Stress can affect all staff at all levels. In the United Kingdom, the Health and Safety Executive reported that in 2014, stress, anxiety and depression accounted for 39 per cent of workplace absence. In the United States, the current cost of workplace stress is estimated at $300 billion a year, 73 per cent experience the psychological symptoms of stress, with around 33 per cent living with extreme stress.
Knowledge is power. If you want to reduce your stress, start by identifying possible causes of excess pressure at work. In the United Kingdom, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) identify a number of factors, which, if not managed correctly, can lead to workplace stress.
Consider whether any of the following may be potential sources of workplace stress for you:
❯❯ Demands: A feeling of inability to cope with the demands placed on you by your job
❯❯ Control: A feeling of lack of control in the way you do your work
❯❯ Support: A feeling that you’re not receiving adequate information and support from your colleagues and superiors
❯❯ Relationships: A feeling that you’re being subjected to unacceptable behaviours from those you work with
❯❯ Role: A feeling that you don’t adequately understand your role and responsibilities
❯❯ Change: A feeling that you’re unable to contribute to or shape organisational changes that impact you
A recent research study suggests that leaders experience less stress than their subordinates because they tend to have more control over situations, however, leadership can have its own unique stresses. One leader confided in Juliet that he only ever experienced stress at two points in any given 24 hours: night and day!
Leadership involves increased responsibility, working with ambiguities, pressure to achieve results by influencing others, and loneliness, each of which can take its toll. As a result, leaders may experience power stress, a term coined by Boyatzis and McKee. Power stress can result from the exercise of influence and sense of responsibility experienced in many leadership positions. If it isn’t identified and addressed adequately, it can lead to physical and emotional exhaustion.
The chronic stress that can accompany leadership has been connected to a wide range of diseases and dysfunctions. It can also lead to a state of dissonance, which can drain your enthusiasm and energy. Power stress experienced as a result of being in a leadership position isn’t really the problem; a lack of a sense of completion when you complete tasks and projects and insufficient recovery time are.
Mindful Ways to Improve Your Leadership
The following sections discuss various ways you can improve your leadership mindfully.
How do you become a more mindful leader, you ask? You may have already formed a mental image of how mindful people conduct themselves. Maybe thinking about this is conjuring up an image for you? Perhaps you think a mindful leader is a person with real presence, a person who is at ease with himself or herself, is open, wise, insightful, patient, kind and benevolent and has the strength of character to make ethical choices.
A mindful leader can of course be all these things, but this almost saintlike combination may feel unattainable or may foster a sense of inadequacy – neither of which is particularly helpful. The simple tips and techniques contained in this book will help you to develop metacognition (awareness of thoughts, emotions and bodily sensations), and maintaining an optimum state of mind, which are core components of mindfulness.
We encourage you to throw away any preconceived stereotypes of how a good leader should or shouldn’t be. Be authentic to yourself and your values. Strive to be the best you can in your own unique way. Good leaders come in many different guises – one size does not fit all.
Although academics may seek to capture and define the essence of mindful leadership, within this book the definition of a mindful leader is simply a leader who knows himself, takes personal responsibility for his actions, and makes a conscious effort to manage himself to be the best leader he can be.
By putting some effort into developing metacognition, treating yourself with kindness like a true friend, and trying to maintain an optimum state of mind, you’ll be better able to be the best you can in any given situation. Remember: as a human being, you will probably always be a ‘work in progress’. Cultivating mindfulness is a journey, not a destination. It can take a lifetime, but you can feel the benefits very quickly if you practice as you work through this book.
To reduce your stress levels, you need to first identify your current level of stress. There are numerous stress tests online that can help you to gauge your current level of stress. You can find a very simple stress indicator on the Resources page of my (Juliet’s) website – www.aheadforwork.com.
Working in a VUCA world may be inevitable, but suffering as a result optional. When faced with volatility, try to build in some slack to allow for unexpected volatile eruptions. Develop staff to be able to deal with a broad range of circumstances, and keep your workforce as flexible and nimble as possible.
When faced with uncertainty, collect, interpret and share information. Pool resources and support easy sharing and access to information. The more information you can gather, the less uncertainty for all concerned.
When working with complexity, you may need to reconsider your organisational structure. Do you have adequate specialists located in the right parts of the organisation to analyse, make sense of and inform action on the volume of incoming data? Allow time to stand back and evaluate which information is key and which isn’t worth the investment to make else of.
When working with ambiguity and the absence of any information, approach the challenge with an open mind and experiment. Test hypotheses, gather information, learn lessons, and eventually ambiguity will become certainty.
Mindfully Reducing Leadership Stress
Leadership can be a lonely, isolating job. It can also be exhilarating and rewarding. Although you can’t always predict or control the cards that life deals you, you can learn to control your response to them. A core component of mindfulness is learning to observe your own unique patterns of thought and behaviour. This allows you to take control and become a wiser, more considered leader.
Awareness of your patterns of thoughts and behaviour are essential to being a good leader. Thoughts can trigger emotions and tension in the body, which lead to stress. Until recently, these were largely overlooked by leadership and executive education programmes. Over the past few years, leading business schools have added mindfulness training to leadership and MBA programmes.
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