Stress keeps people up at night and makes them irritable during the day. Stress makes people tired, sad, and disinterested. Stress results in poor eating habits. Stress kills.
Not all stress, however, is bad.
Not all bad:
A world without stress is a world filled with dull weaklings.
Good stress brings out the best in people. Skilled leaders put others in stressful situations in order to maximize their potential.
Good stress stretches but doesn’t overwhelm. Healthy stress drives people to search for answers, connect with others, effectively utilize resources, and creatively apply their skills. Bad stress is the opposite. It overwhelms, isolates, and paralyzes.
Four greatest causes of leadership-stress:
The greatest internal cause of stress is living out of synch with who you are. Knowing yourself frees you from living inconsistently and enables you to live within your values. It strengthens, in addition, your ability to withstand pressure from others to be who you aren’t.
The second greatest cause of stress is saying yes when you should say no. One reason you can’t say no goes back to the greatest internal cause of stress; living out of synch with yourself.
The third greatest cause of stress is trying to control things you can’t control. You can control what you do. You can influence what others do. You can’t control outcomes and others.
The fourth greatest cause of stress is weak, unreliable team members. Answer this stress by hiring passionate people and with aggressive staff development. Perhaps the greatest stress reliever after self-reflection is developing talented, reliable people.
What are your greatest causes of stress?
What stress-solutions help you?