San Francisco Bay Area Executive Coaching

Executive Coaching for Stress Resilience – Creating a Culture of Authentic Appreciation

Authentic Appreciation

Are you working in an enlightened organization where leaders truly care about the emotional health and well-being of employees? Do the leaders in your organization express appreciation on a regular basis? Does your company or law firm offer stress prevention programs for management and employees?

One of the most powerful questions one can ask is “Do I regularly express appreciation to others for their talents and successes?” Emotionally intelligent leaders truly care about helping employees achieve healthy, happy and productive lives.

Are you a leader who models healthy stress management by creating a workplace culture and climate where appreciation is expressed in the moment? Are you able to create a high performance workplace where employees are fully engaged emotionally? Do you have an organizational culture which values appreciating all of its employees on a regular basis? Do organizational leaders encourage stress prevention and wellness?

Resilience

You can decrease stress by creating a positive mental state before or during stressful situations. You can learn specific techniques to refocus your mind before you become stressed. It is possible to reduce the time and energy needed to establish a calm and thoughtful state of mind.

Research studies show appreciation-generating techniques can reduce the production of cortisol (the stress hormone).  Regularly showing appreciation has been demonstrated to lower blood pressure, improve hormonal balance and increase the body’s production of antibodies that fight stress producing pathogens.

Recognizing employee strengths and talents and expressing appreciation are key stress-management components. Coaching and mentoring programs can help companies develop corporate cultures and healthy workplace climates that encourage creativity, productivity, optimal performance and full engagement.

Researchers have found that expressing appreciation in the workplace reduces stress and improves performance. Company leaders can learn to create a mindset of showing appreciation by focusing their attention on what each employee does right in the moment.

Company leaders can experience great joy and fulfillment when they see the faces of employees light up when they feel that management acknowledges their significant contributions. Showing appreciation creates an emotional energy that helps create a happy, productive and stress resilient workforce.  

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 shows authentic appreciation 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 [email protected].

 

Executive Coaching for Optimal Health – Managing Stress for Health and Well-Being

Optimal Health Health

Are you working in an innovative organization where leaders truly care about the health and well-being of employees? Do the leaders in your organization support others in maintaining a healthy lifestyle? Does your company or law firm offer stress management and wellness programs for management and employees?

One of the most powerful questions one can ask is “Is maintaining a healthy lifestyle one of my important values?” Healthy business leaders have high levels of energy and support employees in staying healthy, happy and productive.

Are you a leader who models a healthy work/life style?  Are you able to create a high performance workplace where employees are emotionally and physically healthy and fully engaged? Is your organizational culture supportive of healthy work-life balance for all of its employees? Do organizational leaders encourage stress prevention and wellness?

Health and Well-Being

Too many companies purchase the health plans they can afford and then hope to maintain costs, without realizing that corporate culture and individual responsibility have a dramatic impact on overall employee health and healthcare costs. Some CEOs take the attitude that employee health is none of their business, whereas others see health as something intrinsic to corporate values.

Achieving reductions in healthcare costs without employees’ buy-in is difficult, as many health issues are related to lifestyle. Obesity, smoking, lack of exercise, poor nutrition and an inability to manage stress are associated with 50 to 70 percent of all illness and medical problems.

Wellness programs provide structured efforts to improve employee lifestyles, and screenings before the onset of disease enhance health and reduce costs.But less than 5 percent of the $1.8 trillion that Americans spend on healthcare goes toward prevention, and even progressive companies spend 80 times more on cure than prevention.

Some wellness programs consist of little more than posters and reminders in company newsletters. And since they are voluntary, wellness programs attract those who tend to be healthy—not the individuals who need the most help.

Corporations have a responsibility to reduce stress, which is responsible for many risky behaviors like smoking, alcohol abuse and poor eating habits. But health packages are affordable and effective only when employees take responsibility for managing their own lives and bodies.

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 [email protected].

 

Executive Coaching for Navigating Stress - Personal Mastery of Stress

Are you working in an inventive organization where leaders navigate stress effectively? Do the leaders in your organization help others sustain high performance while under pressure? Does your company or law firm offer stress management programs for management and employees?

One of the most powerful questions one can ask is “How well do I navigate stress and maintain high levels of energy under pressure?” Stress resilient leaders have focused energy and help others become stress hardy working under pressure.

Are you a leader who models a calm and inspiring leadership style?  Are you able to create a high performance workplace where employees are emotionally and physically healthy and fully engaged? Is your organizational culture supportive of healthy work-life balance for everyone? Do organizational leaders encourage stress prevention and wellness?

Personal Mastery
 
Personal mastery of stress begins by recognizing that it’s a palpable force in the workplace—one for which we must proactively prepare. Of course, a certain amount of stress is the norm in business, but recognizing its signs and symptoms is essential for diminishing and controlling detrimental reactions.

Accepting a degree of chaos becomes part of the challenge. Instead of looking at change and uncertainty as a series of calamities, we can reframe these situations as exhilarating experiences that provide opportunities.

