Practical Coach: Management Skills for Everyday Life, The

Video Case: Case 5: Managing Stress

Researchers believe that fulfilling work make most people happy. However, what about stressful work? Too much work? Work done under seemingly impossible deadlines? Although most of us can and do cope with occasional stressors, and some people may even be stimulated by certain kinds of pressure (particularly when they can control how they respond to that pressure), a constant diet of stress can take a toll on our productivity and our health.

Many managers have experienced the stress of realizing that a trusted subordinate is performing poorly. Sometimes a manager may decide that the best solution is to do the subordinate's work himself or herself, which only increases the manager's stress and does nothing to ...