Stress In The City

As 2023 draws to a close and we stand on the threshold of 2024, it’s a natural time for reflection on both our achievements and unfulfilled aspirations.

You will find that kindness has a ripple effect. When we act kindly towards someone, it often inspires them to be kind to others as well.

Through counselling, individuals can gain insights into their behaviour, relationships, and personal goals, ultimately leading to positive changes and a better quality of life.

How often do you find yourself pulled away from your tasks by distractions throughout the day? The answer for most of us is “many times.”

Leadership begins with the self. A leader’s ability to guide, inspire, and support their team hinges on their own physical and mental well-being. Nurturing one’s health is not just a personal choice; it’s a responsibility that directly impacts the team’s dynamics and success.

Understand the difference between strong management and bullying behaviour. While both can be effective in getting results, they have different impacts on employees and the overall culture of the workplace.

In today’s fast-paced and highly competitive work environment, stress and burnout have become commonplace. Despite this, mental health issues are still stigmatised and often ignored in the workplace.

CEOs can feel isolated and lonely due to the immense pressure and responsibility of the job, lack of peers to confide in, and challenges of maintaining work-life balance, but seeking out support and connection can help alleviate these feelings and create a fulfilling life.

Many companies are beginning to see the merit of power-naps and are beginning to embrace this practice.

We all prefer to be around people who are positive and energetic. Energy and positive action are infectious!

If you do have a boring job, let’s be creative in the way that you manage it.

A happy worker is a productive worker. Enabling employees to enjoy their jobs and find meaning.

If someone is going through a difficult time in their life, it might help them to talk. If there is something they are finding difficult to think through.

Since March 23rd, The Office for National Statistics has reported 600,000 Brits have lost their jobs in the UK. Here are some tips to help you cope.

Human beings require physical contact and psychologists say there is no substitute. What will the consequences be of lockdown and social distancing?

Lifestyle factors such as diet, exercise and sleep have a huge impact on mental health and wellbeing. Here’s the changes to make.

Since March 23rd, The Office for National Statistics has reported 600,000 Brits have lost their jobs in the UK. Here are some tips to help you cope.

The coronavirus pandemic could lead to, or worsen existing cases of PTSD. Here are the symptoms of PTSD and ways to help you cope.

Lockdown seems to be easing, but that’s not good news for everyone. Adapting to a post-lockdown world might prove challenging.

We’ve found ourselves in a time where we’re relying on video calls to substitue face-to-face conversation in order to satisfy our social needs. But how does this way of communicating differ from the conversations we’re used to? How has the pandemic affected this? And how can you stop feeling exhausted?

It’s important to know how to manage the morale of your team and the ups and downs that will come your way during the current pandemic.

Lockdown is leading to an increase in stress and anxiety, placing strain on our relationships. Here’s 7 tips to ensure yours survives.

Due to the levels of anxiety and stress that many people across the globe are experiencing, one of the body’s key processes for keeping us healthy – physically and mentally – is being completely disrupted.

Dealing with challenges puts you at a pivotal stage in your life with an opportunity to take something positive out of such stressful circumstances.

Working from home can be a challenge, especially for those with younger children who might need, or want your attention more frequently.

Here are the pros and cons of remote working and tips to help you stay productive.

International Women’s Day has a special meaning to me. The message this year…an equal world is an enabled world.

There’s so many tips online but the truth is, the success of a speech is dependent on your audience.

When people are emotional, they do not work as effectively, and in these situations, managers often don’t know how to handle their employees.

In 2017, poor mental health cost UK employers up to £45bn with pressure from targets and competing workplace priorities significant causes.

Office politics are the strategies people use to gain advantage at work. Here’s how to navigate your way around this minefield.

These tips may help turn your stress, anxiety and depression at work into accomplishments.

There are so many things that can trigger your impatience, intolerance and anger. Here’s how to control your temper.

A wellbeing programme improves performance, reduces absenteeism, and attracts and retains top talent.

How will you be leading your team into a brand new decade?

Although this is a good time for self-reflection, it is more effective to set SMART goals as opposed to resolutions. Here’s how.

The holidays can be a hectic time of year. Here are things you can do to promote rest and relaxation this Xmas.

It is common to feel lonely when you’re surrounded by people and in long-term relationships. Here’s how to remedy that.

Last Xmas, an eHarmony study found that 47% of singles said that loneliness was the reason they dreaded the holiday season. Here are some tips to enjoy the season with confidence.

The holidays can be difficult as we spend time with relatives who we might not see often, or like very much. Here’s how to get through it.

Are there greater pressures in the industry today than there were years ago? Times have changed and employers should be keeping up.

Here are my tips to reduce stress this season, and enjoy it for what it is- a vacation!

The way we respond to stress and the way we should manage stress can differ between males and females.

The way we respond to stress and the way we should manage stress can differ between males and females.

Stress affects sleep. Sleep affects stress. Here are some tips to identify whether your sleep problems are stress-related and what to do about it.

Speaking in public is one of the greatest fears for many people. Here are 6 tips for giving a knock out performance.

