Let’s start with a short quiz:
What’s the best thing about workplace success?
A. You get more money.
B. You get more recognition.
C. You get more work.
If you answered “A,” you are on the right track. Workplace success usually translates to earning more money. If you’re like most people, you want a financial reward for hard work. However, recognition and power are right up there, too. Money, coupled with power, makes people salivate. You could probably think of any number of celebrities who live their lives basking in these two categories.
Are they really the lucky ones? In a sense, yes; however, dark clouds are often on the horizon.
The answer that causes the most angst is, “C.” The more you succeed, the more that is expected of you. The more you climb that ladder of success, the happier you are…that is, until you hit the “Peter Principle.”
This idea has been around for a long time. It’s when you keep receiving promotions because your skills are exemplary and then one day you are at the top of your career. The cycle continues and you get promoted again and suddenly, you are at a loss about what to do.
Enter success stress.
Once you go too far past your skills base and you’re in uncharted territory, all the money and all the recognition in the world becomes null and void.
Look, good engineers know how to engineer; accountants know how to count; pharmacists know their pills; physicians know the body; marketers know the market…you get the idea.
What causes most success stress? It’s the people, sweetheart. Managing people is a whole different world than knowing how to code, count, or create an emoji.
No matter how accomplished you are, how much your technical skills are valued, it’s the people part that causes workplace conflict that will often bring even the smartest people to their knees.
Office politics, human resource hassles, and legal issues, can lead to emotional burnout and turn success into unimaginable stress.
As you have climbed high perfecting your entrepreneurial symphony, think of all the people you bring with you. No longer possible to play it solo, now you have a whole orchestra behind you. And I bet, you wish all those now working next to or near you, would leave their anger, sob stories, excuses, petty jealousies, procrastination, and bravado at the door and just get their work done.
It’s not so easy being successful.
And guess what, their upsets and burdens lend themselves to having your own insecurities and frustrations rear their annoying little heads.
All is not lost, however – success stress can be stopped right in its tracks. It depends on how willing you are to learn the very basic rules of people management. There are 13 very common behavior patterns that show up at work and make people nuts.
Your job, is to point out the patterns that get in the way of collaboration and help those who look to you for guidance, transform the outdated habits to ones that make the day fun and positive.
Take for example, the drama king or queen, one of the key patterns in the book, “Don’t Bring It to Work.” Do you have one (or a few) in your employ? They’re the folks who have hissy fits over nonsense and waste important time. You can ignore them or pretend them away; however, they make the workplace an emotional wasteland…talk about success stress!
They can damage your reputation, the reputation of the company, and even worse, can be the source of ugly lawsuits.
Take the time to learn about pattern transformation and help steer these divas away from dumping on your emotions to using their emotions for the good of the group.
Once you tackle the source of success stress, you can once again focus on shaking the money tree and exuding positive power from a productive team.
Now, take a moment to sit in the sun, chill for a bit, and make the most of your success!
