Are pressure and stress part of being a leader of a business?

Without doubt. Can we totally eliminate them? No.

If you are a leader of a business please, please do not kid yourself that you can perform that role without experiencing some kind of pressure or stress – it comes with the territory.

However, it shouldn’t be constant. It will be there from time to time or indeed a lot of the time depending upon the type of business you run and the circumstances you find yourself in. But there are things you can do to help relieve these pressures and stresses.

One of the best ways to combat the pressures and stresses that business leaders experience is to first and foremost recognise that you are not alone – it is part of the job and most CEO’s and MD’s experience the same thing.

We all know the expression ‘a problem shared is a problem halved’ but sometimes we simply don’t know who to share these problems with. Someone said to me recently he doesn’t need Google or any outside help as he is a member of a golf club and most people there know everything! I can’t comment on that as I am not yet old enough to play golf.

For those of us who are not members of a golf club deciding who to share business challenges with can be an issue. Many of us have supportive management and board members but sometimes new ideas and challenges need to be addressed outside the business and this is where being a member of a peer advisory board can be so valuable.

Helping relieve stress amongst our business leader members is a key component of Pabasso peer advisory board membership and there is no doubt that the ability to discuss opportunities and challenges with a group of like-minded businesses leaders in a supportive and confidential environment is extremely useful and really does help relieve pressure and stress.

So when I read the recent Forbes article on ‘How to Thrive Under Pressure’ it really resonated with me. It includes 5 tips on how to thrive under pressure, point 4 resonates the most with me – Enlist Support, it’s worth a read.