4 Ways to Manage Stress as a Manager

We’ll stick our necks out and bet that as a manager, at some point you or someone on your team has experienced stress. 

It’s a generic and not particularly helpful term. We know what we mean when we say it, but it’s not always very clear what to do about it.  

This week Dan Shipper, an entrepreneur and writer, published an article on stress drawing from the work of Robert M. Sapolsky, a stress researcher.  Often articles like this are too general, and somewhat patronising (‘have you considered working less and sleeping more?’), but we were pleasantly surprised. 

According to Shipper, Sapolsky’s work focuses on observing stress in animals - the title of his book is Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers - and then learning lessons for humans about whether stress is bad and what we should do about it.  His answer: 

“it’s great to push yourself—but you should be paying attention to the signs that tell you that you need a break. And it’s to give yourself plenty of ways to manage stress while you’re going through it, so that it doesn’t affect you as badly as it could… Stress isn’t mathematical. Expose the same person to the same stressor and they will have different stress responses based on their coping strategies.”

What we found really interesting was that the coping measures he suggested chimed with our experience of managing stress (even if we didn’t realise we were following scientific advice at the time).  They’re a good reminder of practices you can observe and may be able to suggest to your team. 

• Increase your sense of control:  just knowing you have the option to reduce stress is enough to make something less stressful—even if you’re not actually controlling the stressors at all.  In stressful situations, are there ways you can increase your sense of control? 
  

• Increase your sense of predictability:  even if a situation is going to be stressful, if you know it’s coming, it’s less so.  Try and organise your work and life such that these situations become more predictable. E.g. carving out specific time for difficult work and conversations.
  

• Create outlets for frustration:  apparently, when rats that are exposed to repeated stressors are given a piece of wood to gnaw on, they are far less likely to develop ulcers.  We’re not saying go gnaw on some wood, but if it works for you then go for it.  Constructive outlets (e.g. exercise, journaling) help.
  

• Increase social support: apparently, if you give a primate a stressor in a lab when it’s surrounded by friends, the effects will be lower than if it were alone.  Particularly at the current time when finding social support can be difficult, it’s a helpful reminder to try and find that feeling to help manage daily challenges.

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