zandax online course logo
zandax website search
zandax phone callback
Info, Blogs, Contact & Login
Courses
Tests

4 Useful Tips on How to Communicate in Stressful Situations

From the ZandaX Communication Blog

Articles to help you improve your communications

Home  >  ZandaX Blogs  >  Development Blog  >  Communication Articles  > 
4 Useful Tips on How to Communicate in Stressful Situations

4 Useful Tips on How to Communicate in Stressful Situations

A post from our Communication blog

Article author: Ashley Andrews
      Written by Ashley Andrews
In a highly competitive work environment, stressful situations are inevitable. Differences of opinion, diverse work habits, and different personalities can all lead to disagreements when stress and tension come into play. Although being able to communicate effectively and maintaining an even temper are both crucial when it comes to resolving these disagreements, not everyone has the natural ability to handle situations like this.

Anger

The good news is, with a bit of practice you can easily learn key habits that'll allow you to deal with stressful situations at work. To help you get started, here are 4 useful tips on how to communicate in stressful situations.

1) Know yourself

Before you try to understand how to communicate with others during tense situations, you need to understand how you deal with stress. Different people react to triggers differently. Some might entirely avoid confrontations, while others may react aggressively. Although neither of these are the ideal way of reacting to tense situations, it's crucial that you know what your response would be.

You need to find a comfortable middle ground between these two and react in a thoughtful way. Knowing yourself will allow you to understand your reactions and correct your behaviour. If you're prone to aggression, you need to identify the warning signs and reel yourself back. This article from Skills You Need will give you some examples for these.

2) Listen

Listening is one of the most important things you can do in difficult situations. Always keep in mind that you're not the only one feeling stressed and out of sorts. When you're working with a team on a project with an approaching deadline, the entire team is feeling the pressure. Unfortunately, stressful situations tend to restrict our ability to listen to others, to consider their opinions and solutions.

To avoid making this mistake, try to take a deep breath and pay attention to those around you. It can be a little difficult to keep a level head when everyone around you is unable to do so, but it will pay off in the end. If even one person can stop and listen instead of contributing to the stress, they can reduce the stress levels of their entire team. The Free Management Library website has some useful tips on how to do this.

3) Relax

One of the worst things you can do in stressful situations is to lose your temper. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done, since people naturally have less control and patience when they're under stress.

Losing Your Temper

While a long rant to your friends outside of working hours might help, letting your temper loose in the workplace among your colleagues can do more harm than good. The best way to deal with this is to relax and focus on the task before you. If you can't focus, it might be a good idea to remove yourself from the situation and take a short break.

 4) Stay quiet when you're angry

When you're angry, the best way to communicate is to not communicate at all. When we're annoyed, we tend to blurt out what we have on our minds, and that's never a good thing. Words said in anger can never be taken back and if you're not careful, you can seriously jeopardise your career. The best way to avoid this is to stay quiet and try to calm down.

Conclusion

If you remember and follow these four points, you'll be able to navigate tense situations at work without offending people or compromising your team's (and your own) productivity. Although it doesn't always come naturally, especially when you're not in the mood to be polite, but the results are well worth the effort.



Do you have any other tips on how to communicate in stressful situations that you would add to the list? Let us know!

Back to the Communication blog

Click the button for more Communication articles.

The ZandaX Personal Development blog

Click a panel for great articles on personal development

Write For Us

We pride ourselves on our busy, high-quality and helpful blog, and we're always looking for guest contributors to increase the variety and diversity of what we present.

Click to see how you can write for us with an original and well-written guest post.

ZandaX Blog Contents

Want to see them all? Click to view a full list of articles in our blogs.

Online courses to boost your skills
Click a button to see more about each course
Personal Development
Microsoft Software
 
 
Leadership & Management
Sales & Presentations
Service & Support
 
 
ZandaX online training course logo
ZandaX – Change Your Life ... Today
All content © ZandaX 2023
ZandaX LinkedIn logo
ZandaX LinkedIn logo
ZandaX LinkedIn logo
Close menu element
See how you score on a range of skills that are critical to your well-being and performance
Communication Skill test
Communication Skills
How Can You Communicate Better?
Would you like to see what kind of communicator you are? And how you can improve the effectiveness of your communications?
Likeability test
Likeability
How Much Do People Like You?
Do you sometimes wonder just how likeable you are? And wouldn't you like to see how you can (genuinely) become more likeable?


Time Management test
Time Management
How Can You Make More Use Of Your Time?
Are you frustrated by how easily time slips away? Do you get frustrated when things don't get done just because you run out of time?
Assertiveness test
Assertiveness
Are you Passive, Aggressive or Assertive?
Would you like to know where you fall on the behavior spectrum? Does your response to events sometimes surprise you?


Close menu element
Information & Resources
ZandaX information
Information
Read more about us, our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Service
See how we want to help you, and how we make everything easy for everyone
Callback request
ZandaX Blogs
Articles to increase your knowledge and understanding in key areas of your life and career.
Read our blogs on Personal Development, Business Skills and Leadership & Management


Time Management test
Log In
Log in to your online dashboard
View your courses, review what you want and download your workbooks and certificates
Assertiveness test
Contact Us
An easy online form to get in touch
With options for More Information, Customer Service and Feedback


Close menu element
Develop Your Skills, Knowledge and Understanding with ZandaX
Click any subject in the listings for more information and a full list of courses

Personal Development
Personal Development training
Your soft skills affect everything you do, at work, at home and with friends ... they are truly life changing!
NEW COURSES
Online training courses
Hot Off the Press...
We're always adding to and upgrading our courses, so here are a few of our latest releases:
For a full listing of courses, please visit our Quick Course Finder to find exactly what you want.
Site Cookies
We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better.

You can change your cookie settings in your browser. Otherwise, we'll assume you're OK to continue.

I'm fine with this