Stress Triggers and Your Strengths

The past few months have been a whirlwind with the Covid-19 crisis impacting each of us in different ways. After the initial phase of the crisis I found myself getting increasingly frustrated with my working days. Given the relatively unforeseen consequences of lock-down, I found I was busy all the time. The working day became more than my usual 8am-6pm, jumping onto ad hoc calls and providing updates, dealing with the impact on business & people and debating contingency planning. I knew that this was necessary, so I began to wonder why I was feeling frustrated.

I discovered a podcast by Chris Heinz (www.ChrisHeinz.com) outlining how our strengths can act as stress triggers.

But by using a three-step process of Awareness, Relief & Aid you can use your strengths to manage stress and build resilience.

My top 5 strengths are Individualisation, Achiever, Relator, Focus & Learner. I realised that:

1. Individualisation: I was no longer having the 1x1 offline chats with people now that I was working remotely. I used to relish these conversations as ways to understand their strengths, motivators & drivers (see my earlier Identifying Values, Beliefs and Drivers: Step 3 of the 7 Step Plan blog).

2. Achiever: I am motivated by setting and completing milestones and deadlines. Yet in the COVID-19 crisis early stages, I found that my diary was being hijacked by the needs of others reducing my opportunity to get my “To Do” list done each day.

3. Relator: I was dis-connected from my “go to” trusted people and everyone was so focused on stabilising the business that there wasn’t time for deep meaningful conversations. I was also isolated from some of my family.

4. Focus: All of the distractions and ad-hoc meetings impacted on my ability to “get things done”

5. Learner: Normally I would put aside time every week to read broadly on various topics. In the early days of the crisis, there was no time to do this.

Through raising my self-awareness of stress triggers though the lens of strengths, I could think about how to use my strengths to build my resilience and manage stress. For me this meant:

• Taking time to connect 1x1 with people on “virtual coffee chats” or “virtual cocktails” (Individualisation & Relator)

• Re-defining my priorities, deadlines and milestones so that I could continue to achieve them (Achiever)

• Put in place daily habits including dedicated time to achieve complex tasks (Focus) and to read, listen to podcasts, and join webinars (Learner)

The 3rd step of using my strengths to build resilience is to “aid” others. I am now consciously helping others by:

• Getting them to re-connect with their strengths (Individualisation)

• Taking time to show I care about them (Individualisation & Relator)

• Helping others to feel productive (Achiever)

• Providing focus on the key priorities (Focus)

• Giving individual recognition for work well done (Achiever)

• Sharing what I am learning with others (Learner)

As a result, I feel much more productive and helpful. I am also more resilient and far less stressed or frustrated. This is making the switch between my working day and family life much easier and my ‘down-time’ more rewarding. Given we are all working & living 24/7 together, this for me and my family was very important.

Make time to look at your Strengths and see how you can utilise them to create positive outcomes.

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I am an Executive Coach/Mentor and a Gallup certified strengths-based professional.

If you would like help to understand your strengths drop me an email to ad@annemariedurbin.com