Managing Executive Stress

by Betsy White Williams

Regardless of gender, occupation or social status, stress affects us all and receives a lot of attention. Executive stress, however, is a bit more specific and doesn’t receive nearly as much attention—even though the impact of stress on health is very well-known and include a positive correlation stress and increased levels of cardiovascular disease. Cardiovascular disease, by the way, is the leading cause of death in the U.S., including among high-income individuals.

Fortunately, there are easy and effective ways to manage stress.

 

Starting at the Beginning

When most people talk about stress, they’re referring to their emotional response to a specific aspect of life: work, family, health or money, for example. A list of common life situations ranked in order of stress level reveals that moving, marriage and death of a spouse are the most emotionally distressful events. Researchers have demonstrated that people who experience higher level stressors or more stressors suffered more serious illnesses in the following year than those who experience fewer, lower level stressors.

The reason for these health-related problems apparently is connected directly to your body’s response to stress, which is hardwired. Under stress, your brain reacts by mobilizing your body to respond physically. That is, it reacts in a way that increases blood circulation and facilitates the ability of your muscle system to respond. In the right situation, that natural reaction can save your life.

But what might help your body in the short term hurts it in the long run. “To understand the difference between good stress and bad stress, consider the fact that a roller coaster ride lasts for three minutes, not three days,” says neuroscientist Robert Sapolsky of Stanford University.

No merger, acquisition or business decision was ever made in three minutes. At least, not yet.

 

It’s All About You

While you respond physiologically to stress, stress itself is a psychological response. Because it’s psychological, you—and only you—determine what events are stressful and how stressful they are. How you respond is determined largely by your personality.

You’ve probably heard of “Type A” and “Type B” personalities. Type A personalities, of course, are competitive, driven and feel there is too much to do and too little time to do it. Sound familiar?

Often overlooked when discussing contributions to stress is your sense of control. Researchers have found that the degree of control that a person feels they have over their life is indirectly related to that person’s sense of stress. Executives, who are used to having a greater sense of control, can often feel more out of control than those who work for them. Even if the crisis is potentially good—a contract, a merger or even retirement—this sense of a loss of control can lead to the very kind of long-term stress that causes serious health problems.

On the flip side, feeling too much control is unhealthy as well. Feeling that you—and you alone—are responsible for the success of your firm is a major cause of burnout. Feeling as if you can never leave work or that the firm is out of control, are common feelings among executives, particularly small business owners.

 

Taking the First Steps

Managing stress isn’t easy, but you can achieve it. There are a few key elements to managing stress, including a balanced lifestyle, healthy habits and recognizing and getting help when you need it.

Harder to accomplish is committing to a regular work schedule that includes reasonable work hours as well as regularly scheduled downtime and vacations. When you do take a vacation, discipline yourself to avoid calling or emailing. Start to share the workload with a team that you trust, allowing them to make mistakes or do things differently than you would.

Sometimes, even when you have a balanced lifestyle and healthy habits, you still find yourself with chronic feelings of stress and anxiety. In that case, professional assistance is recommended.

Betsy White Williams is clinical program director of the Professional Renewal Center in Lawrence, KS. She can be reached by phone at 785.842.9772 or by email at BWilliams@prckansas.com.