As the demands placed upon leaders increase, so does the level of stress. Researchers agree that a certain amount of stress is necessary to maintain vitality and a zest for life. However, too much stress can cause health problems, impair performance and curtail your creativity. It is important to step back and take stock of the stressors in your life and reevaluate how you might tackle them. It is the intent of this article to broaden your awareness of commonly shared work place stressors and ways to better diagnose your particular needs. Some interesting surveys recently were conducted. They sought out to find if particular issues or people were causing the most stress for leaders at work. Here is what they found:

Causes- the “What”

The number 1 cause of stress, according to the leaders surveyed, is trying to do more with fewer resources and do it faster.

Other stress-contributing factors included;
• Developing people
• Managing limited resources
• Physical demands from travel, working hours and the work environment
• Motivating employees and providing feedback
• Making decisions
• Increased job responsibilities

Interestingly, interpersonal demands of leadership such as establishing and maintaining relationships were also cited as somewhat stressful. Managing difficult interpersonal issues such as difficult personalities, political maneuvering or conflict… not surprisingly, contributed highly as well.

Causes-the “Who”

The research also sought to uncover if there was a particular person(s) within all working relationships that was the primary stressor? I.e. is the boss usually the cause of stress?

Their results showed that there was no one group to “blame”. That is, leaders reported experiencing stress equally from their bosses, peers, direct reports, and customers. However, while no one group caused more stress than any other group, the reasons for the stress differed.

Stress from the boss usually tended to emerge when people felt a lack of support or respect. Management style differences were also cited as a key factor for provoking stress. From peers, being overly competitive and demonstrating no inclination toward teamwork were the primary sources of stress. From direct reports, poor performance was the primary stress factor, and from customers, experiencing unreasonable demands or unreasonable expectations.

How Can I Become Better at Managing my Stress?

Probably, a good place to start would be to assess your current level of stress, more methodically and objectively. Responses to stress are very unique to the individual, and complex. We “feel” stress, but often do not have a good handle on our current stress managing “strengths” and stress-managing weaknesses or “vulnerabilities”. I.e. “my needs, my temperament, my way of looking at the world”. There are several good assessment tools available that can really help people really figure out all the factors involved, and target specific steps to remedy them.

"Stress is not what happens to us. It's our response TO what happens. And RESPONSE is something we can choose."

What Would Such an Assessment Uncover?

• A closer examination of your current environment, discerning the unique changes, pressures and satisfactions that are a part of your everyday world. An opportunity to see the whole of professional and personal issues and how they manifest as stress.

• Your current coping responses and their effectiveness.

• Insights into your current proficiency with basic skills that really help you manage under stressful situations. Skills such as; how to seek support, becoming more adaptable or learning how to manage your time more effectively.

• More discoveries into your inner world of thoughts and feelings. Behaviours such as having a positive outlook, connecting to others, expression and compassion are huge components in successful stress management.

What then?

When you uncover the full range of factors, more intelligent choices can be made for improving. Some examples;

• Basic time management techniques can be easily learned, but an unattended behaviour of procrastination or avoidance will thwart any time management technique.

• Or, consider the person who has long forgotten how to give feedback, or receive feedback in a positive way. Rediscovering the importance of expressing yourself can be most effective when coupled with proper feedback techniques.

• Knowing how and when to seek support and confide in others is hugely important in managing stress, but happens only when people trust. Exploring your current trust “radius” may provide you with more information.

An honest assessment of cause and effect will put you in a place to choose more authentically, where and who you want to be.

"If you are distressed by anything external, the pain is not due to the thing itself but to your own estimate of it; and this you have the power to revoke at any moment."

- DeTimes

I read an article in Economic Times by the one of the Directors of Bharti Airtel, Mr. Gopal Vittal. I have tried to pick a few things from it.

Mr. Vittal explains how his transformation while shifting from FMCG to Telecom had been filled with fundamental differences. The planning cycles shortened, speed was tremendously high and unlike FMCG, he had only one product to appeal to a diverse and a demanding consumer circle. His basic theory of Plan-Do-Learn-Plan was no longer applicable in such high pace situations. This dilemma is faced not only in such cross vertical shifts but according to me, it’s quite analogous to the situations faced by every industry as compared to a few years ago. Consumers have become smart and are thinking a few steps ahead of the manufacturers. It is quite obvious in the case of telecom when the consumers came up with the phenomenon called “Missed Calls” to reduce costs, something that telecom players are still trying to cope up with. It’s a fact that all telecom giants are hit by heavy losses due to Missed Calls. What is the Solution that we seek here? The solution is quite obviously Adaptability. Change, which has a lot of resistance, is the need of the hour. Survival of fittest can be safely modified to Survival of those who can adapt to change.

Mr. Vittal also did the necessary change in his theory to adapt himself to the situation. The new theory he used in such chaos was Plan-Do-Learn-Do. Which leaves no room for re-planning. This theory does take care of the pace at which things should move but leaves no room for error. Initial planning becomes more important than ever. So planning essentially becomes the key area where companies will either fail or survive. Mind you, success is still not guaranteed. For success, the latter part of the theory is the most essential one. How quickly you Do-Learn-Do and how many such cycles do you require before implementing your plan accurately decides the level of your success.

It is not the strongest of the species that survive, or the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. Charles Darwin.

 -  DeTimes

1. Most important leadership concern : Scarcity for today & tomorrow
2. Most important concern for leaders : Relationship Management

A1.
The global economy is faced by a massive concern of scarcity of Leaders already. Hence, the first and foremost step should be to create enough leaders for times to come.

If we do not undertake steps for future needs of our leaders, several large companies can collapse. Several economic stability factor will start vibrating.

Hence, it is extremely critical to address this need carefully and religiously. Else, many companies, tomorrow, will look like a headless chicken running everywhere. None of us want to face a leadership crisis, now or never.

A2.
Currently, global economics times are testing, especially due to the recession in the US. Several economies will take a beating and and only a few self reliant economies will emerge as winner. It is important for leaders to get most value from their existing relationships. I am again repeating this. If all the people go the extra mile to suffice for the deficit gap, then there is no deficit. This is the key factor.

Leaders of today's times have a massive task at hand to save our future. In the next few years we must produce as many leaders as possible. We don't want to lose our fortunes for anything.

These I believe are the two most important tasks at hand, which also demand serious measures with urgency.

- DeTimes