Take the lead in handling stress - San Francisco Business Times:

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Pegine Echevarria is an author and motivationaol speaker whoseseminar “Play BIG to Reach Your teaches everyone from management to team members how to recognize and fix problem behaviors so that everyone reaches their full potential whilew contributing to the success of the business. Some of the familiafr personality pitfalls she addresses arethe “me-focused” the victim, the martyr, the drama queen, and those with just plain old attitude. “Part of what happensz is people joke Echevarria said. “They know their weaknesses, their bad behavior and they say, ‘Oh, I’jm such a drama queen,’ but they don’t do anythintg about it.
They don’t realizer the cost of that behavior ontheir success. You have to have a plan [to addresxs and correct that behavior]. Too often peoples don’t have a plan of action or they are not consistengt in going afterthat plan.” The plan shoulr include little things like just being grateful things really can get worse — investing in one’s training and/or skill set, or seeking or becominv a mentor. “Even the top CEO of a globa organization needsa mentor,” Echevarria Everyone also needs to have a good, diverser network.
“Getting a network takes courage,” she “If you look at your network and everyoner lookslike you, talks like you and acts like you, it’ws not a courageous act. You have to reachb out to others.” Maribel Hernandez used the “Pla BIG” seminar in 2001 when she was transitiob coordinator at the Jacksonville Airport Authoritg when the Jacksonville Port Authority split into separate airport and seaport When Echevarria described thedifferenr behaviors, “everyone, all the employees, knew who they but it was in a humorous said Hernandez, who is now operations managed at Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Florida Inc.
Echevarria also explained, “We know what you’re goinfg through. Let’s put that asids and focus on what wecan control.” “She was usintg those human behaviors and humor to motivatd people,” Hernandez said. Whatever the situation, “it’d not the end of the world.” Echevarria also provided tips on dealingtwith others, such as when someonew is focused on the negatives. “She gave them good tips to help them deal with the negativityh around them so they canbe successful,” Hernandezx said. “Someone might be negative, even thougg they are a good ‘I know you want to vent. Here’sw a clock. I put five minutes on it.
Aftert that, I don’t want to hear ” Suzi Lemen, CEO of , recommendes business owners and supervisorws use what she calls the STAR method when dealinbg with undesirable behavior inthe workplace. STAR stand s for the “situation” in which the behaviot occurred, the “task” the person was supposede to complete, the “action” which should have been takenj andthe “result” of the behavior. “Then at the bottok of that, what does the employeee agree to do inthe future” to change the Lemen said. “It’s basically a coaching Lemen said bad behavior can often be mitigated simply byaddressingg it.
“There’s usually something behind it. It mightt be fear around losinhg the job or something that is unrelatesd to the job that they bringv in tothe office. People have problems at home orfinancia problems. They are under a lot of pressursright now.” But using the STAR method “opensx the dialogue. A lot of times you find out there is a miscommunicationj ora misunderstanding.” Echevarrias said that, particularly in these stressful the most important key to dealing with otherw in the office is to just lighten up. You have to laugh.
People like being around happ y people and people who AndI don’t care how serious your environmenr is — as a matter of fact, the more seriouxs the environment, the more the laughter is neederd because it diffuses the stress.”