Managing Stress: (Practice Manuals for Busy Professionals)

The Managing Stress Practice Manual, 2nd ed, provides the ideal stress management tool for practitioners across the public sector and professionals at all levels in business and management. The modern world of work is highly pressurised, with stress levels affecting workers' health and little to no understanding of the roots of stress, making workers feel overwhelmed and lacking the confidence to do anything about it. This book takes a holistic look at stress, offering clear and practical guidance on how to manage pressure, how to prevent stress, what to do if stress arises and how to deal with the aftermath of stress. By taking a deeper look, this book provides the reader with a full understanding, taking the narrow focus away from the individual themselves, and thereby taking away the 'blame the victim' message that can add to stress. This latest edition features new content including: current pressures caused by Covid-19, stress related to job insecurity, financial stress and the cost of living crisis issues around neurodiversity. It explains complex ideas clearly and accessibly, including practical examples and exercises throughout, with a repertoire of strategies and sources of help that will be invaluable to practitioners and business professionals alike.

Table of Contents:
Welcome Foreword: Dr Jermaine Ravalier Introduction 1. Why bother? 2. What is stress? 3. What causes stress? 4. How can I cope? 5. Using support 6. Avoiding stress 7. Responding to stress 8. Dealing with the aftermath 9. Avoiding burnout 10. Becoming assertive 11. Handling conflict 12. Time and workload management 13. Supporting each other 14. Investing in the future References Postscript for managers Postscript for self-employed people Postscript for tutors and trainers

About the Author :
Neil Thompson is an independent writer, producer of online learning resources and a visiting professor at the Open University. His approach is based on the three Ps: where there are People, there will be Problems, but there will also be Potential. He has decades of experience of helping individuals and organisations to address the problems and fulfil the potential. He is renowned for his ability to express complex ideas clearly and accessibly without oversimplifying them, and to successfully blend theory and practice. In a long career, he has provided training or consultancy services to over 100 organisations, spoken at conferences and seminars in 13 different countries and has won awards for the quality and impact of his work. He has held full or honorary professorships at five UK universities, but for many years now he has focused on reaching a much wider audience to help make a positive difference. He has earned the trust to be a helpful guide and mentor through his writings and online learning and you will no doubt soon see why when you start reading this book. His Academy website, with his Manifesto for Making a Difference, can be found at www.NeilThompson.info.

Review :
This new practice manual provides readers with a wealth of information to help us understand stress and develop strategies to manage it. The text is clear, informative and contains numerous practice-based examples to help the reader think about the issues in an applied way. Adopting a multidisciplinary approach, the manual will be of use to anyone – and of particular value to those working in human service-type roles where stress is ubiquitous. Dr Steve J HothersallHead of Social Work Education, Edge Hill University. In this manual Neil Thompson defines stress and clarifies its harmful effects, so we are not left in doubt about the urgency to negate them. Neil expertly describes effective strategies to manage this modern-day evil. Reading his step-by-step guidance feels like seeing the light at the end of the tunnel, and by applying it you can liberate yourself from claws of stress negativity. Thank you, Neil! Marina KoganExecutive and Business Coach, KoganCoaching The materials and structure of the manual encourage and support the creation of a framework for reflecting and responding at individual, team and organisational levels to develop and utilise a well-being strategy in professional practice and is an important resource that enables students, educationalists, practitioners and managers to not only think about stress, and its impact, but also to begin to explore active change as part of our response. Gerry RiceAssociate Dean, Quality, Learning and Teaching, The University of the West of England This manual is an excellent resource aid for employees and managers, with guidance and practical tips to help people reflect and learn how to manage their own stress and help others in doing so, thereby enabling people to have a sense of control in their lives at work, which can be very empowering. Dr Rozana Huq, Author of The Psychology of Employee Empowerment