As with river rafting, one’s environment cannot be controlled. But with the right skills, we can navigate and enjoy the turbulence instead of fearing it. Negative stress can be reduced by reframing our perceptions.

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 [email protected].

 

Stress Management Exercise for Tough Times - BRIEF RELAX-REFRESHER

BRIEF RELAX-REFRESHER

Stress is a very powerful force that involves awareness, attention and energy. It can be managed and empower you.  If you let stress control you, the resulting distress can be harmful to your body, mind, and spirit.

1. Find yourself a comfortable position with as few distractions as possible.

2. Gently close your eyes and focus your attention inward.

3. Imagine a radiant light dissolving your stress.

4. Take a few easy slow breaths, taking air in through your nose and exhaling through your mouth.

5. Say to yourself, “Alert mind, calm body”.

6. Now take a deep, soothing breath all the way down to your abdomen.

7. As you exhale, let your facial muscles, neck and shoulders relax.

8. Feel a wave of warmth and heaviness sweep down to your toes.

9. Allow the relaxation to re-energize your body and mind.

10. Slowly open your eyes, stretch, and ease back into normal activities.

                    Golden Rule: Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff... ultimately it’s all small stuff.

Stress is a natural response within all of us and it can serve as a valuable source of increased energy and creativity. When coupled with an optimistic attitude, positive or eustress can help you accomplish the things in life that are most important. However, knowing how to manage unwanted stress and relax is essential to your enjoyment of life. Remember that you are in charge of your own physical, mental, emotional and spiritual health. You can choose to be happy, healthy, and relaxed.

Executive Coaching for Mastering Stress – Saving Ourselves from Stress

Mastering Stress

Are you working in an organization where leaders handle stress effectively? Do the leaders in your organization help others meet their goals while under pressure? Does your company or law firm offer stress management programs for management and employees?

One of the most powerful questions one can ask is “How well do I manage my stress and energy under pressure?” Stress resilient leaders have calm energy and help others become stress hardy working under pressure.

Are you a leader who models a calm and caring leadership style?  Are you able to create a high performance workplace where employees are emotionally and physically healthy and fully engaged? Is your organizational culture supportive of a healthy work-life balance? Do organizational leaders encourage stress prevention and wellness?

Saving Ourselves from Stress

There are four paths to counteracting stress and disease at work: two personal and two organizational, according to research in the book What Happy Companies Know, by Baker, Greenberg and Hemingway.

An individual’s or organization’s failure to take responsibility can quickly destroy a team. The organization must refrain from imposing unreasonable productivity requirements, and individuals must recognize their limits—a difficult prospect for high achievers.

Businesspeople and athletes share a common desire to achieve a personal best. “Good stress” strengthens our mental and physical abilities, but we need reasonable mental conditioning.

Just as individuals have a responsibility to be physically and psychologically fit for duty, an organization must provide a healthy environment, with specific policies to bolster workers’ health and well-being.

More importantly, a company can reduce stress by changing its corporate culture, including increased awareness of the value of appreciation, gratitude and positive emotions.

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 [email protected].

 

Executive Coaching for Stress Resiliency – Calm Leadership under Pressure

Calm Leadership under Pressure

Are you working in an organization where leaders manage stress effectively? Do the leaders in your organization help others maintain their productivity under pressure? Does your company or law firm offer stress management programs for management and employees?

One of the most powerful questions one can ask is “How well do I manage my stress under pressure?” Stress hardy leaders have calm energy and help others become stress resilient under pressure.

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

High Performance under Pressure

Whether out of fear of losing their jobs or a desire to turn the company around, people often display amazing abilities to work under pressure. One of my CEO executive coaching clients shared how his company is having a bad fourth quarter due to the economic downturn.  He related that he has a tendency to get complacent when things are going well, but loves to solve problems under adversity. He was transparent and shared with is senior team there would be cut backs in bonuses, raises and other compensation. The CEO’s leadership style is collaborative and emotionally open. So that rather than retreat to fear and get stressed-out, each member of the senior team became energized and engaged in how best to make the necessary cuts.

When we are asked to sustain too great a load for too long a time, there’s an undeniable detrimental outcome. Athletes and soldiers understand the impact of physical and mental strain, and they pace themselves to avoid burnout and injury. The rest of us continually expect more from the people we employ, not to mention ourselves. Most people can manage the additional stress if leaders create a climate of trust and are open and honest about current economic realities. People need to know that their leaders care and that support is available to meet difficult challenges and get through tough times.

Have you ever wondered why salmon die after spawning? When they swim upstream from the ocean to their spawning grounds, fighting currents and obstacles, their adrenal glands become hyperactive. The constant “on” cycle causes control mechanisms to fail, and the adrenals keep pumping. After spawning, salmon do not die from exhaustion; the cause is excessive stimulation when the adrenal glands fail to shut off.

Executives and leaders are particularly at risk for putting themselves in highly charged environments, where expectations of surviving successfully are high and there are few timeouts for recuperation.The greater their responsibilities, the more stress CEOs have. They harbor tremendous expectations for achieving goals over which they may actually have little control.

