What kind of question have I posed above? Aren't all executive leaders walking around filled with anxiety, working excessively, with their stress hormones raging, leaving them ravaged shells of their former selves? Well, maybe not, which is a good thing if you aspire to leadership.

The results of research in the last few years suggest that people in leadership positions may in fact experience less stress than their subordinates. In a study of leaders and non-leaders conducted by a research group from several universities (Sherman, Lee, Cuddy, Renshon, Oveis, Grosse, and Lerner, 2012; Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences), stress levels were measured by salivary cortisol, a stress hormone. Participants answered questions about their anxiety in leadership situations. Both on the measured cortisol levels and anxiety questionnaires, the leaders had significantly lower levels than non-leaders, indicating they were less stressed. The authors noted that the leaders also exercised more, smoked less, woke up earlier, slept less and drank more coffee than the non-leaders.

How do we make sense of these findings? As the authors suggested, and I too have observed in years of working with individuals in stressful circumstances, the more people have a sense of control over their situations, the less stressed they are.

But what can you do to be less stressed as a leader or in your general life? How do you counteract the potentially negative effects of stress? Apart from the control issue, in some of my other writings, I've discussed roles for changing mindset and limiting beliefs, diet and exercise, social support, self-reflection, progressive muscle relaxation training, and spirituality, among others. In interview studies with executive leaders done by James Bailey (Harvard Business Review, 2014), there emerge four categories of activities which serve to lower stress:

Health - This category involves getting exercise as well as the proper rest, sleep, and diet. Are you getting enough of these activities?
Diversions - Activities in this category remove you from your stressors. These can include movies, concerts, TV, massage, time with family, etc. Do you find time for these activities?
Intellectual activities - puzzles, games, reading, study of a subject, sometimes referred to as a hobby.
Introspection - This includes progressive muscle relaxation, meditation, prayer, breathing, self-reflection.

While we spend much time focusing on the potential ravages of stress, less time is spent on developing and recommending strategies and activities to reduce it. I have worked with far too many executive leaders whose view of stress management is to "tough it out". Yet, as you can see from above, you can be a leader and suffer far less stress both psychologically and physically than you might have thought.

If you are a leader already doing some of the above, consider encouraging implementation of stress reduction strategies by your subordinates. The payoff is a better quality of life as well as a reduction in the productivity loss frequently estimated at hundreds of millions of dollars each year in American business.

What have you got to lose? As I always say, stress in life is inevitable. Your response to it is a choice which is under your control. We are back to where we started. More control leads to less stress. Good luck on your journey.

Dr. Paul Longobardi

For more information on these and related topics, please see my website at www.successandmindset.com