“My work is killing me, literally. I love it, but there’s too much stress. I have to work weekends to keep up with the paperwork and deadlines I can’t finish during the week. My blood pressure is high and my blood sugar is borderline! I had a scare in the office already. Chest pains. Was checked out. Everything seems to be ok. The doctor says it’s stress only. That's why I'm telling you that, literally, this job is killing me.”
Those were the words that a leader working on the healthcare industry shared with me over the weekend. Is this similar to your story? Are you so stressed out by the job you love that your health, and even your life, are threatened? Is your work worth dying for?
As I told my friend, there ARE other options. You don’t have to let your job kill you. The most common excuse I hear from leaders that are stressed to the maximum is that they don’t have time to do anything different, or they don’t have enough capable people to delegate more.
In reality, although change is difficult, you can find a way to manage the stress and organize your job in a way that it doesn’t kill you. You can choose life!
Through the years I have helped many leaders make the life-saving changes they needed. Through executive coaching they found the courage and the tools to reduce their stress level and be more effective in their job.
10 suggestions for managing your stress
Here are the 10 most effective suggestions many of my clients have found helpful for managing their stress (in no specific order):
- Look for support. Both social support and assistance with technical and strategic support.
- Control your thinking. Get out of negative thinking and stop being overly-critical of yourself and others.
- Consider your health important enough to develop healthy habits of eating, drinking, exercising, and resting.
- Have clear expectations about your roles, tasks, and work-load.
- Learn to say no. Be realistic about how many things you can handle.
- Find ways to control work other than becoming over-involved.
- Reorganize your resources and optimize them.
- Delegate more. Regardless of what you might think, you're NOT the only capable person. And if that is not true of your situation, it's time you train, mentor, or hire more capable people.
- Give employees a stronger say in work decisions. Then let them take more responsibility.
- Practice relaxation. Use deep-breathing exercises or relaxation techniques to de-stress during the day. Relaxing at least 20 minutes a day will make a difference, and create a habit.
Remember. . .
No matter how much you love your work, it’s not worth dying for! Find ways to lighten your load and to take care of your health. After all, as I mentioned on my last blog, your leadership is only as good as your brain. Stress has a very negative impact on your ability to reason and make good decisions.These ideas can help you continue to enjoy your work life to its fullest and protect you against leadership stressors. Tell us which ones have you tried and which ones work best for you.
Change is difficult and many leaders find the only way to establish healthier habits is by engaging the help of an executive coach. What about you? Do you need help with change? I have some openings for executive coaching coming up in August. Since they are not too many, they tend to fill up fast. Take action now!
Photo by: sun dazed and Logos Noesis