Executive Coaching for Stress Hardiness – Causes of Stress

Are you working in an organization where leaders demonstrate stress resiliency? Do the leaders in your organization help others to become more stress hardy? Does your company or law firm offer wellness or stress management programs for management and employees?

One of the most powerful questions one can ask is “How am I doing managing my stress and am I helping others to become more stress resilient?” Stress hardy leaders have focused energy and help others become stress resilient.

Are you a leader who listens and models a calm and reassuring leadership style?  Are you able to create a high performance workplace by creating a workplace where employees are healthy and fully engaged? Do you have a healthy work-life balance? Does your organization encourage prevention and focus on wellness.

Causes of Stress

We are hardwired to respond to threats with a stress reaction that can save our lives. In a nanosecond, we are ready for fight or flight. But the biological systems that saved us in a primordial world can actually turn against us in highly stressed business offices. We are no longer threatened by tigers, but our mental and physical reactions are exactly the same.

A common form of mental stress occurs when reality differs from expectations. Falling below a certain sales quota for a quarter creates stress for everyone in sales. The stress is linear: minimal if sales are off by 2 percent and greater when quotas are off by 40 percent or more.

Stress happens when:

• We fail to meet deadlines, budgets or other goals.
• We have ambiguous job responsibilities.
• We perceive a lack of control over tasks.
• We have a sudden upsurge in tasks.
• We have conflicts with others.

Hierarchy and Control

Stress is also related to social hierarchy within an organization, which signifies how much control you feel over your life. This sense is directly related to disease; studies show lower levels of control at work consistently led to increased illness.
 
Factory workers are more likely than university professors to have heart disease and a shorter life expectancy because of stress related to social position. Companies that go out of their way to reduce hierarchy have noticeable reductions in stress.

Many common work problems create gaps between expectation and reality.

Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become an inspiring leader who displays the qualities of calm leadership and stress resiliency. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence and social intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of your company or law firm.

I am currently accepting new executive coaching and career coaching clients. I work with both individuals and organizations. Call 415-546-1252 or send an inquiry e-mail to mbrusman@workingresources.com.