Find out why that ‘Friday feeling’ isn’t something we should celebrate and how to combat it.

This article details the ins and outs of workplace conflict and how you should tackle it

For World Mental Health day I am sharing some tips for managing mental illnesses at work.

Prepare yourself and feel confident engaging in small talk with anyone and everyone.

Introverts often act like extroverts rather than embracing their unique strengths.

Why hitting the snooze button can be good for you and your career.

With the rise of depression, anxiety and suicide in younger people, in a time when we are never really alone, are we feeling more lonely than ever?

A team is where everyone pulls together and accepts each other for what they can and cannot do. My top 10 traits of an effective team.

Resilience is an innate quality that helps people learn from failures and proceed with optimism. It’s the key to being adaptable and being prepared.

As a CEO you probably ask yourself many questions…I have the first one you SHOULD be asking right here.

We all know that work can be stressful but do you understand what stress actually is, how it affects you and how to manage it successfully?

The boardroom and the battle field aren’t too different. You must shield your employees, build the strongest team and lead that team to victory.

Why great leaders can make bad decisions. The link between stress, IQ and EI.

85% of what we know we have learnt through listening. Yet only 2% of us have had any formal education on how to listen.

Public sector workers are more likely to suffer with mental health problems than those in the private sector, but less likely to receive support when they come forward.

Wellbeing initiatives are the solution to your problems. Attract top talent and retain your best employees.

In celebration of Best Friends Day, let’s take a look at the ways in which positive friendships can impact our lives.

Working late could cost you precious sleep. Do what the tycoons do: relax and take your mind off work for the last hour before going to bed.

With the end of ‘a job for life’, the ticking of the demographic ‘time bomb’, and the ever-increasing pace of new technology, employers are having to consider a wide range of new working patterns that take account of this rapidly changing work climate. Types of flexible working There are many well-established alternatives to full-time working: […]

Reports from a cardiac rehab program in America indicate that learning to relax and cope with pressure could cut heart problems by 40%-50%.

Anger never helps. So trace it back to its roots – high stress, low self-esteem, frustrations at home – and learn to resolve it.

Crisis Management achieves short-term results, but often causes stress. Time Management may avert crises altogether.

There are many forms of bullying – overt and covert – that can spread fear and stress. It needs to be rooted-out of the corporate culture.

You can’t prepare for a traumatic incident. But management can learn proven techniques for post-trauma interventions that work.

The Brexit debate is facing Theresa May with a formidable mix of challenges, that will need a highly developed quality of resilience.

Of course, the key to employee motivation with increased performance and productivity is dependent upon excellent management initiatives and good communications.

We are now at the end of the 2016 National Stress Awareness Day campaign where we had a great turnout from the International Stress Management Association [UK] regions and also from around the world.

Being able to concentrate is not an easy skill to develop and retain as life, for all of us, has so many disruptions.

Research shows that relationships are central to our health and wellbeing and can be one of the most rewarding aspects of our life. However, for a friendship to work, there has be a balance between the two parties – not one person having their needs met whilst others are overlooked.

I am a firm believer in the value of face-to-face communication. However, over the past few weeks, I have been impressed by a story of hope and support – that has resulted from an on-line relationship.

Mid-life crisis? Are you going through one. Find out here and read on.

On 20th March, it is The International Day of Happiness – an official day that is now celebrated throughout the world and was established by the United Nations in 2012.

The day recognizes that happiness is a fundamental human goal, and calls upon countries to approach public policies in ways that improve the well being of all peoples.

In the corporate world, with its emphasis on self-promotion and networking, many introverts feel immense pressure to act like extroverts. Such individuals may even worry that they will be overlooked for promotion, so in order to compensate, they may go to great lengths to pretend to be extroverts and often end up feeling frustrated by trying hard to be someone else.

Most people want to get on in life and improve their career prospects but in the competitive workplace in which we work, promotional prospects are not always easy to achieve.

Working with the #media at a time of #crisis is a skill in its own right

Good public speakers need to use proven techniques that have an impact on their audience.

It is important to hold onto an optimistic attitude that will lead you into the mindset of increased career opportunity

As we start 2015, let us reflect on all of those things for which we should be grateful.

Perfectionists are sometimes aware that their constant aim for standards are stressful and possibly unreasonable

A #rolemodel is someone who serves as an exemplar, whose consistent #behaviour is emulated by others

Find out how to get the most out of people who like to work alone.

Sluggish at lunchtime? Need a nap? Find out what you can do about increasing your energy levels during the day.

‘As soon as I clear my inbox, a new batch arrives – consequently I spend my time reacting to every new message but not being proactive’. Sound familiar. Read on.

Did you manage your holiday stress-free or did you start to worry about going back to work while you were still away?

Try to look at unemployment as a time of opportunity; to view the world with a different perspective and to re-evaluate who you are and what you want.

What do you do if you dislike your boss? You can choose your friends but not the person for whom you work.

Purpose is not a guarantee of success but you cannot build something meaningful without it.

