Kenneth W.Thomas and Walter G.TymonIncrease your work effectiveness by managing your stress habitsThe
Stress Resiliency Profile is an easy-to-administer, self-scoring assessment that gives clients new insights into ways to control the stressors that have an impact on their work effectiveness and capability to influence stressful events. It offers new perceptions of the ways they may be unintentionally raising their stress level and measures the mental habits that determine their level of "stress resiliency." By understanding the thought patterns that can cause stress, clients can increase positive thinking and ability to make change, gain control over themselves, and change areas where bad habits exist.
Three cognitive habits that create stress are identified and evaluated:
- Deficiency focusing—the habit of focusing on the negatives at the expense of the positives
- Necessitating—the perception that tasks are inflexible demands that must be met—with no room for discretion or choice
- Low skill recognition—the tendency to underestimate one's own competence and abilities; feeling that success depends on things outside ourselves
The profile measures level of use of each of these habits and shows where stress symptoms are most likely to occur. It offers guidelines to help design a strategy for increasing stress resiliency by asking "stress-inducing" and "balancing" questions.
The Stress Resiliency Profile is a powerful tool that will add new insights to any learning and development program. It can be used in a variety of programs, such as stress management training, organizational change, work/life balance, executive coaching, management development, team building, supervisory training, and personal development. The profile is useful in a structured setting or as a stand-alone personal development exercise to give individuals fresh perspectives into their feelings about their job and their performance. It provides an important route to stress reduction that is ignored in many stress programs.
