Managing Stress for Success

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers
reminds you that disaster strikes when it likes!

Experience of a sudden, unexpected interruption in your business always confirms the wisdom of planning your response in advance, in order that normal working operations can be resumed as soon as possible. Known as Continuity Planning, this includes not only the emergency planning and control of the flow of goods and materials through an organization or manufacturing process, but also the provision of essential services and systems, especially data backup.

The more challenging part – that is too often overlooked - is the human side of an emergency. In any serious incident where people are involved there is likely to be a need for critical incident debriefing and post-trauma counselling. Defusing a crisis and getting back to normal working requires specialist crisis intervention skills. Recognising the signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress, and knowing exactly where to source professional support is also imperative.

Long and short-term symptoms

The first hours after a critical incident are especially significant, both for gathering eye-witness reports and for applying initial support.

However, post-traumatic symptoms can linger on, possibly leading to absence from work, either through stress-related illness or delayed shock, all of which may put a strain on already overstretched organization. After any serious incident there will always be thoughts of 'what if' and questions about where the blame lies. All this can be very unsettling and professional intervention is often the only way of reassuring those directly involved in the incident and allaying the fears of the workforce as a whole. In post-trauma counselling, your choice of words can impact especially deeply on the victim. In the post-traumatic state, words echo differently and dialogue takes on a new intensity of meaning. One wrong word can easily derail a smooth dialogue, whilst the right word may suddenly stimulate a rapport.

Careful choice of words is a critical theme in post-trauma work, and it is analysed closely in the training programmes dedicated to this important intervention.

As part of your Continuity Planning agenda, you should consider making this training available for HR staff, line managers and board-level personnel alike, to ensure that the difficult human half of your crisis management programme can be handled as smoothly as possible, and a normal service promptly restored.

Continuity Planning - Summary

• Organisations need to have recovery plans and systems in place
• The human aspects are often more challenging than the logistical
• Outsourcing of specialist counselling skills is often necessary

Another key insight from Carole Spiers, International Leading Authority on Corporate Stress,
Motivational Speaker and BBC Broadcaster.