With all of us, there will be aspects of our jobs that we may not like and, therefore, in which we don’t excel. Don’t that mean you get careless and sloppy?

Retirement is a fact. Industry play a vital role to help retirees to manage this chapter of their lives.

Born lucky or make your own luck. The debate is still open.

It is always difficult to ‘let-go’ of what was successful in the past because it means that we may need to modify our vision for the future. ‘Letting go’ in order to adapt to changed market conditions is a necessary attribute of the smart professional. He, or she, knows that nothing stands still for long and that sales and profits are always moving targets.

An organisational culture gives a structural foundation. Does yours?

‘Have you got a minute’ syndrome decreased performance and productivity. Be honest – do you tend to interrupt your colleagues for no real reason? Read this week’s blog.

Do you regard yourself as acting reactively or proactively, the majority of the time? Do you pride yourself on your ‘firefighting skills’ or your planning expertise? Find out how to increase your productivity and performance.

You can choose your friends but you cant choose the people you work with. Find out how to get on better with those around you.

Be careful of the ‘knowledge drain’. Retiring employees can bring added value to the organisation, albeit in a different capacity than previously. Their years of insider knowledge about your organisation, your industry and customers could just walk out of the door!

Do you find yourself waking up at 3 am to check your email or Facebook account? Is your addiction to the internet having a negative effect on your relationships? Do you experience withdrawal symptoms when not on-line?

You can give yourself all the excuses in the world for eating badly – you are busy, you haven’t had time to eat properly, you have had a really challenging day either in the office or with the children. However, the one thing for sure that 2014 will bring most of us is that little word, ‘stress’, so let us look at way of how you can reduce it naturally.

People who can’t sleep at night rarely function well the next day. They lay in bed just watching the clock tick by! Sound familiar? Discover some strategies to cope.

Nelson Mandela leaves behind a legacy to his country and to the world. What will be the legacy that you pass onto your children?

Where are you on the ‘job satisfaction’ scale? Some people even work for nothing! Would you?

If you are arranging a meeting, then there is a role and responsibility for doing so because you are taking people away from something else that they could be doing.

We are aware that all employees should be treated with dignity and respect and that bullying and harassment is detrimental to both morale and team dynamics and should never be tolerated. However, if you are being bullied, it is not always easy to know what action to take. All employers need to demonstrate a duty of care to everyone who works for them but, sadly, this is not always the case..

Productivity is being lost as people stop working early the day before the weekend. This is costing companies huge amounts of money every year.

In reality, having an idea is one thing but getting others to buy into it; give their support and take action on it, is another

In a group that exhibits poor dynamics, individual behaviour can disrupt work; lead to poor decision making, unproductive outcomes and unexplored options.

On an organisational level, when employees see how their role fits in with the company goals and vision, staff performance and productivity invariably rises. People are more creative and take a greater pride in their work so that the company operates more efficiently. From the CEO to company clients, everyone benefits from these positive effects.

There are times in all of our lives when we can lose focus and commitment to what we really want. We take our eye ‘off of the ball’ and then wonder why we don’t achieve our goal. We watch others pass us by to where they want to go and leave us behind, and we fail to understand the reason.

Traffic jams, supermarket queues, computer crashes or a crowded metro are all stressors that can upset us and make us angry. We become irritable with our colleagues and shout at our family and loved ones. We become obsessed with trivia and suddenly that which should be the lowest of our priorities, develops into the most important problem in our life.

Everybody tells lies, or do they? They may only be ‘white lies’ and most of us do this at some time or tend to be ‘economical with the truth’. We tell ourselves that it doesn’t really matter and convince ourselves accordingly.

When an organisation is going through a restructuring process, there can often be a negative impact on general morale and confidence.

Responsibility equals accountability which equals ownership. It doesn’t mean ‘passing the buck’. If all your employees had this sense of ownership in your organisation, how much more influential or successful do you think it would be?

Find out why some people are seen as ‘office rebels’.

If you are stressed out by email, then motivational speaker, Carole Spiers provides 5 top tips.

It is part of being human to make mistakes, as long as you don’t repeat them. Always remember that many successful people, like Richard Branson, Bill Gates and Steve Jobs, all made many mistakes- and learned from them. Only usually you don’t know that!

Reduce stress with positive self talk. When things go wrong in your life, search for ways in which you can improve the situation and always try to learn from the experience.

Are you stuck in your current position, or job, with little opportunity for advancement? Are you fed-up waiting to move further up the career ladder? Carole Spiers shares some solutions.

Such companies or organisations have little understanding of work-life balance or of taking any action to support the mental and physical well-being of their staff. If they did, staff would feel more loyal, motivated, committed and likely not only to want to stay working in the organisation but also to recommend it to others

Could you be killing yourself by sitting all day and now knowing it?

What questions do you have about work stress? See if Carole Spiers answers them for you here.

Being open-minded can sometimes be really tough. Most of us are brought up with a set of values and tend to surround ourselves with people who think in a similar way to ourselves and share the same values. Therefore it can be a problem when faced with ideas that challenge our own, even though, cognitively, we know we should be more open to them.

