Tame the Stress Monster

July 2006

According to a recent survey in Prevention magazine, nearly 75% of Americans feel “great stress” once a week or more. How owners and managers deal with stress is important not only to our health individually, but the health of our businesses as well.

When we let stress affect our demeanor, it can set off a negative chain reaction among everyone with whom we interact. Employees and co-workers often do their best to avoid stressed-out bosses. They may hesitate to seek advice when they most need it, which could lead to production errors, missed details and blown deadlines. If your sour attitude is picked up by a customer, they may be more likely to cut short a meeting or even withhold business.

Stress will never disappear from our lives, but there are several tactics we can employ to reduce it. Here are a few to keep in mind:

Recognize and avoid your key stressors – Everyone has different causes of stress in their business lives, just as we have different physical and emotional reactions to that stress. One way to reduce stress is to identify and avoid, as much as possible, your specific stressors. If you dread Monday-morning meetings, for example, you may want to arrive earlier than usual to prepare. If arriving early is causing undue stress, then perhaps leave the office early that day if you have the flexibility.

Take care of the essentials – A key element to managing stress is taking care of our physical well-being. Regular exercise and proper nutrition – while not always easy in today’s business environment – will help you cope with and reduce the effects of stress.

Adjust your management style if necessary – For many managers, the small events that cause stress are, in total, indicative of a stress-inducing management style. Managers who insist on controlling all aspects of production or employee tasks often find themselves fretting over miniscule events at the expense of bigger-picture decisions.

Altering your management style is a comprehensive task that won’t happen overnight. But it may be the surest way to minimize stress if you find that all of your key stressors point to your work habits.

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