Stress Management Tips: Workplace Competition and Stress

For more information, visit and If your workplace stress is due to your co-workers, this tip may help. You may not be able to pick with whom you work, but you can pick how to get along with them in order to reduce stress. Stress can be reduced when people collaborate in the workplace—rather than compete. This inefficiency can prompt stress. Since I developed my without stress tips approach—primarily from my teaching—an example from the classroom can best help understand the point. Picture this: A teacher is giving an exam and each student is expected to come up with the right solutions to the problems. Some will succeed, and some will fail—but few will solve all the problems. Those who do find the right answers will not share them with others because that would be considered cheating. In contrast to this traditional approach of students competing to obtain a good score, suppose the teacher were to say, “I’m not testing you as individuals; I’m testing you as a class. Put your heads together and come up with the answers.” In most probability, no individual would possess all the knowledge needed to solve the problems or all the aptitude needed to apply the knowledge. But the class as a whole would have the knowledge and aptitude. Instead of some people succeeding and some failing, everyone would succeed. What is traditionally known as cheating in the typical classroom is known as collaborative problem solving in the workplace. Collaboration is the key to success in today’s economy. Tip: When you can, collaborate for better results. Check out more information about reducing stress at . Thanks for watching, sharing, and have a stress-free week! MUSIC: