NICE - Stress at work, so what's new?
05/11/2009, Author: Alison France
NICE has today entered the discussion on workplace stress, producing guidance for anyone responsible for promoting wellbeing in the workplace. Whilst getting workplace stress in the news and peoples consciousness (which can only be a good thing) and re-stating the business case for wellbeing initiatives in the workplace, the guidelines themselves are (in my opinion) more of the same we have all seen before from the HSE and CIPD.
There are some great tips contained in them (resource links below), alongside some initiatives that are counter-intuitive to me as a business psychologist. So what are our alternatives?
I have recently become aware of the work of the positive psychology movement, and, in particular, Dr Martin Seligman. This work is premised on the basis that, rather than beginning from a dysfunctional assumption (e.g. people are stressed what we can do to help?), we should consider beginning from a more positive basis (e.g. what makes people happy at work and how can we help them achieve that?).
Based on this, Dr Seligman has proposed his (well researched) theories about 'strengths'. Strengths are characteristics we recognise as the 'real me', doing things based on our strengths energises us (as opposed to draining us or making us stressed). To provide an example, one of my strengths is developing others. I enjoy and am invigorated by facilitating leadership workshops. The constant activity and emotional involvement with the leaders I work with actually gives me energy.
So how do we all use strengths to promote wellbeing?
We can encourage our organisations to take a positivist approach by incorporating strengths into our people strategy, including recruiting and managing performance based on strengths.
Leaders can organise work in a way that will help employees use their strengths.
Finally individuals can be coached to discover their strengths and re craft their work to spend more of their time using their strengths on a daily basis.
Food for thought
So that is my opinion and having implemented this with an organisation, I have seen it work to great effect. Not only that, because it is fresh perspective, the organisation has embraced the ideals and been pleased that someone could offer a different approach.
What do you think of Seligman’s strengths approach and how do you tackle wellbeing at work?
Useful resources
BBC Story - Tackle work stress bosses told
Seligman - Authentic happiness
NICE web site - Promoting mental wellbeing at work
HSE web site (recently revamped) - Work related stress - together we can tackle it
CIPD - Health, safety and wellbeing: Highlighted resources
If you find this post offensive please contact us
Comments
05/11/2009 by Luigi Paiano, http://
I think that this is a fascinating approach, and one that I agree with wholeheartedly.
Whether I practice it on myself and for myself all the time is another matter... I tend to dip in and out of 'self-positivity'.
Today, I am being mostly positive
However, I think it is vital, whether in the workplace with colleagues, at home with the kids, or with delegates in a workshop as it has a massive impact on how people perform and how people feel.
You must be logged in to leave comments. You can register here».
