Managing Leadership Stress
The right amount of stress in right circumstances can help improve performance (Ross, 2009). It makes athletes play better on the field, helps a lawyer argue passionately to a jury, and helps the executive make business deals. This type of stress is focused. Too much stress or stress that lasts too long hinders performance. The leader will not be able to concentrate and will become disconnected. To manage leadership stress, leaders need to be self-aware by monitoring how much stress they are experiencing.
Leaders need to be mindful of their physical and psychological responses to stress. Adrenaline and cortisol are released. These hormones are good for focusing. However, the leader may also experience heart rate and blood pressure increases due to stress. This is a sign of too much stress. Once acceptable stress levels are exceeded, the leader will start to lose focus. Everyone has different max stress levels. Leaders should know what their max level is (Ross, 2009). Thompson (2010) refers to this as stress management capacity. He says that while leaders shouldn’t go beyond their max level, they should try to increase their stress capacity.
Tips to Manage Leadership Stress
One of the most stressful professions is that of a medical doctor. Arnod-Thomas (2006) discusses five ways that doctors can turn stress into success: managing perfectionism, empowering yourself, developing stress management skills, focusing on what you want, not what you don’t have, and taking action. These strategies can also be applied to leaders in other professions. Let’s take a look at the strategies.
1. Managing Perfectionism
This means setting realistic expectations. Leaders shouldn’t take on requests they can’t handle. This causes mistakes to happen. Arnod-Thomas (2006) says that everyone makes mistakes, but instead of being hard on themselves about it, leaders should see it as a part of the learning process. Finally, in order to manage perfectionism, leaders should try not to control everything.
2. Empowering Yourself
Arnod-Thomas encourages doctors to empower themselves because it promotes self-esteem. This is important because self-esteem drives other life factors such as how you take care of yourself and others. Having good self-esteem gives leaders the freedom to say what really needs to be said, instead of holding those ideas in. In addition, reconnecting with your purpose in life and finding spiritual fulfillment can increase self-esteem and empower leaders.
3. Developing Stress Management Skills
Experiencing prolonged stress can affect physical well-being. Leaders should develop stress management skills and use a variety of coping strategies such as time management, conflict management, training, relaxation, social support, problem solving, communication, and reducing external stressors. It also means that leaders should learn to enjoy their downtime and to relax by taking vacations.
4. Focusing on What you Want, not What you don’t Have
Another way to control stress is to focus on the good things that are happening instead of the negative things. If a leader focuses on the negative all the time, it will make them more stressed. Arnod-Thomas posits that leaders should spend their energy thinking about the things they want to happen. By doing this, it will cull their negative emotions about what they don’t have and open them up to the possibility of good things happening.
5. Taking Action
Arnod-Thomas says the best way to fight stress is to take action. This means that leaders should recognize that some aspects of their life are out-of-balance and to make a plan to fix things. Leaders should seek professional help with this if they need to.
Managing leadership stress is vital.
One key to manage leadership stress in the organization is for leaders to be positive and exude confidence.
Leaders also have to respect themselves first before anyone else will. Leaders need to serve others to improve self-perception as well. They must remain optimistic during stressful times in the organization. When leaders do come under stress, they can do the following: stay focused on the goal, reflect on their thoughts to make sure they are positive, and identify causes of stress. In addition, leaders should get into the habit of practicing positive self-talk. (Darling & Heller, 2011).
Helping employees reduce stress is beneficial to the organization as well. One way of doing this is to conduct a stress audit at all levels of the organization to take an introspective look at stress in the organization. The organization can then offer tools, such as free screenings and training to help employees combat stress. Organizations should work to change the workplace culture into one that is less stressful.
References
Arnod-Thomas, M. (2006). Five keys to transforming stress into success. Physician Executive, 32(6), 44.
Darling, J. & Heller, V. (2011). The key to effective stress management: Importance of responsive leadership in organizational development. Organization Development Journal, 29(1). 9-26.
Ross, J. (2009). Monitor and manage your stress level for top performance. Harvard Management Update, 14(4). 1-5.
Thompson, H. L. (2010). The stress effect: Why smart leaders made dumb decisions-and what to do about it. (1st ed.) San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
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