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It's easy to respond to stress unthinkingly, but the simple act of encouraging employees to consider what they need can help them to be less reactive in the moment, a performance expert says.

"So much of this is about creating the space to be able to ask yourself, 'what do I need?'" Columbia Business School professor Modupe Akinola tells HR Daily.

However, Akinola says, "we are not good at diagnosing our own issues. We're great at figuring out what someone else needs to do better or needs help with, but [we're] not as good with doing it ourselves".

Therefore one of the keys to alleviating an individual's stress, and preventing them from passing it on to others, is enhancing their self-awareness. They need to understand what triggers it, and what helps them to deal with it...