Does gossip have a place in the office?

We are soon to be in 2013 and yet there are still there relatively few women in the Boardroom. So what do they have to do to get their voices heard so that they can motivate and inspire.

We all know that we get stressed when there is too much to do but do we really appreciate the ‘rust out’ factor i.e. when there is insufficient work to keep our attention. It can be equally stressful. In such situations, we psyche ourselves to go to work in the morning but our energy levels stay may stay low all day. Then, when we go home at night, we can be tired and listless because we have received little stimulus during the day.

Working as a team, with all pitching-in together and, most of all, working in harmony are all essential components of a healthy workplace culture. There are very few businesses that can survive without using effective teams in their operation. When deadlines are tight, it is often team-work that gets the project completed on-time and, more importantly, wins the contract.

Time Management is a skill. We all have just 24 hours in a day so why is it that some people seem to get more out of their quota than others? Find out how to get more out of your day.

Many of you may dream about being self-employed, being independent, not being answerable to anyone, deciding your own working hours and taking as many holidays as you want. However, that may not be the reality of the self-employed person’s work/life balance!

It would seem that in many organisations, individuals who exhibit high levels of confidence, even though that confidence may be unjustified, nevertheless often attain promotion over less confident colleagues.

Here in the UK, we are on a ‘high’ after the successful London Olympic Games and with the Paralympics about to begin. The weather may not always be great but the country came together as one. We talked to each other on the streets, there was a buzz around the office and as the gold medals increased, everyone felt good.

But how long will that feeling last and wouldn’t it be wonderful if you could just bottle it, to be opened when the energy we have been feeling throughout the country will have gone?

Thinking ‘out of the box’ can make you a valuable member of staff as well as someone who is inventive and fun to be around.

We are not all Olympic competitors, but in one form or another, we will have had to manage disappointment and the powerful emotions that it releases. It happens to all of us, rich or poor, old or young, man or woman. It is a fact of life that will happen to you and although it cannot be avoided, how you deal with it will determine the effect it has on your life and the extent to which you can control that effect. Disappointment is a combination of two things: your expectations and perceptions of an event and its actual resolution.

Is passion and having the right attitude, by themselves enough for success. Learn from the Olympic champions.

In reality, of course, we cannot manage time, we can only manage ourselves and our
relationship with time

Do good looks and charm really get you to where you want to be? I know that I am drawn to an attractive, good looking child and I think to myself ‘that child will be successful in life’. But is that all it takes? Probably not, but it may well help to climb the career ladder.

Do you experience stres & anxiety because of a lack of respect from others? ‘Treat others, as you would want them to treat you!’ How many times do we hear this being said? We say it to our children and hope that they will remember it for the rest of their lives. We all know that to earn respect, we must first give respect and, of course, give it to ourselves as well, for if you don’t respect yourself, then no-one else will respect you.

Relieve stress by being more positive. Everybody feels ‘down’ sometimes, but those negative feelings usually don’t last long. Life is not a straight line for anyone. Life is like a sine wave, it goes up and down and there are peaks and troughs. To be reasonably happy with our life is usually the default position, but if things go wrong over a period of time, then that position can change.

Conflict at home can cause upset and misery. Conflict at work can cause expensive disruption and these hidden costs are underestimated in many organisations. Find out what to do about it here.

DOING YOU GOOD, DOES YOU GOOD. This was the theme for Britain’s Mental Health Awareness Week which has taken this week. Promoted by the Mental Health Foundation, it focuses on how, by helping others by acts of kindness, volunteering and peer support, you can indeed help yourself.

Stress at work? Many individuals feel trapped in their daily activity but see little opportunity to change it as they have financial commitments and the thought of leaving to trying to find another job with another company is worse than the existing job.

Self mastery is the ability to recognize, understand and manage the different aspects of your personality, and in so doing, to create a higher quality of life experience. It’s a continuous process that should be integral to one’s daily life script for everyday living.

It is so easy to do. You are driving along quite happily, the road is clear, the sun is shining and you are almost on auto-pilot. You think of a message to send to someone and so you pick up your phone and start texting. You know that you are taking your eye off the road and you know you shouldn’t be texting but there is not much traffic around, so why not?

Sound familiar? Can you really say that you have never done this before? Maybe you are one of the few who can put their hands on their heart and say ‘never’ but there are many others who would quietly put up their hands and admit to this one, says Carole Spiers, Author of Show Stress Who’s Boss!

Dispelling the myths and misconceptions about stress at work.

A smile can be a great energy booster both for the giver and the receiver, so why don’t we all smile more often? You may say that you don’t always feel like smiling or that you’re not in the mood, and that may well be the case but just think of the effect of your mood has on those with whom you meet, your spouse, your colleague or your child

We do not always behave or conduct ourselves as we should and there are certain times when we wish we had not spoken, or acted, as we did. Sometimes, we have to accept that our relationship with someone has been broken. However, later there often comes a time when we might wish to try to make amends. But what happens when the other person says it is too late or that they are no longer interested?

