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Army Ranger Reveals How to Control Corporate Stress by Dale Collie

"Adopting right attitude can convert a negative stress into a positive one." Hans Selye - "father of stress" and founder of Canadian Institute of Stress.

Every worker in America has heard of individual stress management techniques -- relaxation, meditation, and visualization -- good tools for getting through stressful periods. But if they're so great, why do we still have all this stress?

We're going to need something more than mood music, aroma therapy, and comfortable lighting to get beyond stress of today's workplace. We're going to need management's attention because stress control is a leadership responsibility.

The US Army has plenty of experience with stress control as front line leaders strive to keep GIs on job. Traditionally, US Army has lost as many soldiers to stress as to enemy gunfire - a ratio of 1:1. The most elite units trim this loss to a ratio of 1:10 - one stress loss for every 10 wounded soldiers.

Regardless of ratio, every front line soldier is critical to winning battle. Commanders know that controlling stress under fire is as critical as food, fuel, and ammunition. The same holds true for corporate America. You can't get high productivity with high absenteeism.

Combat leaders watch for stress symptoms and take action. They are taught to "Know your troops, and be alert for any sudden, persistent or progressive change in their behavior that threatens functioning and safety of your unit." (FM 6-22.5, "Combat Stress")

Specifically, front line leaders are taught to help overstressed soldiers in six ways:

Army Step 1. Reassurance

Corporate Solution: Some people need contact with boss to assure them that things will turn out ok. Spend time to find out worker's concerns. Ask for their observations on recent events. Find out what they think about upcoming changes. Ask for their advice -- they'll admire you for demonstrating your trust. Simple remarks showing your confidence in workers can make a big difference.

Army Step 2. Rest and sleep

Corporate Solution: Its worth your while to offer some additional time off if stress is interfering with performance. Consider giving additional breaks to relieve mental and physical fatigue. Improved productivity will more than pay for unstructured breaks that over-stressed workers will take on their own.

Find out what's needed to help employees get more rest at home. Bring in experts to teach importance of rest and relaxation. Take a look at that overtime schedule; extra work might be taking its toll in absenteeism, illness, accidents, and attitudes.

Army Step 3. Food and fluids

They are saying that market just can't sustain this level of growth and appreciation much longer, and I hear them say that it is inevitable that it must come crashing down soon. People are worried. They don't think it can last; That whatever goes up, must come down.

These folks have been conditioned to believe what they believe most likely from experience of stock market bubble of 2000, and maybe 1990's when real estate market was hit hard in many large metropolitan areas across country.

Its human nature to feel this way. We all know saying (or 80's tune for you big hair folks), "Once Bitten, Twice Shy". Or what about, "All good things must come to an end."? Its how we react to almost everything that affects our well being and general safety. Its a subconscious reaction at gut level.

Just like in stock market, there are bulls and bears. Bulls are typically more optimistic about market and expect it go up, and bears are generally more pessimistic and expect market to go down. They will always be there to provide free advice and "expert consulting". Remember though, who you decide to listen to will certainly have an effect on your decision making, and ultimately your success.

Well, I'm here to say that there is no real estate bubble! There never was a real estate bubble. Its a complete and utter fallacy.

"How can I say that?" you ask. I can say that because real estate market is in reality, a Wave. Its a cycle, and we just happen to be riding big swells, or crest of this long, consistent, and fairly predictable pattern.

There is no doubt that real estate has been a rock solid investment for decades, and will continue to be for foreseeable future and for many reasons that I would like to demonstrate here and now. Because you, as a real estate investor, must be able to move forward with confidence when deciding which projects and properties you want to buy and sell. That is purpose of my website, www.realestateinvestment.net, to provide you timely information, strategies and techniques to help you succeed.

But first, what is a bubble? In terms of economics and markets, best definition is probably something along lines of "an isolated or ephemeral situation or condition with little support or substantiation from external conditions".

The best example, and one foremost in minds of us all, is stock market tech bubble of 1999 and 2000. We all rushed into tech stocks and stock market in general as we saw .com millionaires being made.

Y2K was a big factor in tech bubble. People were buying new systems at a unprecedented rate in order to prepare for doomsday. People were also buying consumable goods to stock up for dreadful event that never came.

So what was holding up, or supporting "irrational exuberance" as Alan Greenspan characterized it? Well, we learned soon afterward, not much. It was an isolated, temporary incident that had little support from other conditions. It was indeed like a bubble that burst.

And it has had little support since then. Historically speaking, after stock market crash of 1929 and 1987, it took decades for market to recover, although it did eventually recover. Just look at Dow average and S&P average for last hundred years and see pattern of recovery. You can be sure that a slow steady rise for stocks is in progress.

Now back to real estate. Let me explain why this is not a bubble.