What Are Recommended Techniques for Dealing With High-stress Situations?
In the fast-paced world of leadership, executives often face intense pressure, so we've gathered insights from CEOs and coaches to help them navigate stress. From the practical 'Practice Mindful Delegation' to the strategic 'Apply STEAR Clear and Anchor Framework,' discover four techniques the professionals recommend for managing high-stress situations effectively.
- Practice Mindful Delegation
- Integrate Daily Mindfulness
- Reframe Emotions and Realign Plans
- Apply STEAR Clear and Anchor Framework
Practice Mindful Delegation
I encountered a situation where a senior leader was grappling with high-stress scenarios regularly. Instead of prescribing conventional stress-management techniques, I introduced him to the concept of "mindful delegation." We practiced identifying critical tasks that truly required his expertise and those that could be effectively delegated to capable team members. This approach lightened his workload and empowered his team, fostering a sense of shared responsibility. Like learning to juggle—sometimes you need to pass the balls to others to keep the show going smoothly! This experience highlighted the transformative power of strategic delegation in alleviating stress while maintaining leadership effectiveness in demanding situations.
Integrate Daily Mindfulness
One technique I've found incredibly effective is mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). I remember working with a CEO who was juggling multiple crises at once. I introduced her to simple breathing exercises and guided meditation sessions that only took about ten minutes a day. She was skeptical at first, but after a week, she reported feeling more centered and less reactive. The key here is consistency—integrating these practices into your daily routine can make a world of difference. And let's be honest, sometimes we all need a reminder to breathe and just be present, especially when the office feels like it's on fire! This approach not only helps in calming the mind but also improves overall decision-making and productivity.
Reframe Emotions and Realign Plans
Before we do any type of strategy work, I always help them shift out of fight-or-flight by sharing a unique perspective regarding fear and anger. By showing them that these common emotions are completely useless in our modern-day times (and not only that, but they actually make us less intelligent), they are eager to realign with a new plan that creates a low-stress life (no matter what is being thrown at them). Through nervous system regulation and unconscious reprogramming, I'm typically able to shift this for them in one to three sessions.
Apply STEAR Clear and Anchor Framework
Over the last 20 years in personal development, the framework that I have created to help executives and entrepreneurs deal with high-stress situations effectively is called STEAR Clear and Anchor, of which STEAR is an acronym that stands for Situation, Thoughts, Emotions, Actions, and Results. This is a formal thought-work practice that helps people sort through whatever circumstance they are currently faced with, starting with a free association or brain-dump exercise where they get all of their thoughts out of their head onto paper. Just by virtue of slowing down to externalize what they are going through, they are able to see their situation differently, calm their central nervous systems, and begin figuring out internally how to approach their next steps without immediately responding from a reactive headspace or emotional state.
Then, after the brain dump, the work is sorting through all of their thoughts, emotions, and possible behaviors side by side to tease out what would be empowering versus disempowering, supportive versus destructive, or useful versus not-so-useful in an effort to think, feel, and behave in relation to this experience and choose a set of results that is aligned with what they truly seek. This line of introspection allows the person to see options both in their internal experience of the situation and the ways that their behaviors can impact their results.
The final steps are to Clear what no longer serves them through some variety of emotional, physical, energetic, or mental clearing exercises, such as movement, energy work, tapping, or seeking support, and then replacing the new preferred feeling, mental, and behavioral sets through an Anchoring mechanism such as mantras, affirmations, meditation, or any other new habit-formation activity.
This highly effective format of formal thought work gives the executive the space to sort through their own internal stress and chosen approach proactively so that they are feeling prepared, grounded, and confident in their strategy to move through whatever they are going through personally or professionally.