Before embarking on a self-employed career, you need to give consideration as to whether you are really suited to what will initially be a 24 hour job.

How many times do you feel angry but don’t know why? How often do
you become aggressive and say things you don’t really mean, and then feel upset and guilty afterwards? Similar events happen to most of us, at some time, and we fail to understand the reasons.

International Women’s day has always had a specialmeaning for me. To read of the stories of community, empowerment and leadership is such a motivation and encouragement for all women, whether at home or in the workplace.

Being a well-known celebrity, famous politician or business man/woman may be exciting but it also brings with it a whole exclusive set of stressors.

The snow in London brought about a community spirit of ‘togetherness’ and this should be packaged for our workplaces. http://bit.ly/xHVD6G

Carole Spiers, Motivational speaker asks, where is the line between a direct and blunt, personal management style and bullying behaviour? This is an acknowledged work stress issue and people need to know how to deal with stress.

What is bullying in the workplace? There are many signs of workplace bullying behaviour that are highly visible, for instance: the person who is publically humiliated by their manager or the individual who wrongly takes the credit for someone else’s work. However, there is another more insidious form of workplace bullying behaviour that needs to be addressed: that credit for someone is so-called ‘cyber bullying’.

Find out how to deal with stress when you have just been made redundant.

Stressed? We can show you how to deal with stress.

This is just that time of the year when we may be spending time with friends and family. But we should also give a thought to those who may be separated from their loved ones or who may have maybe lost someone close during the past year.

How are your time management skills? Are you a good multi-tasker? People pride themselves on being able to multi-task but it might not be helping our efficiency. Or is it?

What is Stress? Of course stress exists, but the word ‘stress’ itself is often applied incorrectly. Many people will use it when they have a temporary work overload, whereas in fact stress only occurs when a person perceives (over a prolonged period) that they have insufficient personal resources to cope with a given situation.

We human beings love to procrastinate. Is it ever too late to realise our dreams? Is there any time limit? Do we have to wait for retirement when we may be less fit than we are now, or when we have lost drive and motivation as our energy levels eventually fall?

Work stress Expert talks about how annoying people can be. Are you? Do other people experience anxiety when you are around.

Stressed because your desk is untidy? I believe that a tidy desk will improve your efficiency and make your working time more enjoyable. http://bit.ly/qibc5q

Relieve stress in your retirement. For many the thought of retirement may seem a very long way into the future. However, it comes to us all eventually and for that new chapter in one’s life to be successful, it requires careful planning for the transition from work to leisure.

Parenting is a constant ‘letting go’ process which starts when our children are babies up to when they are grown up

With the summer in Europe nearly over as we approach September, it is time to think about getting ourselves back into our working routine of facing the early morning traffic jams and the school run.

Life takes on a different, more relaxed pace during the summer with the stress of having to watch the clock 24/7, being put on hold for a while. However, when we now return to the office, we need to change gear and make the necessary adjustments to work mode. Emails, work deadlines, meetings, and efficiency once again become the order of the day.

But the summer holiday can also be used as a time of reflection, both for yourself and for all those members of your team, says Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers.

Stressed? We all have days when nothing seems to go right and when we are prone to make silly mistakes. However, when bad days turn into bad weeks, it is time to take stock and to reflect on why things are going wrong, seemingly everyday.

When my children were small, I would always look forward to the summer holidays although my friends would often laugh at me. How could I stand ‘the kids’ being at home all the time and have to entertain them, 24/7? Fortunately, I had a spacious garden, in which they could play, and we would go to museums, parks, have play-dates with other children and sometimes go away for a week or two. However, during term time one of the biggest stressors to me was the continual looking at my watch to make sure I was on time to do the never-ending ‘school run’. And so, when the summer arrived, it was a relief not to have to nag the children to do their homework, practice the piano, cello or violin, or rehearse their ‘times-tables’. So for me, summer was bliss.

Stress and self destruction. A tragic end to the brilliant career of the young, talented and popular performer, Amy Winehouse.

Last week, when walking by the sea, I paused to watch family members on holiday enjoying the summer sunshine. Whilst some small children rushed excitedly from one side of the boating lake to the other, and others were playing in the sand, adults often chatted distractedly into their mobile phones. Cries of ‘Daddy, Daddy!’ or […]

Birthdays can be times of reflection and questioning of oneself. If you are not driving yourself hard enough, then ask yourself the question “why not?” If stress in your life is wearing you down, then take action to find out how to avoid it, says Motivational Speaker, Carole Spiers. The human body is fragile, as we well know, but it also can be strongly resilient. But it will only be so if psychologically and physiologically you are in good shape, and confident.

With many people now taking early retirement or being made redundant and starting up their own businesses, Motivational Speaker, Carole Spiers says that now might be good time to look at the challenges of running a business from home.

