Executive Stress

 

I prefer the term “Employment stress” instead of Leadership stress or Executive stress as it is sometimes called. Although senior leaders make more complex decisions where a single decision can carry strategic, human, and reputational consequences, it is also true that every employed individual goes through the same causes of stress for example:

• Economic uncertainty
• Future Uncertainty: Demands related to rapidly evolving technology
•  Managing hectic traffic and transport to and from work.
• Time Poverty: Intense workloads and lack of time to manage tasks.
• Constant pressure to deliver and perform
• Trying to balance private-life and work-life.

 Impact of Unmanaged Stress

•     Cognitive Decline: Reduced focus, impaired memory, and diminished strategic thinking.

•     Physical/Mental Health: Fatigue, headaches, sleep disturbances.

•     Anxiety, and depression.

•     Decreased Performance and ability to focus

•     Reactive decision-making and defensiveness rather than calm behaviour.

•     Team Impact: Lack of goals and ineffective conflict handling strategies.

•     Negative effect on home and family life

 Strategies for Combating Employment Stress

1. Recognize and admit your stress signals.
Learn to pay attention to your body’s responses to leadership stress. What triggers a feeling of stress, and what are your physiological responses? The sooner that you recognize your body going into stress mode, the sooner you can take action to manage it.
2. Incorporate health and a proper diet into your schedule.
Exercise and dietary changes can support overall health.
3. Maintain boundaries between home and work life.
Share your work hours and preferred communication channels with your team. Control as much as you can of your schedule to live with intention both at work and at home.
4. Create your personal board of directors.
Make sure you have a support group in place that is helping you positively cope with stress and leadership.
5. Practice the art of recovery.
Athletes have long understood that pushing oneself hard at 100% capacity, 100% of the time results in little or no long-term performance gains. Make sure that throughout your day, you give yourself frequent breaks. Get up from your desk and walk around, or get outside for some fresh air. After an extended push on a project or assignment, try to take a vacation.  
6. Focus your attention on the present.
When you find yourself ruminating, connect with your 5 senses, and then focus back to the present. Refocus your attention by asking yourself: What can I control and what not?
7. Enlist a coach: Enlist a coach to help you stay on track.
A coach can support you and help you uncover ways to boost your energy and maximize your time. Together, you can determine which of your responsibilities are essential, and which ones are patterns of behavior you’ve created that may not be necessary.

 Benefits of working with a qualified Life Coach:

·      One of the most immediate benefits of working with a life coach is gaining clarity. Stress is often amplified by mental overload—too many decisions, competing priorities, and unclear boundaries. A life coach helps to slow down and untangle that complexity.

·      Another important role of a life coach is providing an objective perspective. At work people are frequently surrounded by others who depend on them or report to them, which can make honest feedback rare. A coach offers a neutral space where people can speak openly without fear of judgment or consequence.

·      Life coaches also help build emotional resilience: Coaches work with clients to develop self-awareness, helping them recognize stress triggers and habitual reactions.

·      Time and energy management are another key focus

·      Importantly, a coach also reconnects people with their purpose and values.

·      Helps with boundaries and burnout. Protect energy and say “no” without guilt.

·    Self-doubt and confidence. Tackle imposter syndrome and inner critic.

·      Work-life balance. Help prioritize personal life without guilt.

Coach Prinsloo