Tips for Handling Toxic Environments

It seems I keep running into environments where stress is a killer for the employee. Not as in coffin or cremate, but at least regarding sense of isolation and anxiety and lack of recognition or support. In some of these cases, it does translate into loss of life, because it becomes loss of self. What this does to the individual is strip them of pride, distract them from their skills and repeatedly miscommunicate their lack of ability.

Feed your Introvert Downtime Need

It's Friday, a great day for us introverts to reduce our stress. If we've been out meeting with folks during the day through the rest of the week, maybe even attended a few "required" evening events, we need the downtime. Friday is a great day to set aside "me" time: follow up on the paper trails, focus on needed research, and/or make the next prospecting list.

This week I have focused on Stress, the #1 Introvert Barrier Pattern, while addressing some of the factors that cause it: work overload (see post Inside the Lines) and focusing on the physical symptoms (see post Physical Symptoms Don't Have to Derail Us). And another contributor to introvert stress is people exhaustion.

Introvert Barrier #1

It's the biggest killer in today's society: Stress.

Introverts feel so much better when we manage ourselves. Until then, we are our own biggest enemy. We tend to let stress do us in. The number one barrier to introverts' self worth is stress. We need to break down this barrier.

As Jennifer B. Kahnweiler writes in The Introverted Leader, there are three common stress builders we habitually allow. They include work overload, focus on physical symptoms that create anxiety and people exhaustion.