Leadership Turn

Are You Working Smart Or Dangerously Hard?

by Jonathan Farrington on May 21st, 2007

There has been increasing evidence that leaders are working longer and longer hours, thereby putting health and family relationships at risk. Pressure to complete and meet the ever-increasing corporate demands (as well as the need to achieve greater profitability with less resource) is forcing people to spend more of their time working and losing any work/life balance they had.

Whilst stress does have its benefits; too much can cause errors of judgement, mistakes, accidents and damage to health. Some people are more vulnerable to stress from overwork than others; American researchers identified two types of leaders – Type ‘A’ who, though thriving on stress, are vulnerable to its effects, and Type ‘B’ who rarely let events disturb them.

Not only are there Type ‘A’ leaders but Type ‘A’ organisations – is yours one?

Types A & B:

Type A 
• Try to do more and faster 
• Concerned with speed, performance and productivity 
• Tend to be aggressive, impatient, intolerant, hard driving and always hurried
• Preoccupied with time
• Start early
• Strong competitive tendency
• Always want to succeed
• More likely to have heart attacks

Type B 
• Easy going
• Take difficulties in their stride 
• Spend time on what they’re doing
• Rarely harassed
• Less prone to heart attacks 
• Take time to ponder alternative
• Usually feel there’s plenty of time
• Not as preoccupied with time

Stress What Is It?

Popular definitions include: ‘the result of a person being pushed beyond the limit of their natural ability’ When used in physics, stress is defined as ‘the external pressure applied to an object’, the resultant change is called ‘strain’

Applied to people, we mix up the two terms, using ‘stress’ to refer to both the pressures we’re under and the effect it has on us

What Are The Signs?

•Physical
Headaches, indigestion, throbbing heart, allergies, infections, twitching, nausea, tiredness, weight loss/gain, vague aches and pains.

• Mental
Indecision, making mistakes, forgetfulness, poor communication, easily distracted, worrying more, making hasty decisions.

•Emotional
Irritability, anger, alienation, nervousness, apprehension, loss of confidence, tension, cynicism, job/life dissatisfaction.

• Behavioural
Unsociable, restless, unable to unwind, appetite loss/gain, diminished/increased interest in sex, increase in drinking/smoking, taking work home, too busy to relax, poor personal management.

And Finally - Prime Time When Are You At Your Best?

We all have a ‘prime time’ during the day when we are at our best and fully alert, the secret is to recognise this and do those activities that require energy, application and thought when you’re at your sharpest. When energy is low, we are sluggish and tend to make mistakes, so watch what you eat – a heavy meal and wine make a lot of people sleepy; a healthy meal can provide energy hours.

Work in periods of time; a maximum of an hour before you give yourself a break – this way you’ll concentrate better

For the remainder of this week, I am going to be discussing inspiration and helping you discover if you are an inspirational leader or uninspiring manager!

Share This

Related Stories

• Working (or Leading) from Home
• Six Steps To Help You Achieve More With Less
• My Thoughts on Luck
• What Leadership Was And What It Has Become
• AMS impacts your DOing

POSTED IN: Miscellaneous