In a Nutshell
        Poorly managed stress can lead to illness, time off work, unproductive time at work, pessimism, poor listening, poor problem solving, and interpersonal conflict.  Two categories of strategies for coping with stress are stressor-focused coping and self-focused coping.  Stressor-focused coping means solving the problems that are causing the stress.  Stressor-focused coping is great, but sometimes self-focused coping is more useful.  This LeaderLetter addresses self-focused coping.  Self-focused coping strategies can help us relax, bring down our heart rates and blood pressure, and build confidence.

In This Issue

• About the Photo
• Stress and Stress Management Strategies
• Practicing This Management Skill
• About the Newsletter and Subscriptions
• Good, Clean Joke
• LeaderLetter Web Page

About the Photo
        Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers will probably be under a lot of stress this weekend.  He is one of the most successful, admired and wealthy athletes in the world.  Millions of people would love to trade places with him.  This year, Kobe has the opportunity to lead his basketball team to a third consecutive championship.  However, if his team loses either Friday or Sunday, his season will end short of that goal.  We might witness manifestations of Kobe's stress--positive, negative, or both--this weekend.  (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill:  e-mailed to me from Yahoo! News; news.yahoo.com.)

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Stress and Stress Management Strategies
        Stressors and stress.  Before launching into a discussion of stress management, I need to explain what "stress" means to me.  Stress is what we experience in reaction to something we perceive as a stressor, such as an approaching deadline or being laid off.  That is, stressors are external forces that cause stress, and stress is what we experience.
        We experience stress when we perceive threats or opportunities that we fear we cannot handle effectively.  Note the use of the terms "perceive" and "opportunities."  First, our stress is a function of our perceptions, and different people often perceive the same phenomenon in different ways.  Sometimes managing perceptions is the key to managing stress.  Second, opportunities can cause stress; not just threats.  Imagine being invited to discuss an entrepreneurial idea you have with someone who has the power to implement that idea.  Since you would want that meeting to go well, you might experience some stress.  Here's another example:  Two years ago I was wrapping up my year on the faculty at West Virginia University, teaching graduate courses for the first time, and preparing to move my family to Dayton to start a new job.  I was excited about the opportunities, but they were all stressors for me.  For the first time in my life, I started to lose hair on the top of my head!  It lasted a few weeks.  I'm not a real doctor--just a Ph.D.--but I think the stress associated with the opportunities in front of me caused that.  The day I'm completely bald you'll know that things are going very well for me.
        The good and the bad.  Stress can be energizing.  During the "alarm" stage of stress, heart rate, blood pressure, and mental alertness increase.  The body becomes ready for "fight or flight" approaches to dealing with stressors, and we can give extra effort.  Accordingly, I expect Kobe Bryant to play extremely hard in his game tomorrow night.  The intensity of athletes' efforts can vary from competition to competition.  Even if they try to perform at peak energy levels at all times, they often find it difficult to reach their highest level without some pressure.  However, when not properly managed, the experience of stress over extended periods of time can also cause cardiovascular disease, heart attacks, and more.  In addition, surges of energy can actually be counterproductive during performances, such as when a nervous public speaker speaks too fast.  Stress also makes us less patient and more irritable.  I also expect to see more bickering in Friday night's game than I would in less important games.
        Stress also affects our attention.  When we're under stress, our attention is drawn to the stressor.  Just as physiological reactions to stress can be either functional or dysfunctional, so can the psychological reactions.  Sometimes it's helpful to give extra attention to a problem that is a source of stress.  Managers, athletic coaches, drill sergeants, teachers and parents have been known to create stressful situations (often through yelling or intimidation) to get other's attention, and it can be an effective tactic.  However, using stress to boost attention and motivation can also be negative if creativity is needed, or if attention is drawn away from other important things.  During times of stress, our thoughts tend to be less creative and more rigid.  We can become fixated on a problem and fail to think divergently about possible solutions to it.  Ironically, activities that take our minds off those problems can allow us to realize their solutions.  (These steps in the creative problem solving process are often called "incubation" and "illumination.")  Another problem with our tendency to devote extra attention to stressors is that we might ignore other important people, opportunities or impending crises.  We find it difficult to listen, learn and be helpful when we experience high levels of stress.
        In summary, poorly managed stress can result in health problems, irritability, difficulty paying attention, and poor problem solving.  In the workplace, poor stress management contributes to time off work due to illness, unproductive time at work, poor judgment and interpersonal conflict.  But I'm "preaching to the choir," right?  We've all had firsthand experiences with stress.
        Stress management.  Effective stress management doesn't mean getting to a point where we never experience stress.  On the contrary, it's better that we challenge ourselves, and as we push ourselves to continuously improve and exploit our potential, we will cause some stress.  Effective stress management means keeping our stress levels from exceeding the level where it's energizing and productive for us.
        Coping strategies.  Coining my own terms here, think of stress management strategies as having two categories; stressor-focused coping and self-focused coping.  Stressor-focused coping is solving the problem that the stressor presents¹.  There are obviously many advantages to stressor-focused coping, but this LeaderLetter focuses on self-focused coping.  Sometimes self-focused coping strategies are more useful than stressor-focused coping strategies.  First, not all stressors can be eliminated.  If the root cause of your stress is the possibility of terrorist attacks, there's very little you can do to eliminate the stressor.  Maybe you can think of a creative way to reduce your risk of being a victim of a terrorist attack, but it's difficult to think creatively when you're experiencing stress.  Accordingly, a second reason why self-focused coping strategies are often more useful than stressor-focused coping is that self-focused coping can help us unlock our problem-solving skills.
        Self-focused coping.  Self-focused coping strategies include short-term and long-term strategies that help us avoid the negative personal consequences that can result from encountering stressors².  Self-focused coping strategies can be further divided into proactive strategies and reactive strategies.  Proactive strategies are the things we can do before we experience stress to build up our resiliency.  Reactive strategies are the things we can do when we experience stress to reduce some of the negative consequences and prepare us for creative problem solving.