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 [email protected].

 

Executive Coaching for Stress Resiliency – The High Costs of Stress

Stress Resiliency at Work 

Are you working in an organization where leaders model stress resiliency? Do the leaders in your organization help others to become more stress resilient? 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 well do I manage my stress?” Stress resilient leaders have calm energy and help others become stress resilient.

Are you a leader who 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 and your workforce have a healthy work-life balance? Does your organization encourage prevention and focus on wellness.

The Costs of Stress

Stress can be defined as the cognitive, emotional, biophysical and behavioral reaction to a threat, real or perceived.

Stress reactions are costly. Stressed executives can exhibit the same heart-rate increase, elevated blood pressure and hormonal release when running late for a meeting or confronting an armed thug. Stress depletes our physical, emotional and mental resources, which ultimately reduces companies’ productivity and profits.

The Canadian consulting firm Chrysalis contends stress is responsible for 19 percent of absenteeism, 40 percent of turnover, 30 percent of disability costs and 60 percent of workplace accidents.
 
Healthcare costs for stressed workers are 46 percent higher. Total stress-related business costs (disability, death, insurance, medical expenses, accidents, loss of employees, sick leave and reduced/lost productivity) total between $250 billion and $300 billion annually in the United States. Starbucks, which prides itself on its employee programs, now spends more on healthcare than on coffee procurement.

Americans’ working hours increased 3 percent from 1979 to 1999. We are sleeping approximately two hours less a night than people living 50 years ago. Far too many people whose jobs should help sustain life find them to be a source of stress and fear, killing them spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically.

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 [email protected].

 

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 [email protected].

 

Executive Coaching to Manage Stress - Four Paths to Less Business Stress

Less Business Stress

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

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

Are you a leader who 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? Does your organization have a healthy work-life balance?

Four Paths to Less Business Stress

We typically spend one-third to one-half of our adult lives at work. But work is a common source of unhappiness and stress. Studies have concluded that the number of burned-out, stressed-out or chronically stressed individuals is between one-fourth and one-third of the work force.

If companies are to survive the challenges of uncertainty, leaders and workers must be fully present and engaged at work, in a state of health and well-being.

A study by the Conference Board reveals only half of Americans today say they are satisfied with their jobs, down 10 percent from 1995. Among those who say they’re content, only 14 percent say they are very satisfied.

Problems at work are more strongly associated with health complaints than any other factor in people’s lives, even financial or family troubles. While they may fail to realize the health implications, people at work are acutely aware of stress. A Northwestern National Life survey shows 40 percent of workers report their jobs are very or extremely stressful, and 25 percent of employees view their jobs as the top stressor in their lives.

More than 50 percent of employees feel overwhelmed by their workloads, and 62 percent perceive their workloads to have increased in the last six months.

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 [email protected].

 

Executive Coaching for Enlightened Leaders and Lawyers - Dealing With a Narcissist Boss

Dealing With a Narcissist Boss

 

Are you working in an organization where leaders demonstrate emotional intelligence and social intelligence? Do the leaders in your organization inspire others to create a future full of infinite possibilities? Does your company or law firm have a high performance leadership program that develops emotionally intelligent and socially intelligent leaders who can deal with a narcissistic boss?

One of the most powerful questions one can ask is “Do I have the self-leadership interpersonal skills to work with a narcissistic boss?” Empathetic and inspiring leaders excite followers with high levels of energy and hope for a better shared future.

 

Are you a leader who models an empathetic and inspiring leadership style?  Are you able to create a high performance workplace by creating a workplace where employees are fully engaged and leaders care about people and help them achieve important team goals?

 

Be prepared to look for another job if you cannot disagree with your narcissistic boss. Remember, the company or law firm is betting on his vision of the future — not yours. 

 

Here are a few tips on how to survive in the short term:

 

• Empathize with your boss’s feelings, but don’t expect any reciprocal empathy. Look elsewhere to boost your self-esteem. Behind his display of infallibility, your boss hides a deep vulnerability. Praise his achievements, and reinforce his best impulses — but be wise. An intelligent narcissist can see through flattery, preferring independent people who truly appreciate him.

 

Show that you will protect his image, inside and outside the organization. Be cautious if he asks for an honest evaluation. What he wants is information that will help him solve an image problem. He will resent any honesty that threatens his inflated self-image, and he is likely to retaliate.

• Give your boss ideas, but always let him take credit for them. Find out what he thinks before presenting your views. If he is wrong, show how a different approach would be in his best interest. Take his paranoid views seriously, and don’t brush them aside; they often reveal sharp intuitions. Disagree only when you can demonstrate how he will benefit from a different point of view.

• Hone your management skills. Narcissistic leaders often give subordinates many more orders than can possibly be executed. Ignore requests that don’t make sense. Forget about them. He will. But be careful: Carve out free time for yourself only when you know there’s a lull in the boss’s schedule. Narcissistic leaders feel free to call you at any hour of the day or night. Make yourself available, or be prepared to get out.

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 empathetic leadership. 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 [email protected].