Article by:
Dr. Pratik P. SURANA,
Ph.D. ACTP,
EQ I 2.0 Certified Practitioner
Chief Mentor and Founder,
Quantum Group
Email: pratiks@quantumtrainings.com
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pratik0510
Youtube: http://www.youtube.com/pratik0510
Why Financial Services is reeling under pressure and is not a very happy work place for it’s employees and associates?
Be it deadlines, badly stressed profits, wafer thin margins or tough targets for the sales people in Banking, Stock Markets, Investment houses, Corporate financial services, often the first compromise happens is on Work Life Balance and hence the most taken for granted skill is Emotional Intelligence. Who has time for such sft issues, right? Wrong..
If a tree represented a financial firm, robust internal and external relationships would be its roots. Without good roots, the tree wouldn’t experience optimum growth and produce good fruit (results and profit). And emotional intelligence is essential to robust relationships.
All financial organisations, whether they operate within the actuarial, insurance, retail banking, risk or regulatory arena, are still hugely based on relationships. And long will they be, as this essential and personal aspect can’t be substituted with technology.
Retail banking
Take retail banks and building societies as an example. The main graduate jobs are in branch management or relationship management – both of which involve immense interaction with colleagues or customers every day.
A lot of our business is working with and leading people – if you’re going to be successful with that you need emotional intelligence.
Insurance
The same applies to roles in insurance – from entry level up to management. As a broker, insurance agent or an under writer, emotional intelligence has an important part to play because if you sense that someone’s reacting positively to a certain theme you continue to go down that route.
Stock Markets:
One of the most volatile of all the services where very high stakes are involved, the amount of money involved and the global politico-economic-social scenario and it’s impact, the stock markets have become more sensitive to the global developments
Some of the symptoms common across these industries that people have and the causes are :
• Having to work longer hours
• More sedentary, office based work – less time out in the fresh air
• Having constant appraisals, reviews and reappraisals in order to keep up with the company guidelines.
• Having huge amounts of paperwork and bureaucracy
• The instability of jobs nowadays – high proportion of businesses outsourcing work to India and Eastern Europe, and redundancies
• Settling for second best – not doing a job that you love, rather doing the job that peers or society “expect” of you.
• Critical and unsupportive managers
• Critical and negative workers
• Poor working conditions
• Lack of exercise
• Poor diet while at work
• Not taking regular breaks or fresh air
• Not being able to delegate your work to other people
• Not being able to say no to others demands on your time
• Sitting in front of a computer all day can really drain your energy levels (I found a Q Link really gave me an energetic boost when wearing it)
• Doing a boring and repetitive job
more signs and symptoms you notice in yourself, the closer you may be to stress overload.
Stress Warning Signs and Symptoms
Cognitive Symptoms
Emotional Symptoms
• Memory problems
• Inability to concentrate
• Poor judgement
• Seeing only the negative
• Anxious or racing thoughts
• Constant worrying
• Moodiness
• Irritability or short temper
• Agitation, inability to relax
• Feeling overwhelmed
• Sense of loneliness and isolation
• Depression or general unhappiness
Physical Symptoms
Behavioural Symptoms
• Aches and pains
• Diarrhoea or constipation
• Nausea, dizziness
• Chest pain, rapid heartbeat
• Loss of sex drive
• Frequent colds
• Eating more or less
• Sleeping too much or too little
• Isolating yourself from others
• Procrastinating or neglecting responsibilities
• Using alcohol, cigarettes, or drugs to relax
• Nervous habits (e.g. nail biting, pacing)
Keep in mind that the signs and symptoms of stress can also be caused by other psychological and medical problems. If you’re experiencing any of the warning signs of stress, it’s important to see a doctor for a full evaluation. Your doctor can help you determine whether or not your symptoms are stress-related.