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Practicing This Management Skill
        Proactive strategies.  Proactive strategies are the things we can do to make us more resilient.  They help limit the severity and duration of the physical consequences of stress.  The proactive strategies also help us develop the skills required by some of the reactive strategies.

• Cardiovascular conditioning--aerobic exercise for 20-30 minutes (like a two-mile brisk walk) at least every 48 hours
• Proper diet--consuming nutritious foods, and minimizing alcohol and caffeine intake
• Optimism--adopt the mindset of a resourceful, creative problem-solver who likes a challenge
• Meditation--make a habit of saying meditative prayers or doing deep relaxation exercises daily
• Social support network--mentors and peers can support us when we encounter stressors

• Muscle relaxation--tighten a muscle group of the body (e.g., fists), hold for 5-10 seconds, then release; repeat this for several muscle groups (e.g., arms, shoulders, chest, abdomen, etc.)
• Deep breathing--slowly take a deep breath, hold it for a few seconds, exhale completely; repeat several times
• Reframing the problem--think of the stressor as a puzzle that you can creatively solve
• Focusing on "small wins"--mentally break down the problem posed by the stressor into many small challenges and think about how you can solve them one at a time
• Mental imagery--mentally practice successfully coping with the stressor
• Clinical counseling--unlike our mentors and peers, clinical psychologists and psychiatrists are professionally trained to help us cope with stress

Notes
1.  Stressor-focused coping is like the enactive strategies described by Whetten and Cameron (2002), and
     the problem-focused coping described by Folkman & Lazarus (1985).
2.  Self-focused coping is like the proactive and reactive strategies described by Whetten and Cameron
     (2002), and the emotion-focused coping described by Folkman & Lazarus (1985).

Sources
        Folkman, S., & Lazarus, R. S.  (1985).  If it changes it must be a process: Study of emotion and coping during three stages of a college examination. Journal of Personality & Social Psychology, 48(1): 150-170.
        George, J. M, & Jones, G. R.  (1999).  Understanding and managing organizational behavior, (2nd ed.).  Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.
        Whetten, D. A., & Cameron, K. S.  (2002).  Developing management skills, (5th ed.).  Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

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About the Newsletter and Subscriptions
        LeaderLetter is written by Dr. Scott Williams, Department of Management, Raj Soin College of Business, Wright State University, Dayton, Ohio.  It is a supplement to my MBA 751 - Managing People in Organizations class.  It is intended to reinforce the course concepts and maintain communication among my former MBA 751 students, but anyone is welcome to subscribe.  In addition, subscribers are welcome to forward this newsletter to anyone who they believe would have an interest in it.  To subscribe, simply send an e-mail message to me requesting subscription.  Of course, subscriptions to the newsletter are free.  To unsubscribe, e-mail a reply indicating that you would like to unsubscribe.

E-mail Your Comments
        Whether you are one of my former students or not, I invite you to share any insights or concerns you have regarding the topic of this newsletter or any other topic relating to management skills.  Please e-mail them to me.  Our interactions have been invaluable.  Let's keep the conversation going.

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Good, Clean Joke (or, at least a clean one)

How many calories do you burn at work each day?

Calorie-Consuming Communication
Beating around the bush . . . . . . . 75
Jumping to conclusions  . . . . . . . 100
Passing the buck  . . . . . . . . . . 25
Putting your foot in your mouth . . . 300
Hitting the nail on the head  . . . . 50
Bending over backwards  . . . . . . . 75
Jumping on the bandwagon  . . . . . . 200
Tooting your own horn . . . . . . . . 25
Climbing the ladder of success  . . . 750

Aerobic Altercations
Adding fuel to the fire . . . . . . . 160
Eating crow . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225
Pushing your luck . . . . . . . . . . 250
Swallowing your pride . . . . . . . . 50
Opening a can of worms  . . . . . . . 50
Making mountains out of molehills . . 500
Throwing your weight around
    depending on your weight) . . . . 50-300
Counting chickens before they hatch . 6

Boredom Butt-Blasters
Climbing the walls  . . . . . . . . . 150
Wading through paperwork  . . . . . . 300
Running around in circles . . . . . . 350
Dragging your heels . . . . . . . . . 100
Balancing the books . . . . . . . . . 25
Going over the edge . . . . . . . . . 25
Calling it quits. . . . . . . . . . . 2

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