Ever seen those movies of an extreme workaholic lead, just always jumping from meetings to meetings, signing documents and phones ringing. Believe it or not, the depiction is partially correct.
Even the strongest among us can be affected by the responsibilities of leadership. At the end of the day, no matter how strategically or effectively you manage your business, if you don’t learn to take care of yourself, you risk increasing your stress levels.
It’s possible that workplace stress is unavoidable. Even in terrific businesses, deadlines, sales targets, budgets, job security fears, and performance concerns may all cause anxiety. It’s crucial for you to recognise the indications of stress as a leader and take action to avoid it from becoming an issue. In this post, we’ll discuss how to release tension, which is a vital part of the leadership position.
Relation Between Leadership, Stress and Health
As leaders rise through the ranks of their organisations, they are confronted with ever-increasing demands. As a result, there is a widespread belief that leaders are more stressed than non-leaders.
Many research on leadership have found that there is a definite link between leadership and stress, with leadership level being inversely related to stress.
Read here to have A Look At Executive Mental Health: Nervous Breakdown, Symptoms and Causes – xMonks
Small business or startup leaders typically bear the weight of leadership as they try to keep their firm viable and their employees motivated. To handle many demands in a day’s time, it takes a very focused mind, and before you know it, these leaders are working more than 50 hours a week to get things moving. As the body and mind become more stressed, sleepless nights and high caffeine intake become more common. And then, one fine day, the tension finally takes its toll, leaving you in ruins.
A large array of task-related and interpersonal workplace demands contribute to rumination and leadership stress, from dispute resolution to decision-making and people development.
You may presume that you understand what it is for stress to have an “adverse impact on your health” as you observe your body’s physiological responses to these stressful demands. However, some of the most harmful side effects of leadership stress go unreported in the short term and only become apparent over time.
High levels of stress can have a detrimental impact on your leadership and wreak havoc on your productivity. Even more concerning is the simple and unobserved fall into the stress trap as leaders attempt to tackle day-to-day difficulties to the best of their abilities.
There are numerous things that might bring unwarranted and frequently unrecognised concern and stress, ranging from dealing with angry clients to managing tough workers, from seeking new prospects to keeping present prospects.
For someone who takes their leadership role seriously, avoiding the stress loop is no easy challenge. However, if leaders want to stay productive and optimistic, they must be able to prioritise their mental and physical health over all other tasks. Dealing with stress and preventing it from interrupting your life and work requires intentional effort, practice, and a determination to improve your life.
Let’s move on to how we can manage stress effectively and keep bringing our A game.
8 Effective Ways for Leaders to Release Stress
When a leader fails to control his or her stress, he or she becomes more susceptible to infections, diabetes, hypertension, stroke, and depression.
It’s time to take command of your company’s culture. Good leadership entails coping with stress in order to maintain your health and foster a good work environment for your employees.
As a method of stress management, most leaders turn to sensory pursuits. These activities range from beneficial physical stimulation, such as running, to dangerous actions, such as punching a wall in frustration or binge eating.
Because leaders rely so largely on perceptual gratification, it’s critical to choose stress-relieving activities that also benefit your general health, such as jogging or listening to music.
Leaders can use the following strategies to combat the negative impacts of stress, in addition to engaging in good sensory pursuits. Leaders must be able to identify the source of their stress and tackle it front on in order to counteract the impacts of stress.
- Prioritise Your Time and Energy
In pursuit of the company’s aims and objectives, most executives are unselfish. They forego personal time, rarely take vacations, and work far more hours than are required. If you want to be a good leader, you must prioritise your mental and physical health. Make time to exercise, pursue a hobby, spend time with the people you care about, and do everything you can to be sane and healthy.
- Keep a Work-Life Balance
We have a better economy, but even tougher competition, particularly because there is a constant desire for innovation and keeping up with the times. As a result, in today’s world, we require a work-life balance in which some hours are set aside for work and the remainder is set aside for personal, leisure, and family time. More than ever, we need to take time out to balance our lives and avoid attempting to accomplish too much in too little time. Indeed, one of the top causes of stress in leaders is the pressure to accomplish more in less time, and if you want to de-stress your life, you should limit your work hours and strive for a healthy work-life balance.
- Develop Healthy Boundaries
Being able to say no and prioritising both people and things in your life is one of the first steps towards overcoming stress. To be the nice guy, you don’t always have to say YES; in fact, that’s one of the most common mistakes made by good leaders. So prioritise your health, your time, your mental health, and your life. Everything else can wait for a later point.
- Practice Mindfulness
You’re used to handling a lot of essential matters as a leader. Your intellect is always at work. It could be ruminating on the past or anticipating the future. Mindfulness is the conscious technique of focusing your attention on the current moment.
Take a deep breath and concentrate on the present moment without passing judgement. It’s fine to write down thoughts as they emerge, but then let them go and return to the present.
- Take Breaks and Practice Solitude
Get up from your desk or computer and go for a walk. It aids in the movement of your body. It’s not so much about where you’re going as it is about how you’re getting there.
This is especially useful if you’re dealing with a difficult scenario at work. The prefrontal cortex of your brain keeps you focused on your goals when you’re conducting “think work.” This portion of your brain is in charge of logical reasoning, executive functioning, and impulse control. Regular breaks, according to research, allow your prefrontal cortex to recover. When you take that break, you’ll have a lot of breakthrough moments.
Need more reason as to why a leader should delve into alone time. Read here:
- Focus on Your Physical Health
We have gotten unfit as a result of prolonged sitting with little or no activity. You should realise that your health has a direct impact on your emotions, thinking, capacity to function, and even your relationships with others. Why? Because exercise allows your body to perform at its best. Hundreds of scientific studies have demonstrated the multiple benefits of exercising, and you don’t even have to spend money to be in shape. All you need is willpower to take advantage of the excellent smartphone apps and free fitness programmes available. Thousands of business executives and entrepreneurs have stated that leading a healthy lifestyle reduces stress and dissatisfaction.
- Meditation and Yoga
If you don’t like to exercise, try yoga or meditation. These are workouts that improve both the intellect and the body, as well as the spirit, resulting in an increase in productivity. Yoga, on the other hand, is only beneficial if you work with a certified yoga specialist rather than attempting it on your own, and the same is true for meditation. We frequently believe that meditation is as simple as sitting in the Buddha pose and remaining silent; nevertheless, there is a detailed process to follow that only qualified meditation specialists can assist you with. So go ahead and make an appointment with a meditation and yoga health coach in your area.
- Get Help from a Leadership Coach
The conflicts are at large, making it more hard for a leader to agonise because they feel that asking for help would backfire. This adds to the stress and ruins relationships for everyone involved. The first step in dealing with stress is to seek assistance; if not from a friend, then from a professional therapist or mental health practitioner. After all, we all need someone to talk to, someone to inspire us to believe in ourselves, and someone to convince us that everything will work out.
More than anyone else, new-age leaders need this form of encouragement and support just so that they can continue to do the good that the world needs without losing their mind over it. Get a leadership coach today.
