Essential Conversations was founded to create a safe place for leaders, managers and expats to talk in order to prevent burnout - and to recover from it.
Leaders and managers battle with stress - alone and in silence
It’s a paradox. Sometimes success comes with a price.
Managing stress and emotions in the workplace is a major issue for many who are handling heavy work responsibilities. But leaders and managers are under a unique kind of pressure because in many ways they live in a glasshouse, and are often unable to share the private battles they have with stress. The pressure to perform can take its toll on even the best and the brightest.
Are you experiencing workplace stress?
Even today there persists a perception that leaders must remain untouched by challenge. Lacking a safe place to process the outcomes that work life can generate, when a leader encounters difficulty, they do it alone and in silence – and this has very real outcomes on their health, their work, and their personal life.
Essential Conversations was founded to create a safe place for leaders, managers and expats to talk in order to prevent burnout – and to recover from it.
We cannot ignore the fact that success demands something from us. The most brilliant minds pay a price that may become untenable: anxious tension can bleed into our home lives, and those nearest and dearest to us. If you have noticed that work challenges are beginning to have an impact on your life, it might be time to talk.
Facts & Figures…
The World Health Organisation recently added stress to their International Classification Index, recognising it as a syndrome resulting from persistent workplace stress. Stress is often referred to as the 21st century epidemic and research tells us that only 20% of all workers feel comfortable sharing the private battles they have with stress in the workplace. Conversations are an essential part of addressing the issues involved.
2.
According to a recent Korn Ferry survey, nearly eight in ten say stress at work has had a negative impact on their personal relationships, and more than 60% say they have lost sleep due to work stress. Another survey by Lee Hecht Harrison revealed that 84% of senior managers feel they need to curb their emotions and natural behaviour at work.
3.
Stress is a highly personalised phenomenon and can vary widely even in identical situations for different reasons. Researchers from the American Institute of Stress have demonstrated that having to complete paperwork was more stressful for many police officers than the dangers associated with pursuing criminals. This means that many stressors are far from obvious, and may not always be what they are perceived to be.
IT’S AN UNWRITTEN RULE: YOUR BEST TALENT IS YOUR RESILIENCE
Tine Jakobsen | Founder
A confidential environment in which to talk about everything that is not so easily spoken about.
How often have you felt unease, discomfort, worry - distress, even - and tried to push it aside, only for it to creep up on you later? From the intensity of a critical deadline to the slow drip of daily challenges, stresses can seem entirely manageable until you reach a tipping point which can have far-reaching consequences. If you have held a managerial, or similarly demanding role, you will very likely have felt the pressure of work-related stress. Loving your job and not being stimulated by your environment may trigger just as much stress as being in a job where you do not feel adequately motivated.
Many leaders face tension resulting from the accumulation of everyday stressors in their working life. While it might seem tempting to ignore or suppress these, if challenges aren’t attended you risk a long-term impact on how you feel, how you perform at work, and your personal life. Wouldn’t it be a relief to have a strategy for coping with stress and overwhelm – and to build new resilience? Essential Conversations offers the support, the safe place to talk and the room to help you prepare the ground for new wins in all areas of your life.