After another short break away in Alicante, with my wife, my sister and brother in-law, I realise I am enjoying these trips, a lot! Despite some travel issues with air traffic control, it was a very relaxed 5 days. These experiences make everything else worthwhile and I can manage the stress and strains that life throws, at us all, even better when I know there is a reward ahead.
This week, after speaking to a few people across different industries, the topic of stress and performance always comes up. “How much can you deal with and when does it become toxic?” are common questions that require individual answers. One persons ‘performance zone’ is another persons ‘strain zone’ because we are all different.
The rollercoaster ride of life continues to travel with highs, lows and flat, calm bits, in the middle but when I talk about taking control and managing these stressors, I often get push backs with statements like:
- “I can’t say no, I don’t want to let people down or upset them”
- “There is no-one else to do it”
- “I do it myself and then I know it’s been done”
- “I don’t have the time to spend teaching others to do it”
Where, sometimes this is true, it can’t be a long term strategy! Most people are doing, at least, 1.5 peoples jobs, spending more time at work, doing work at home, and less time with families, friends or relaxing. This increase, in time required, is due to redundancies, people leaving / retiring, which is compounded, sometimes, because organisations are not recruiting. It’s happens across most industries and people are feeling the strain.
How many people do you know who have been pushed too far and decided enough is enough? They’ve gone off with a stress related illness and never want to return.
This is why Leaders in organisations need to be aware of the clues and look after their staff. There needs to be a healthy balance of support and challenge, which is individualised. Wrap that up in a compelling vision, via story telling, and you have an engaged, motivated, high performing team, that look after each other.
Having proactive strategies can help you take control of your increased workload, with things like:
- Plan your busy periods and maximise your recovery time
- Ensure you are well rested to build your resilience – 8 hours sleep a night and possible ‘power naps’ to regenerate energy
- Look after your health and do gentle exercise every day
- Speak up if things are starting to build and avoid the big meltdowns
- Eat a healthy diet, drink 2 litres of water a day
- Get up and move every hour, for 10 minutes
These things can help deal with pressure when it builds, and not doing some of these will, potentially, make you less resilient in turbulent times. The main strategy, in my opinion, is self awareness, self regulation and self management, in advance of any serious fall out.
Where are you on the graph above?
Say “no” now and then, you might find it takes a load of pressure off…….