason or alternative is not a sign of weakness but often a sign of strength

There are 4 types of advice, good advice, bad advice, advice you want to hear and advice you don’t. Take your pick with your coping strategies or come up with alternatives that work for you.

Programme Driven Coping Mechanisms

The Programme and organisation can pre-empt a lot of negative stress by simply being good leaders. This means typically motivating the team. If you’re the leader, speak to the team individually about themselves, families, interests and achievements. Build trust, remember things about them, care about the team and mean it. Develop personal goals, be honest with them. Look for Innovation and continuous improvement, give training. Praise individuals publicly and never steal someone else’s kudos praise them in front of other people or in team meetings. Build repeatable frameworks and support the team. One of the key attributes of good leader is an open-door policy, if you need to talk we can talk. Often by this stage your dealing with consequences and not pre-empting stress.

As a PM one of the things I drill into my mentoring and into my PM team is that I set 3 top level priorities for the team

1 - Personal health

2 - Family

3 - Work

I say to my team we can debate 1 and 2 in order but not 3

This means that if someone is on leave, and they dial into meetings I will say go away. If they stay on I have even phoned their partners to say jokingly I will throw them off the project if they dial into work, as they are off.

However, being in control, means being in control of yourself. This may lead a PM to say I cannot cope or a seasoned Programme Lead to recognise they cannot cope or need a change. Sometimes the help is not wanted other times it is for the Programme Manager/Director to make the call. Types of help asked for as a Project Manager

• Take over and let me have some responsibility
• Add personal or corporate capabilities (Resources or Skills)
• Morale support – you can do it
• Remove me from the situation

 In my youth, my parents ran a small hotel. I remember coming back from my Master’s degree in business thinking how clever I was. It was at this point the boss of the Blackpool Hotel Association happened to be at my parent’s hotel. He congratulated me and said there are 3 rules to a successful business.

1 – Don’t ask anyone to do something you’re not willing to do yourself

2 – Treat people with honey rather than vinegar

3 – Most important rule. Don’t be the nicest person in the bankruptcy court.

If firms and Project Managers looked at these principles, then negative stress in the teams would be a lot lower, and I firmly believe teams would be successful.

If you like what I am saying I am a contract PM/PGM or would like to connect please do so Jason Douglas contact number 07496002461 ([email protected])

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