Socrates said it first and best: "Know theyself" is a good starting point in the search for wisdom. Socrates could spend all night standing still, just thinking. He was famous for what we would now call inner peace or composure: a very "low stress" person.
He was sentenced to death because he had come to the conclusion and was teaching that there could not be many gods, as the Greeks believed, but only one God. He could easily have fled and escaped the death penalty, a common practice for those sentenced to death in the Greek city-states. Instead he chose to drink hemlock as a witness to his convictions. He calmly dialogued with his closest friends as he prepared to die. His reaction to this most stressful of all events stands as a historic example of how being in touch with one's self leads to inner peace and direction.
Business managers are not called upon to die for their convictions, thank goodness! But for the business manager, and indeed for every person, the first and most important step in stress management begins with knowing one's self. What are the frustration points? What are your strengths and weaknesses? What do you most enjoy among your many work tasks and what do you least enjoy?
Based upon your weaknesses and frustration points, at what aspects of your job are you the least efficient? And, in a related negative assessment, what aspects of your job take longer than they should? For example, do you dread doing the books and does that task drive you up the wall? Do you hate paying bills? Doing invoices? Keeping records on your employees? Writing advertising copy? Filing? Doing reports?
Based upon your strengths and likes, at what aspects of your job are you the most efficient? What aspects of your job do you accomplish rapidly? What do you enjoy most?
There is a note of caution to be considered. Sometimes we are not very good at the tasks we most enjoy . Sometimes we are very good at the tasks we least enjoy. Then also sometimes we are quickest at the things we do worst and slowest at the things we do best or most enjoy. "Knowing ourselves" includes a careful self-analysis of how well we use our time and the reasons why we take longer at some tasks and less time at others.
What makes us tick as business managers yields the starting point for developing strategies to get the most accomplished in the least amount of time and with the least amount of stress. But figuring it all out is not necessarily a quick process.
The overall strategy for minimizing stress is to do the things at which you are best and quickest and enjoy the most. Get others, to the extent possible, to do the tasks at which you are not quick or particularly efficient or which you dislike the most. Make sure, if you delegate these tasks to employees, that you not saddle an employee with a task he or she is not good at, not quick at, or happens to dislike doing. Think also about outsourcing: somebody out there must like doing what you do not like.
No rocket science in this approach: we all feel better when we accomplish something successfully. We feel better when we do it relatively quickly and when the task is something we enjoy. Conversely, frustration always builds up when we struggle to accomplish a task that takes forever and that we dislike doing. Stress management in the overall strategy is much like sports: play to your strengths and avoid as much as possible your weaknesses.
In sports the secret is to get everyone on the team doing the things at which they are best, with the coach orchestrating the effort so that the players work together at the same plan. That should be your strategy, too, as a business manager. The secret to successful business, even small business, is teamwork. Get everyone who is involved pulling together and enthused, bringing their best to bear on the tasks involved. Your chances of success will go up while your stress level will go down.
Begin by getting to know yourself better and be prepared to get surprised!
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