As a leader, you are likely all too familiar with the complexities and high levels of stress that come with running a team, department, or organization. In order to encourage employee engagement, build trust, manage conflict, and have the ability to do your actual day to day job, it is imperative to develop the ability to be grounded as a leader.
Unmanaged stress can wreak havoc on our mental well-being, emotional state, immune system, cognitive abilities, memory, and physical health. Chronic stress can also take a toll on our personal and occupational relationships.
Effective stress-management is one of the most frequently disregarded area of self-development in leaders. Many leaders are under the impression that they need their stress to function optimally. Its only when they get their stress under control that they see how inefficiently they were operating inside of that belief.
Some of the areas that I have worked with leaders on to improve overall performance include:
- Stress Management Techniques
- Emotional Regulation Strategies
- Ego-balancing/Improving Self-Leadership
- Enhancing Confidence
- Work-Life Balance
- Energy Management Techniques
- Mindfulness Practices
- Mind-Body Grounding Practices
When we are grounded as leaders, people will naturally tend to follow us. When we are off balance and being driven by stress, others will naturally tend to avoid us. As leaders, we need to model good emotional regulation and energy management. This modeling rolls downhill and encourages others to take into consideration their own emotional wellbeing. As this concept moves down and throughout the company, conflict decreases, open communication increases, and everyone begins to row in the same direction.
Additional Mindfulness-based interventions include:
- Clinical and Mindfulness-based Hypnosis for Leaders
- Mediation and Breath work
- Yoga
- Tai Chi
- QiGong
- Formal and Informal Meditation/Mindfulness Practices
Manage your stress levels, improve your performance, and watch everything else fall into place.