When executives burn out

Executives are feeling the effects of stress and burnout now more than ever, which is why it’s essential to keep an eye on your stress levels before it impacts your health and alters your performance too. Executive burnout is the result of constant stress, and it can last for a prolonged period of time. Burnout can be a serious problem for many but even just a moderate amount of stress can also cause long term issues too.

How to recognise stress

You see, stress can produce a really wide range of signs and symptoms, and one person’s symptoms may differ greatly from another’s. Although a certain level of stress can be a healthy part of the way we function, to understand whether stress is impacting you adversely, it’s important to recognise stress, and any changes in how you usually operate.

Symptoms which might indicate stress include physical symptoms such as headaches, stomach problems, palpitations and sexual issues. It can also include psychological challenges such as negative thinking, poor concentration, anxiety, low mood, rumination, unable to make decisions and not able to switch off, as well as behavioural challenges such as tiredness, insomnia, lack of motivation and poor time keeping.

Causes of stress at work

All in all, stress can have a significant impact on our personal lives and on our working lives, too. In fact, the Health and Safety Executive have identified 6 factors which may cause employees stress at work:

• The workload and demands of your job
• The level of control over the way you do your work
• Support (or lack of) from colleagues and senior managers
• Your relationships with colleagues and superiors and the behaviour you are subjected to
• The role understanding your role and responsibilities
• Change – whether the organisation engages with you frequently during organisational change.

Impact of stress on your brain

Although short-term stress can be good for energy and focus, over a longer period of time continuous stress changes your brain size, structure and function, and this will also impact your cortisol levels and endocrine glands in the brain. 

The impact on the brain can be long-lasting - it can feel harder to learn and remember. It effects our concentration, social interaction, memory, and can even lead to Alzheimer’s disease and other chronic conditions. Stress impacts just about every part of the body including, loss of sleep, increase in weight, inflammation in the body and many other health issues. 

Overcoming stress

 A survey in 2020 by perkbox found that among British adults in employment, a staggering 79% of adults commonly experience work-related stress. Making work related stress the most common type of stress in Britain. So, with stress a major factor in the UK workforce what we can we do to help combat it and what can you do to have a healthier work-life balance?

We can carry stress in our body. Often we may feel tension in both our body and our mind but some people really feel the tension in their body after a busy day. A key component to managing and preventing stress is relaxation. You see, the stress response is caused by the body’s Autonomic Nervous System (ANS). The ANS interprets messages it receives and determines what action should be taken. There are 2 parts to the ANS, the ‘sympathetic’ system and the ‘parasympathetic’ system. The sympathetic system is triggered when presented with a message of perceived threat, stimulating the production of stress hormones and causing the stress symptoms and effects. 

However, when the brain receives the message that you’re experiencing calm, the parasympathetic system becomes triggered, which in turn stimulates endorphins. These are the body’s natural feel-good hormones and as well as increasing the feeling of happiness, produce a tranquil amnesiac condition with an effect 200 times that of morphine! So it’s clear, learning to relax (easier said than done for many) is key!

So as you can imagine, teaching people how to relax often forms a really important part of the work I do with corporates. Some relaxation and release techniques might include:-

• Deep breathing: This is often seen as both a relaxation and release technique
• Guided meditations: Using your imagination to relax e.g. beach, floating on water, swimming
• Stress release techniques: Imagine letting go of stress triggers and unwanted thoughts, feelings e.g. into a boat, into a cloud, into fist then open and shake away
• To soften the tension and relax your body you might like to try a gentle physical activity such as yoga, stretching, tai chi or qigong
• A body scan meditation is a useful way to gradually relax each part of your body (also known as progressive relaxation – relaxation technique)
• Other ways you can relax your body are through making good dietary choices, taking regular exercise.

Coaching away the stress

Elite Mindset Coaching can help business professionals and entrepreneurs who want to find a better version of themselves, and who go on to become the best in their field. I help corporates understand and appreciate how we can best utilise our mind and body to reach our life goals. Stress management is a key part of the programme I offer. Please get in touch if you’d like to find out how I can help you reduce stress levels and improve your performance.