One moment he was here and one moment, he wasn’t. The death of a close friend makes Carole Spiers, Motivational Speaker, appreciate how fragile life is and how we all sometimes ignore the ill health warning signs in ourselves or maybe in our loved ones, or work colleagues.

Headley Court, the UK’s armed forces’ dedicated rehabilitation centre, is offering gardening therapy to their patients – servicemen and women – who are trying to heal wounds gained in combat and to rejoin their units as quickly as possible, albeit sometimes in a different role.
Find out from motivational speaker, Carole Spiers, how gardening helps soldiers come to terms with their psychological or physiological loss.

If you have ever experienced ‘road-rage’, been stuck in a traffic-jam or distracted from driving by a demanding child in the back seat, then you will know that driving can be a stressful experience.
If you have ever been a car passenger with a driver who is lost, oblivious to speed restrictions, driving carelessly or talking into a cell phone, then you will know that being a passenger can be a stressful experience too. Find out from Carole Spiers, Motivational Speaker, why driving can be the source of so much stress?

Is age just a ‘numbers game’ or is it more of an attitude and mindset? Do we really start forgetting things at the age 50 or is this an excuse for being lazy and not keeping our minds active?

Getting older happens to everybody and it should be seen as a new chapter in one’s life, says Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers.

As retirement becomes a new chapter in your life, it is important to approach that lifetime change in a positive way. One issue that many people fail to consider when planning for their retirement, is the potential stress that can come from a fundamental lifestyle change coupled with an often new environment, as explained by Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers.

The key to success: making that job interview count. As we all know, there is no such thing these days as a ‘job for life’ and people tend to move their skills to the highest bidder – which means that at an interview your performance needs to be near perfect to ensure that you make an impact.

Do you ever feel awkward in conversation with others – either at work or at home? Are there times when you are at a complete loss as what to say next? Have you ever been accused of interrupting or finishing other people’s sentences for them? If so, you are not alone.
Being a good conversationalist is an art. For some, it comes naturally and the words flow without effort but for many others, it is often a challenge.
If I sit back and listen to a discussion that is flowing well, I can actually hear the specific techniques that are being used quite naturally.
These inter-personal skills can be learnt and here are some tips to help you become a better communicator.

Many people find it difficult to say ‘no’ to any request. Being assertive is an art and, as with other arts, we need to learn the skill of how to refuse a request without affecting the relationship. The ‘yes/no’ response may appear to be an uncontroversial subject but in fact, our decision to agree, or to refuse, a specific request may impact not only the outcome of a particular issue, but also our profile and reputation – and possibly upon our own self-image.

Therefore, Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says, it is important to learn how to be confident and direct in dealing with others and being able to say ‘no’ without giving offence.

Stressed? The pressure of managing a work-life balance is a reality for most women in the workplace – whether she is a director or a secretary. Even with support, there is often a role conflict in being a working mother. And in today’s high-tech, high pressure workplace, women have to find a way to assuage the inevitable feelings of guilt that sometimes rise to the surface.

Motivational Speaker, Carole Spiers says, ‘Encouragement can make a huge difference to someone else’s life. It is a very humbling experience to help someone help themselves’.

Carole Spiers, Motivational Speaker’s trip to Dubai, this month, has been an interesting time of meeting new business people, catching up with some ‘oldies’ and delivering Boardroom briefings to companies who want to know how to better manage, or minimise, stress in the workplace.

If people are in fear of going to work and watching the clock to get back to the safety of their home, then those people will be poor performers, poor sales people, poor producers and a bad advertisement for your firm, says Carole Spiers. That competitive disadvantage will also be reflected in your company’s image and your brand.

Are you being asked to work longer for no more money?
Would you like your team to put in more hours without feeling resentful?

How can you ensure people still put in the hours without feeling resentful or become stressed? Three simple solutions come to mind from, Stress Management expert, Carole Spiers.

A healthy person can respond to pressure and enjoy the stimulus. However a person who has been under intense pressure over a long period is unlikely to have sufficient coping reserves to manage cumulative stress. The first signs that they are not coping will inevitably show up in their work performance, in their behaviour and, ultimately, also in their appearance and persona. It is rather like a car trying to run on an empty tank.

Last week, I went to see the widely acclaimed movie, ‘the Kings Speech’. To speak in public can be a daunting prospect whether one King George VI or a commoner, and workplace stress and panic are, unfortunately, all too usual, in these instances.

If more Emirati women are to emerge as business leaders in the future, they must develop their self-confidence and, perhaps, renegotiate their responsibilities with their families. The challenge for the UAE is to create an environment where Emirati women can pursue any career they choose in the future, and know that they will be judged on the basis of their work performance and not on their gender.

It has been announced, in Britain, that the heir to the throne, Prince William, is to marry Kate Middleton, next year.
But Carole Spiers says, ‘Marriage is a major decision for any of us to make but Kate will be joining the British royal family, and will become the wife of a future King of England. And that means that she will also be starting a new job and there will be enormous stresses to overcome, at least in the beginning.’

Bullying is unacceptable in the modern workplace and no responsible company or organisation should be seen as condoning it. The health of employees is important, and that includes both physical and mental wellbeing and relieving stress and anxiety.

