Causes for Stress
There can be ‘N’ number of causes for stress like:
1) Major change in life situation: marriage,
divorce, unexpected pregnancy, child birth, new job,
getting fired, retirement, accident, death of a dear
one, facing jail term etc
2) Work related stress: job dissatisfaction,
role conflict, role ambiguity, office politics, interpersonal
conflicts, insufficient pay, work overload, racial/sexual
discrimination or harrasement etc.
3) Environment related stress: poor physical
condition of the workplace, pollution, noise, too much
cold or too much heat, unsafe neighbourhood etc.
4) Other Stressors: personal problems (like perfectionism,
low self esteem, pessimism, unrealistic goals etc),
family problems, financial problems, lack of support
from family and friends etc.
Strategies for Coping Stress
As an event manager you can do following things to
reduce stress:
1) Set realistic goals for yourself and for your team.
2) Avoid all those people and situations which cause
stress
3) If a person is experiencing job dissatisfaction,
then determine his needs (social needs, esteem needs
etc) and satisfy them through various financial and
non-financial incentives available for need satisfaction.
Design job for a person in such a way, that it is able
to utilize his skills and abilities and at the same
time satisfy his needs.
4) Role conflict (like taking care of guests and handling
technicians both at the same time) and role ambiguity
(what one is expected to do) both cause severe stress
to a team member. So as an event manager it is your
responsibility to design a job for a person in such
a way that he faces minimal role conflict and has no
role ambiguity.
5) Discourage politics and favoritism at the work place.
6) Resolve interpersonal conflicts quickly and judiciously.
7) Prepare a policy handbook that prevents and address
all type of harassments (emotional, physical and sexual)
and discriminations. The handbook should clearly state,
that the consequences of not abiding by the policy handbook
will be severe. Distribute the copies of the hand book
to all the team members and ask them to go through it
completely.
8) Make sure that all the physiological needs (need
to have food, water, warmth, shelter and other things
necessary for smooth working) of your team are met from
time to time during the event.
9) Protect your team from psychological harm by making
sure there are no internal conflicts (like ego clashes,
altercations, conflict of interest etc) among team members.
If there are conflicts, then resolve them judiciously.
Providing job security to your team is also very important.
At no point any team member should feel that his job
is under threat either by your actions or by someone
else actions. Take care of your team beyond the work
place. If any team member is facing a financial problem,
then help him as much as you can.
10) A team member will not perform his best if he has
considerable family problems. Try whatever you can to
reduce his family problems. If you can’t do much at
least accept his problems and empathize with him. Try
to reduce his stress by giving him a day off or engaging
him in the sport he likes the most. Ask you team members
to be as supportive to him as possible. All this will
help.
11) Majority of stress in an event is due to poor time
management. It is hard to remain calm and focused when
things are not going the way they should and you are
running behind schedule. Plan ahead and plan each and
every activity in great details. That’s the only solution.
12) Include rest and relaxation time in your daily schedule
for yourself and for your team members.
13) Encourage yourself and others to adopt a healthy
lifestyle like regular exercise, nutritious diet, yoga,
meditation, tai chi, massage, sports etc.
(Further Reading: Stress
Management - How to reduce, prevent and cope with stress)
