In an unpredictable marketplace and with adverse economic conditions impacting businesses and organisations on a global basis, more than ever, leaders and managers are faced with some tough choices and the personal stresses that go with making them.

So how do you manage your stress at work? How do you develop robust and practical strategies for surviving the pressures – and helping others too? What steps are your organisation taking to proactively support you?

As a learning consultant and coach I’ve observed over the years that leaders and managers often don’t like admitting that stress or pressure affects them adversely, fearing that it’s somehow a sign of failure, of not coping and all of the negative associations and perceptions of weakness that go with it.

Stress is ultimately about our response to coping with negative feelings and emotions when we are either consciously (or subconsciously) in disagreement with the ‘what is’. In other words, we want the ‘what is’ to be different and so we become ‘split’.

The roots to negative feelings and emotions that arise in response to situations are deeply embedded in our subconscious minds and have probably been there for quite a time. The roots unfold from four core branches: what happened to me in the past; what’s going to happen to me/or others in the future; judgements of ourselves; judgements of others.

If you are a leader, a manager or responsible for supporting others in some capacity or other, then you’ve probably noticed from time to time the same stress and pressure patterns operating in you when you’re faced with a difficult situation and you need to respond quickly:

• You feel a sense of inability or powerlessness to control the situation
• You become ‘split’ – with one part of your mind saying to do one thing but another part saying something to the contrary
• You experience physical, emotional or mental tensions/feelings which will then become either partially or totally buried as the thought of facing all this in oneself can feel overwhelming
• You succumb to inertia, avoidance, withdrawal, anger, frustration, dysfunctional communication, fatigue, loss of appetite, disrupted sleep patterns, physical illness etc… it could be a long list!

In the current economic climate, you don’t need a crystal ball to predict the following…

1. Managers at all levels are faced with having to make some tough decisions on issues such as redundancy, down-sizing, pay, team development, recruitment etc. These decisions will often directly impact close working relationships with others, with both sides feeling the pressure
2. Coping with the feelings and behaviours that go hand in hand with making often difficult decisions is not always straightforward. They’re typically put in the sub-conscious folder of ‘I haven’t got time now for feeling this; I’ll deal with it later’. Over the course of time this folder can get extremely full! If the folder remains at the bottom of the file, sooner or later there will be a profound impact not only on their ability to perform effectively, but crucially upon their emotional and physical health/well-being and other important relationships – partners, children, friends etc
3. Many organisations will choose to focus even harder on task or process elements of their business in the mistaken belief that getting better at this will see them through difficult times. This is usually a collective, subconscious stress response that seeks to control or contain ‘difficult’ feelings or emotions. Sometimes organisations simply don’t want to face up to this because they’re just not sure how. Ignoring it and hoping people will somehow muddle through becomes preferable.

Proactive Leadership

However this is exactly the time when a forward-thinking organisation deliberately elects to support its leadership community through providing specific, targeted development programmes and or coaching support. In other words, manage your people to manage your business. In the cases of down-sizing and redundancy, having made the necessary redundancies, waiting until things have become evidently dysfunctional for the leaders, managers and the others remaining is far too late for implementing development programmes. The challenge as a leader is to firstly proactively manage your own internal state, then support others. So, where to begin?

I invite you to consider these four principles for managing stress:

• I only ever have to manage this moment, in me, NOW. Everything is OK, now, in this moment. Please check this for yourself. Nothing else is ever happening! Observe and deal with what’s happening, Now. Recognise that although it appears that events are happening outside of you, the only place you really experience anything in life, love, hunger, joy, sadness, emotion, sensation etc is inside your body and mind. In other words, I only experience everything within me even though it all appears to be happening outside of me.
• Is what you’re thinking / worrying about true? Is it actually happening? Can you honestly, absolutely know what will really happen? How do you feel when you have that thought? Who would you be without that thought?
• Be present with the ‘what is’. When you argue with ‘what is’, you suffer. Observe your thinking and notice it’s unreliable moment to moment i.e. I think I’d like a nice piece of chocolate cake… oh why I did I do that, now I’m putting on weight! etc. Keep bringing your attention back to this moment. A useful way of becoming more present in the moment is to simply follow your breathing with your attention. Another way is to practise listening to others whilst feeling the sensation or aliveness in your body at the same time.
• Serve the situation, not your feelings. What does this situation practically require me to do or say? By the time I’ve considered my feelings about what I’m about to have to do or say, I’ll probably not get it straight! Take practical action, immediately. Then agree with yourself to give up worrying or stressing about it until the next opportunity to take practical action appears, and then take practical action again and so on. Otherwise it’s just self-indulgent thinking which will lead to more suffering and unhappiness

Practical Action – Next Steps

• Acknowledging what is happening, for you and for others, can be important. A little acknowledgement goes a long way in tough times. Others are likely to be feeling something similar to you.
• Develop your Emotional Intelligence. Studies show that Leaders with a high E.I. quotient are up to five times more likely to be successful in their careers than those with a high I.Q.
• Proactively strategise for downsizing and redundancy, not only for the people who are going but crucially for those who remain. What practical support can be put in place before events happen?

If you feel like you could benefit from the application of the above article please view our personal development courses including stress and pressure management, or contact us.