Managing Executive Stress

In a 2000 report, R Wheatley from the Institute of Management in London suggested that 75% of executives report their health, happiness and home and work performance are all negatively impacted by stress.

20 years ago telecommuting, working-from-home, flexible work hours were unheard of, so you would think our workplaces would be less stressed. Yet many executives, feeling exhausted overwhelmed and close to burning out from working crazy hours, would say that it's the toughest it's ever been.

More deadline pressures, fewer resources, longer hours, more travel is causing overload for executives in many of today's commando style organizations. Consequently, managing executive stress is a very real need for most leaders.

If you feel trapped in a cycle of excessive pressure and responsibility then some of these tips for managing executive stress may assist.

Find Your Voice

I have coached many executives who have needed to learn to say no to their manager; whilst still being seen as a top performer who delivers. One simple, yet often overlooked question is: "Here's my list of current priorities. Over which of these does this task take higher priority?"

Questions like this ensure that you and the person who is asking more from you keep your workload manageable and no nasty surprises arise such as unmet deadlines.

Delegate & Grow Others

Often I hear leaders say they feel guilty about delegating to their already overloaded team members. Whilst a nice sentiment, the problem with this is that you are probably restricting their growth and their opportunities.

By knowing your people and knowing the type of work they love to do, you can delegate to them tasks that they will be only too excited to take on. It's rare to hear of anyone saying they feel overwhelmed or burnout when they are doing what they love. More likely they will find themselves in the state of Flow as described by Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Give the person you are delegating to the opportunity to say yes or no by asking the same type of question you would ask of your manager: "If you take this on, which of your priorities will suffer?" And a good follow-up question is "How do you think this is best handled?"

Hopefully, if they have people reporting through to them they'll delegate through their overflow and ask the same types of questions. (Do you see the flow-on effect?)

Eventually additional work will flow to someone in the business who has no-one to delegate too. You will find (particularly if, on offer, is a task that they will love to do) that they will innovate ways to improve their productivity. For example, in one organization I worked with, people who had been taking 2 hours to do a particular routine task, once offered more engaging work to do, brainstormed and discovered ways for the task to be completed in 45 minutes. Click here for Successful Delegation Tips

Take Time to Relax and Play

Stop Deceiving Yourself: Possibly one of the biggest self-deceptions of many leaders, when it comes to managing executive stress, is that they are indispensable. Their actions such as: not taking leave, coming in whilst ill, working 12-15 hour days, 7 days per week, consistently missing important family events - proclaim very loudly to the world their belief that the workplace would fall apart without them. Empower your team to be able to make decisions whilst you are away, so that you can have the time to rejuvenate and refresh.

Exercise: Getting physically fit improves not only your physical health, but also your mental health. Physical activity releases endorphins into your body which helps you to feel good. Here is more information on Stress Relief Exercises

Meditate: Research suggests that people who meditate are happier, healthier and live longer than those who don't. Certainly my personal experience has been that meditation has reduced anxiety and stress and enabled me to feel better within myself. Check out the meditation programme that I use.

Relieve Pain: You can use tools such as the Embodi-Cloud to help you instantly naturally relax and relieve any pain that may have built up in your body due to stress.

Break Up Your Work Day: If your mind is cluttered with many conflicting priorities and you are feeling under pressure, you will find that your decision-making becomes poor. Something as simple as taking a 5 minute walk around the block may be all that you need to clear your head and take some tension from your mind.

When you return to your workplace after that few minutes you'll often find that you are feeling re-energized and new more creative thoughts may have popped into your head. (By the way, for best effect, leave your mobile in the office!)

Put Some Structure In Place

Use a Support Network

Leaders with high self-esteem find it easy to ask for assistance and don't suffer from the unhealthy belief that they are weak if they can't do it all.

In fact you may even be pleasantly surprised by how you really aren't the lone ranger and there are probably people on the sidelines more than willing to take up some of your overflow.

Control Your Mind

Focus on the now. Yes, you may well do planning for the future, but there is a world of difference between planning and worrying.

You have probably had experiences where you have been worrying about something in the future and it didn't come to pass. Well what a waste of time and energy! The only moment you have to deal with is the one right now. Fussing and fretting about what 'could be' does little for your energy levels or the future. Taking the right actions now is the most important thing.

Have an Exit Strategy

Whilst financially it may be enticing to stay, at some point you may need to ask yourself "At What Cost?". The price you are paying may well be more than just your health, it may also include declining relationships.

I have coached several leaders who resisted, due to financial commitments and the desire for security, to step out of their stressful situation, have actually had the courage to do so. Without exception they have all said that, armed with a clarity about what they were wanting to create, it was the best decision they made.

I've also coached several leaders, who once armed with a new skill-set were able to take the dragon and soothe it!

Before you take the major step of resigning, work with a coach or someone like this in order to help you enhance your skill set at managing work and stress loads. This will reassure you that you aren't taking the problem with you - which is you!

Leave Managing Executive Stress and go to Articles Directory

Successful Delegation Micromanagement and Delegation Coaching
Time Management The Astonishing Power of Emotions
Embodi-Cloud Meditation Flow

Still want to more about meaning of success? Then use the Leadership and Motivation Training Swicki. It's a highly targeted search engine.

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