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Readings on Effective Stress Management from Hughes et a1 ,9 Aa y} Aa 9. Monitor Your Own and Your Followers' Stress Levels One ofthc most important steps in managing stress is to mom'mr Wm! mm and tour {alum-ers- 'stress levels. Although this seems straightforward. a paradoxical fact about stress is that it often takes a toll without one's conscious awareness. A person experiencing excessive stress might manifest various symptoms apparent to everyone but him or her. For that reason. it is useful to develop the habit of regularly attending to some of the warning signs that your stress level may be getting too high. Some warning signs ofstress are listed in Highlight 8.6. Ifyou answer yes to these questions. then your own or your followers' stress levels may be getting too high. and it would probably be a good idea to put some ofthe following stress management strategies into practice right away. Answering some of the questions airmalively. however. does not necessarily mean your stress level is too high. There could. for example. be some other explanation. unymuuuuu. Identify What Is Causing the Stress Monitoring your stress will reduce the chances that it will build to an unhealthy level before you take action. but monitoring is not enough. Leaders also need to idevmj- who! is causing the stress. It may seem at rst that the causes of stress always will be obvious, but that is not true. Sometimes the problems are clear enough even ifthe solutions are not (such as family nances or working in ajob with a big workload and lots of deadlines). At other times. however. it may be difcult to identify the root problem. For example. a coach may attribute his anger to the losing record of his team. not recognizing that a bigger cause of his emotional distress may be the problems he is having at home with his teenage son. A worker may feel frustrated because her boss overloads her with work, not realizing that her own unassertiveness keeps her from expressing her feelings to her boss. Problem solving can be applied constructively to managing stress. but only if the problem is identied properly. Once the problem is identied, a plan for minimizing stress or the effects of the stressor can be developed. One can be experiencing high levels of stress and not be aware of it. which further complicates identifying the cause ofstress. lfa leader is experiencing the stress of burnout. for example. it might be manifested by changes in the leader's interactions with subordinates such as encouraging them less frequently. asking for their opinions less frequently. and expressing condence in them less frequently. Although subordinates may well notice the change. the leader herself may not.\" In other words. the leader may be unaware that she is causing her workers' stress. That is another good reason to nurture relationships with at least a few other people who are willing to provide feedback to you (the leader) if they notice a change in your mood or behavior. Practice a Healthy Lifestyle Practicingo heaititv iifesn'ie is one of the best ways to minimize stress. There are no substitutes for balanced nutrition. regular exercise. adequate sleep. abstention from tobacco products. and drinking only moderate amounts oftifany) alcohol as keys to a healthy life. A long- term study of the lifestyles of nearly 7.000 adults conrmed these as independent factors contributing to wellness and the absence of stress symptoms.\" Insufficient sleep saps energy. interferes with alertness and judgment. increases irritability. and lowers resistance to illness. Exercise. besides being a valuable part of any long-term health strategy. is also an excellent way to reduce tension. ,0 An e-i Learn How to Relax Believe it or not. some peoplejust do not know how to relax. Although physical exercise is a good relaxation technique. sometimes you will need to relax but not have an opportunity to get a workout. Practicing other reinvention techniques will come in handy when a situation prevents strenuous exercise. Also. of course. some people simply prefer alternative relaxation techniques to exercise. Deep-breathing techniques. progressive muscle relaxation, and thinking of calming words and images can be powerful on-the-spot calming techniques. They are applicable in stressful situations ranging fromjob interviews to sports. The effectiveness of these techniques is a matter of personal preference. and no single one is best for all purposes or all people. Page 281' Develop Supportive Relationships Another powerful antidote to stress is having a Item-ark oft-iota and supporriue relationships with olhers.'15 People who have close ties to others through marriage. church membership. or other groups tend to be healthier than those with weaker social ties. Also. social supports of various kinds (such as the supportiveness of one's spouse, coworkers. or boss) can bu'er the impact ofjob stress,\"- '7 and unit cohesion is believed to be a critical element of soldiers' ability to withstand the extreme physical and psychological stresses of combat.