The Employer Engagement Guide: 5 Stress-Busting Tips for Managers

Welcome to Part Ten of the Employer Engagement Guide. Stress management isn’t easy when you’re a manager. Try adopting these strategies to relieve and mitigate stress in your managerial role.

While many of us encounter anxiety and stress, whether because of money and increased interest rates or poor health, leaders often experience a colossal amount. Whether you’re a CEO at a leading finance firm or in charge of a small team, stress management isn’t easy – your role entails a great deal of concentration, responsibility, and adaptation of factors out of your control. All of this can lead to enhanced levels of anxiety.

It’s well-documented that stress is dangerous and can affect us in myriad ways, from mild symptoms like raised anxiety to physical ones like heart disease and high blood pressure.

While it’s impossible to remove stress completely, it is possible, however, to reduce it using the correct techniques so that it doesn’t take over your life. Below, we’ve compiled five ways to alleviate and mitigate anxiety in your senior position.

Try adopting these five strategies to relieve and mitigate stress in your managerial role.

Strategies for managing stress in the workplace:

1. Discover activities that stall stress

If you’re faced with a nerve-wracking situation, turn to an activity you enjoy to ease the anxiety.

This could be anything you like – from mindfulness meditation to practicing yoga.

It doesn’t matter what it is. Ways to manage stress vary from one person to another. That said, several activities are scientifically proven to reduce feelings of stress.

For instance, meditation helps clear your head, so you feel calmer.

Other stress-reducing activities include deep breathing, physical exercise, and listening to music.

2. Ascertain what triggers your anxiety

When dealing with stress, it’s vital to identify the cause. So, your first step in successfully managing it is to work out the triggers. Monitor your stress levels throughout the day. Note down any moments when you feel less tolerant, more short-tempered, more enthusiastic, or more worried.

By doing so, you’ll figure out what causes these feelings. If you spot that particular people or specific circumstances cause more worry than others, try to keep away from these situations. Alternatively, try out different ways of managing them.

3. Open up to someone

One of the best stress management strategies includes talking to people. Hiding your anxiety isn’t a good idea. Burying your head in stress makes the issue more serious.

So, open up to a loved one who genuinely cares about you. Tell co-workers, family members, or friends about what you’re worried about – including the main triggers of stress.

Simply opening up to someone about your anxiety will make you feel happier. In turn, you’ll manage incoming stress much better. If this isn’t possible, your designated listener may recommend other ways to cope with stress and provide support. Talking to a loved one beats just hiding your feelings.

4. Adopt a healthier lifestyle

Take up a healthier lifestyle to beat stress. This doesn’t just apply to managers, this applies to everyone experiencing angst. Stress control is all about leading a balanced life. For example, make sure you get plenty of good-quality sleep each night, eat a well-balanced diet, drink enough water, and get enough physical exercise. Collectively, these activities may enhance your mood, boost your overall health, and help you manage certain types of anxiety. However, stress management doesn’t happen overnight. But it’s more than worth the time and effort.

5. Delegate more and be less of a “boss”

Sure, you have responsibilities as a manager. But many of your duties are needless. Think about all the strictly managerial accountabilities you have. Whether you’ve chosen to take a practical or non-interventional approach, you may still deem it your responsibility to get involved in several protocols to ensure you carry out your projects perfectly.

No one method can tackle every issue. Being a brilliant leader comes down to engaging with and communicating with your team and adjusting to new circumstances easily rather than dynamically managing your employees, items, and projects.

Have an idea about what makes your workers happy in the workplace. Also, try and understand some of the main causes of stress so you can be the best employer you can be.

The way we see it, the best manager is more of a creative co-worker than a manager. As soon as you realise this, you won’t fret as much about the little things.

That means acknowledging when you need a hand. In today’s rat race, we’re expected to bite a lot more than we can chew. But tackling too much can be unhelpful in several ways. For instance, if you manage a large team, think about delegating a few of your less-critical projects to your less-busy staff members. Who said you have to do everything yourself?

A final note

Don’t be so hard on yourself. After all, you’re only human. Once you start setting more realistic expectations, you’ll begin achieving what you planned to do. However, if you’re finding it especially hard and have tried the above stress-busting techniques already, then we advise seeking the help of your GP.