Instant communication has made us more aware of what is happening, not only in our place of employment but also 24/7 around the world. But does it relieve our stress and anxiety?

Entrepreneurship is the prime factor that will bring about a quicker economic recovery in the region as a whole, and in the case of Dubai, will bring about a turnaround in commercial and industrial activity.

And so the 33 miners from San Jose mine in Copiapo, in Chile were brought to the surface after being entombed 69 days and half a mile [624 metres – 2,000 ft metres] underground, imprisoned under tons of rock.

In order to stay alive, they needed to build a community and without this peer group support that gave vital encouragement from the stronger to the weaker, when it was needed, they would never have survived the ordeal.

In our every day lives, we may assume that what we have said has been actually heard, and we take it for granted that it is the case. Unfortunately, many times it is not. Either because the other person was not concentrating – they were looking at their computer screen, their Blackberry or just distracted elsewhere. So we make the assumption, ‘I speak – you listen – you retain – you have heard me’.

Not so. I speak. You ostensibly listen but you don’t necessarily concentrate and you certainly do not retain the conversation because you didn’t really hear what I said. Think how many misunderstandings have taken place, over the years, due entirely to an unintentional disconnect between speaker and listener.

Britain’s political drama has finally ended. Two brothers, David and Ed Milliband, had fought for the role of leadership of the Labour party yet who would have thought that Ed, the younger brother, would have come from behind to gain the top job – but he did!

With Ramadan now behind us and business ‘back to normal’, it is a good time to think about using the right hand side of our brain and to start being creative. Particularly in times of a recession, we need to utilise our often latent abilities. Now more than ever before, it is of even importance to use the skills that we already have.

Business entrepreneurship can be taught through formal study-courses and motivational speeches. It comes down to a particular mindset that supports heavyweight performance and decision-making.

Empty Nest Syndrome is identified with depression, yet research shows that many parents feel positive about their children leaving home. The situation can be eased further by well-proved stress busting tips.

School students may display unexplained stress symptoms about a new term or a new school year. These may be highly personalised. Some new hi-tech do-it-yourself de-stressors could be a solution.

Professional business networking is a branch of exclusive social life, and the skills of engaging the attention of a key individual must be matched by diplomatic methods of disengaging.

Anger management training will be increasingly needed to equip Western managers, with their combative dialogue, for the anger-free boardroom culture of China and India.

Workplace stress encourages the lazy option of the fast-food takeaway. This habit works against proper nutrition and a restful midday break, setting up more of the pressures that build up into stress.

The well-built and wide-open roads of UAE are among the most dangerous in the world. Stress training expert Carole Spiers examines conflicting theories about the roots of high-risk driving.

Social Media, with their user-generated content, is the biggest data revolution since printing. But it can set up workplace stress through addiction to sites and thoughtless copying-in of material.

The stress and anxiety of a call-centre requires a high degree of Emotional Intelligence – correct reading of people and situations. There are established drills for defusing customers’ anger and improving relations.

Bottling-up your grievances at work causes stress and anxiety. Now research proves decisively that it causes heart disease. The chance to log your problems in a formal report is an important key to a healthy workplace.

The recent shutdown was a small version of a world crisis, for which we need to be prepared. Such rapid corporate change would require the immediate application of many forms of stress management training

Finding time to smell the roses – a code for good time management, stress management strategies and sensible philosophy. We often need reminding of it by people who have known great tragedy, and overcome it.

The workings of memory have been an obscure subject till now. But recent research demonstrates that you memorise better and longer when you’re feeling relaxed at the moment of input.

24/7 work-attendance is assumed to be an unfortunate necessity in competitive business. New evidence shows that it induces a state of ‘bad intensity’ that discourages creative insight.

Email overload can dominate your working day, unless you actively prevent it. Management should restrict email to its correct purpose, which is pure information, and not persuasion or debate.

Today’s work-culture makes it harder to enjoy that full night’s sleep we need. Sleep deprivation especially affects the creative thinking and decision-making that increasingly makes up our day’s work.

It’s easy to get blasé about the world’s greatest engineering marvels when you’ve been hearing about them non-stop for months. But you should never lose your sense of wonder about them.

The huge possibilities thrown up by social business networking such as LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube will revolutionise the way we hunt new business, new staff and new contacts, and generally present our profile to the world

The disappearance of the ritual lunch-break is partly a social statement about new flexible workstyle, and partly a strong temptation to stay at your desk and earn.

Sensational reports of economic breakdown in Dubai ignore the global nature of the current economic crisis. The UAE retains a brilliant mix of creative and technological strength, says stress-guru Carole Spiers.

Stress-guru and keynote speaker Carole Spiers notes the emergence of UAE as a Formula 1 venue, and warns against the particular stresses of motor-sport, both on the track and off.

Stress-guru and keynote presenter Carole Spiers lives her own declared philosophy of overcoming so-called impossible challenges on the 10th anniversary of National Stress Awareness Day.

