Do we need Stress Management?

Do have managers not already enough stress to manage their people, bosses, stakeholders and time? Now some gurus tell managers they should also manage their stress in addition to it? Time management, relaxation exercises, communication instruments, work life balance and so on and so on. Does it help? Usually not much, because the workload does not really get less. Quite to the contrary, the speed and hectic, which are not under our control, are ever increasing. So what to do?


First alternative: quit your job and move to an outlying island. Guess what? After a few months – if it takes that long – you would be completely stressed out. Money problems, it’s a boring place and you have been taken out of your comfortable environment. That won’t work for most of us. By the way, have you seen some of these stressed retired people? I know quite a number of them.

Second alternative: use the stress reduction instrument in the top right corner.

So, participating in the rat race is as bad as doing nothing or banging your head. All create an absolute stress that makes you sick and that can kill you.

Third alternative: look for the cause of stress and then deal with it.

Stress is experienced individually very different. Long hours of work do stress some people, others are not bothered by it. A divorce can bring some to the edge of suicide while others are relieved and enjoy their “freedom”.
This leads to a conclusion which says, if you believe you are stressed, then you are. So, our perception of being stressed is the core issue and reason for stress. In my many coaching encounters with managers I sometimes get the impression that in some organizations being stressed and overworked is a cultural requirement. Not being stressed, not being overworked seems to mean I am not important and useless. Better show and believe you are stressed in order to justify to yourself and others that you are worth it.

As well, believing that you can’t control what is coming on to you (all the requirements, requests and orders from bosses, peers, environment, family, children etc) shows a victim mentality and perception and stress follows suit. Have you observed or heard stories of birds in their cage which are approached by noisy children? The birds get very excited, can’t flee and of course can’t fight and become so stressed that they drop dead. The bird doesn’t know that the children want to play but perceives it as an attack and regards himself as a victim.

Humans react very similar, fortunately not dying that fast….but slowly.

Which makes it clear that, to reduce stress, you need to change your perception of what stresses you, through away victim mentality (also a belief) and gain control of yourself .

How to deal with that will be described in our next article. We will come to the conclusion that we don’t need to stress us with another management of sorts, even not stress management.