\" Leaders can play a constructive role in developing mutual supportiveness and cohesiveness among subordinates, and their own open and frank communication with subordinates is especially important when a situation is ambiguous as well as stressful. Keep Things in Perspective As we noted earlier. the stressfulness of any event depends partly on how we interpret it, not just on the event itself. For example. a poor grade on an examination may be more stressful for one student than for another. just as a rebuke from a boss may be more stressful for one worker than for another. This is partly due. of course, to the fact that individuals invest themselves in activities to different degrees because they vaiue different things. A problem in an area of heavy personal investment is more stressful than one in an area of little personal investment. It goes deeper than that. however. Managing stress effectively depends on keeping things in perspective. This is difcult for some people because they have a style of interpreting events that aggravates their felt stress. Individuals who have relatively complex self-concepts, as measured by the number of different ways they describe or see themselves, are less susceptible to common stressrelated complaints than are people with lesser degrees of self-compiexity.49 Take. for example. someone who has suffered a setback at work. such as having lost out to a colleague for a desired promotion. Someone low in self-complexity (such as a person whose self-concept is dened solely in terms of professional success) could be devastated by the event. Low selfcomplexity implies a lack of resilience to threats to one's ego. Consider. by contrast. someone with high selfcornplexity facing the same setback. The person could understandably feel disappointed and perhaps dejected about work. but if she were high in selfcomplexity. then the event's impact would be buffered by the existence of relatively uncontaminated areas of positive self-image. For example, she might base her feelings of professional success on more criteria than just getting (or not getting) a promotion. Other criteria. such as being highly respected by peers. may be even more important bases for her feelings of professional success. Furthermore. other dimensions of her life (like her leadership in a local political party or the support she provides to her family) may give her self-image a positive boost. The A-B-C Model Unfortunately. because there are no shortcuts to developing self-complexity. it is not really a viable stress management strategy. There are other cognitive approaches to stress management, however, that can produce more immediate results. These approaches have the common goal of changing a person's thoughts. or selftalk, about stressful events. One of the simplest of these to apply is called the A-BC model.50' 5] To appreciate the usefulness of the ABC model, it is helpful to consider the chain of events that precedes feelings of stress. Page 283 Sometimes people think of this as a two-step sequence. Something external happens (a stressful event), and then something internal follows (symptoms of stress). We can depict the sequence like this: A. Triggering event (such as knocking your boss's coffee onto his lap). B. Feelings and behaviors (anxiety. fear, embarrassment, perspiration). In other words. many people think their feelings and behaviors result directly from external events. Such a view, however. leaves out the critical role played by our self-talk. The actual sequence looks like this: A. Triggering event (knocking your boss's coffee onto his lap). B. Your self-talk (\"He must think I'm a real jerk\"). C. Feelings and behaviors (anxiety. fear. embarrassment. perspiration). From this perspective you can see the causal role played by inner dialogue, or self-talk, in contributing to feelings of stress. Such inner dialogue can be rational or irrational, constructive or destructivearid which it will be is under the individual's control. People gain considerable freedom from stress when they realize that by changing their own self-talk they can control their emotional responses to events around them. Consider a different sequence for our scenario: A. Triggering event (knocking your boss's coffee onto his lap). B. Your thinking (\"Darn it! But it was just an accident."). C. Feelings and behavior (apologizing and helping clean up}. Thus a particular incident can be interpreted in several different ways. some likely to increase feelings of stress and distress. and others likely to maintain self-esteem and positive coping. You will become better at coping with stress as you practice listening to your inner dialogue and changing destructive self-talk to constructive self-talk. Even this is not a simple change to make. however. Changing self-talk is more difcult than you might think, especially in emotionalized situations. Because selftalk is covert, spontaneous, eeting, and reexive.52 like any bad habit it can be difcult to change. Nevertheless. precisely because self-talk is just a habit, you can change it. Finally, leaders need to recognize their role in their followers' stress levels. A leader in a stressful situation who is visibly manifesting some of the symptoms described in Highlight 8.6 is not going to set much of an example for followers. 0n the contrary, because followers look to leaders for guidance and support, these behaviors and symptoms could become contagious and increase followers' stress levels. Leaders need to recognize the importance of role modeling in reducing (or increasing} followers' stress levels. Leaders also need to make sure their style of interacting with subordinates does not make the leaders \"stress carriers."