Stress-guru and motivational speaker Carole Spiers ends her last visit of 2009 to Dubai on a note of optimism, based on what she has just seen and heard, confirmed by some encouraging forecasts on stress management.

Stress-guru and public speaker Carole Spiers returns to Dubai after an interval, to find that UAE is proving more resilient to the recession than the media make out.

DOES EMAIL STRESS YOU OUT? IS EMAIL THE ENEMY OF THE QUIET LIFE?

A makeover may not seem the most obvious remedy for the stress symptoms of a recession. But recent research indicates that women are spending more on their clothes, hair and general makeover than they were a couple of years ago

The handling of back-to-school pressures is easily recognisable as a branch of Change Management, today’s most topical intervention in the handling of stress symptoms.

At moments of acute work stress, you may feel that a smile will cost you some dignity. But what about the simple wisdom that says “A smile costs you nothing”?

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers comments on air-traffic controller ‘talking on his mobile’…

Job interviews combine so many different kinds of work stress that Interview Coaching has become a recognised branch of stress management, in much demand by beginners and top players alike.

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says that regulations may be introduced for good reasons, but too many of them can stifle initiative, and heighten executive stress. They can also be exploited by those administering them, sometimes obsessive one-issue crusaders.

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says that passive aggression may seem an improvement on active aggression, but it can destroy the momentum of a project. Often it is linked to inadequate change management, causing needless stress at work.

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says that interim management can set up serious workplace stress through the unsettling impact of a new manager, and the awareness that these are remunerated better than their full-time counterparts.

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says Absence Management is best sourced in-house, to avoid setting up an atmosphere of mistrust. The best use of outside experts is to train your own HR department for this emotive, personal agenda.

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says that survivor guilt is one of the most irrational stress symptoms, where the sufferer identifies too closely with the victim. In most cases, it is partly or wholly unjustified, and pointless in any case.

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says that the feeling of indispensability is rooted in insecurity, and can lead to serious stress symptoms. Good team-building policy always asserts that nobody is indispensable.

Corporate theft often starts small and then can easily get out of hand.

Appraisal interviews can be a great opportunity to reveal hidden talent in your team but do you make time to do this on a regular basis?

Stress can get in the way of us concentrating and make us careless of the road. And then we can easily say it was someone else’s fault!

Taking a power nap during the day can help you to recharge your batteries.

Motivational Speaker Carole Spiers says, ‘Women – don’t give way to the stress of conference stage-fright’ …

Making someone redundant can be one of the most difficult jobs to do.

Flexible working can work for some but not for all. However, it may be necessary to do this as part of the team.

Sometimes none needs to demonstrate ‘tough love’ in order to get things done.

So many people think that there are aren’t enough hours in the day but in reality we cant increase this. But we can be more efficient with our time.

We may hate report writing but once it is out there, it is out there. And your reputation goes with it.

Do you sometimes tailgate someone else when driving your car? Not a very clever idea and it can cause a serious accident.

Are there some rules that go with networking. The answer is ‘yes’ and they can be learnt.

It is not always easy to be an ex-pat – change of lifestyle, working and getting to know the culture.

Some people change personality when they get behind the wheel. Do you?

Any prospect of organisational change – a merger, a takeover, a relocation – tends to provoke fear and resentment out of proportion to the actual disruption that eventually happens

We always identify stress with overload – dangerous pressure building-up through those bulging in-trays and late nights. But too little pressure at work may be just as dangerous as too much. Underload (or under-demand) sets up constant stress through monotony, inertia and boredom for which we were simply not designed.

Today’s workplace is clearly asking for burnout, the biggest factor being the atmosphere of non-stop emergency, based on the idea that any relaxation will play straight into the hands of the competition.

Stress management is basically one long battle, where mental resilience needs to be supported by physical resilience. Yet one of the most serious pressures is the extreme difficulty of arranging regular exercise, when your workload is made up of one panic after another.

Experienced negotiators often make use of a subtle form of questioning that does not make people feel they are being questioned at all  –  Active Listening. This is the technique of guiding a conversation by making minimal gestures and utterances that suggest empathy, while not actually indicating agreement. Attention is diverted away from the questioner […]

The old problem of absenteeism has a curious mirror-effect we call Presenteeism  –  the psychological need to over-attend. Redundancy fears focuses the mind on attendance and often translates into presenteeism. One of my clients was living in perpetual fear of redundancy, and believed that it would safeguard his job if he was seen to work […]

As well as credibility, trustworthiness and communication skills, a mediator must enjoy outsider status  –  the sheer fact of being a neutral observer brings a new dimension to workplace conflicts. I once had to perform some shuttle-diplomacy in a big electronics factory, where there was a dreadful atmosphere that hit you the moment you walked […]

Bullying is commonly identified with the abuse of physical or hierarchical power. Yet there is also bullying from below, and its effects can be just as harmful. Subordinates often demonstrate just how easy it is to make a manager’s job impossible. A young warehouse supervisor once told me he’d been driven to despair by a […]