Executive life often feels like a first-class seat on the stress express. An insightful article from Vistage Worldwide that landed in my inbox explores practical ways for executives to manage stress in the face of constant pressure and high-stakes decision-making.
Let me add that next time you feel the stress creeping in, remember that meditation can help. Taking just 20 minutes each day to sit still (and not check your phone) can reduce stress, improve focus, and stop you from thinking of dealing with that difficult client.
Here is a section:
If you are a CEO or other high-ranking executive, you know that stress comes with the job title. While it is impossible to eliminate stress entirely, there are actionable ways to reduce it. Here, we share some strategies for dealing with CEO and executive stress.
In addition to the specific stresses of their jobs, executives are affected by a range of outside factors. “CEOs feel a set of pressures that most of them have never seen in their career,” says David Lyon, a Vistage Chair and former head of a digital marketing company.
These pressures include lingering effects stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, the economy and geopolitical events occurring across the globe, Lyon says. He describes these factors as “inextricably linked” to the stress that many CEOs experience.
“When you get a tsunami, this perfect storm of five, six, seven of these major things going on, it can become pretty stressful,” Lyon adds.
Stress is part of life, and for executives and high-performing individuals, it is never going to go away completely. But it is crucial to manage and reduce stress when you can. A 2021 study by the National Bureau of Economic Research estimated that CEOs’ lifespans decreased by 1.5 years solely due to the stress of an economic downturn.