Stress in the Spotlight: Managing and Coping with Stress in the Workplace

It's often helpful to see how other people cope with excessive pressure. Seeing how successful leaders deal with difficult people and overcome setbacks can help you think more positively about your own stress levels, and give you a new perspective when it comes to coping.

"Stress in the Spotlight" does just that, because it reveals how highly successful people cope with difficult decisions and situations in their own lives.

We know that books on stress management are a dime a dozen. What sets "Stress in the Spotlight" apart is that it's based around 23 case studies from some of the world's most successful business professionals, athletes and celebrities. These interviews give you an inside look at how these top performers handle the enormous pressures in their own lives.

While it's comforting to learn that you're not the only person struggling to cope with daily pressures, these interviews do more than give you that "me too" feeling. They offer a peek at the strategies and tools these public figures use on a regular basis to make their own lives more manageable. We also get to see how these top performers handle setbacks and obstacles.

The celebrities and business professionals the authors interviewed are pretty diverse. You'll get to read about Sir Chris Bonington, the world famous mountaineer, explorer and writer; Kevin Roberts, the CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi; Major Chris Hunter, a former bomb disposal expert, author and broadcaster; and Jeff Banks, an international fashion designer, to name just a few.

After each interview, psychologist Cary Cooper pulls out the lessons to be learned, and offers expert advice on how to handle stress in specific work situations. We learn how to deal with difficult people, how to achieve a better work/life balance, how to establish goals and accept failure, and how to cope with the constant pressures of today's workplace.

The result is a refreshingly new take on stress, and how different people cope with intense pressures in different ways.

Brian Claridge is a freelance journalist who interviews business entrepreneurs and celebrities for national newspapers and magazines.

Sir Cary Cooper is Distinguished Professor of Organizational Psychology at Lancaster University. He's regularly featured in the media as an expert on health in the workplace. So, stay tuned to learn why you should keep your schedule flexible, why it's important to give yourself a break when you're feeling intense stress, and how to use visualization for stress relief.

"Stress in the Spotlight" is divided into 23 chapters, one for each of the case studies. The book comes in at just under 200 pages, so it isn't a long read.

Let's take a look at some of our favorite interviews from the book, and how you can use the lessons shared by these top professionals in your own life to reduce stress. We'll start with Kevin Roberts, the CEO of the global advertising firm Saatchi and Saatchi. His organization employs over 6,000 professionals, and is spread over 130 countries.

Roberts wasn't born into the world of high-level corporate leadership. He was brought up in the small English city of Lancaster, in a working-class family where money was very tight. When he was 17, his girlfriend became pregnant and he left school to support his young family.

A combination of luck, solid language skills, and natural leadership ability got him on the sales and marketing team at Stories of Lancaster, a large local company that produced oil cloth, wall coverings, and table baize. This break was all Roberts needed to thrive, and he's never looked back.

One key lesson from this first case study is that it's important to leave time open to deal with the unexpected things that will inevitably crop up during the day. Roberts says he leaves 50 percent of his day free to deal with unexpected events.

That sounds like a lot, but according to Roberts, it's worth it, because it's the unexpected things that always have the biggest impact on his business. Leaving this time open helps alleviate stress, because he has the flexibility he needs to adapt to crises and changing priorities.

This flexibility also gives him the head space and mental energy he needs to deal with what comes up in a professional and creative way. He just works better when he gives himself more time.

While you might not be able to spare 50 percent of your time, you probably could leave open 10 or 20 percent. We think this is a good lesson to take to heart, because so many people fill up every minute of their day with To-Dos. Think of how your stress level might go down if you planned to do a bit less.

The interview with Major Chris Hunter had us hooked from the very beginning. Hunter is a former bomb disposal expert who was awarded the Queen's Gallantry Medal.

He decided to become a bomb disposal expert after a tour of duty in Northern Ireland. There, he witnessed two IRA car bomb explosions in crowded areas, one in front of a hospital. He was hugely inspired by the bravery of the bomb disposal operators, who searched every car by hand while civilians were evacuated.

The job of a bomb disposal expert is one of the most dangerous on the planet. So, as you might imagine, it's incredibly stressful at times. So how does Hunter deal with the pressure?

He says that when he was defusing bombs, he learned that fear can be your friend. He uses his fear to give him an edge. He also uses visualization techniques and deep breathing to stay calm when things get tense.

One lesson we drew from his interview comes from Winston Churchill's physician, Lord Moran. Lord Moran's theory is that people can be subjected to stress and trauma for a certain amount of time. But, each of us has a set level of tolerance. Once our level runs down, once we're "empty," we need to withdraw from the stressful situation to replenish our stock of tolerance. If we remain in the situation, our stress can reach a critical level, where permanent damage sets in.

This is true for everyone, not just soldiers. All of us can deal with stress, even extreme stress, for a limited amount of time. But we have to withdraw to rest and replenish ourselves once we've maxed out our threshold. If we don't, we will hurt ourselves physically and mentally.

Stop and think about how you could apply this in your own life. Do you take enough breaks in the day? Do you take time to go for a walk, to eat a healthy lunch, or to spend a few seconds just taking some deep breaths?

Too many people don't take time for themselves, and this is especially important when you're having a stressful day.

Hunter's advice to people who find it difficult to cope with stress is to embrace whatever challenges are thrown your way, and accept rather than fear change. He says that many people curtail their own success because they fear failure and ridicule. Instead, listen to your gut instinct, believe that you'll succeed, and take time to rationalize whatever's causing your stress and anxiety.

Another interview we want to highlight is the one with sprinter Sally Gunnell, who won gold at the Barcelona Olympics. She's the only woman to have held Commonwealth, European, World, and Olympic track titles concurrently.

Like many of the top performers in this book, Gunnell came from a working-class background. She realized early on in life that she wanted to make running her career, and so she shaped her entire life around her training.

It was a risk that paid off. With hard work and persistence, Gunnell's skill and ability improved, and she began competing professionally.

As a professional athlete, Gunnell has to cope with the extreme pressure that can often strike before a competition. When she was competing, she would block out negative thoughts and visualize doing well. She also prepares as much as she possibly can, so she has no excuse to do badly.

In the analysis at the end of this case study, Cary Cooper suggests a five-step approach for using visualization and positive imagery to deal with a stressful event:

1. Think about the situation you're stressed about.
2. Note down the aspects of the situation that you're stressed about.
3. Develop ways to deal with these.
4. Visualize yourself in that situation, and slowly picture yourself coping with each anticipated difficulty that arises. Repeat this four or five times.
5. Practice this again when you're confronted by the same situation.

We like that this analysis includes some practical steps readers could take to apply visualization. But we think these steps would have been more useful if they'd been a bit more in-depth.

The last interview we want to mention is with Joan Chow. She's had a very successful career in brand management for many global firms. She's currently the Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer for ConAgra Foods. She was also one of Brandweek's Marketers of the Year in 2009.

Chow's position can be incredibly stressful at times, and she uses several different strategies to cope with that stress.

First, exercise is important. It's a simple fix that offers a multitude of benefits in your life. Several interviewees in the book mention consistent exercise as their go-to stress reliever.

To cope with stress on a deeper level, Chow asks her team for feedback. For instance, one time her team asked that she be more accessible. So, she spends Friday mornings in the cafeteria, where anyone can meet with her to talk. She also does what she calls "Chow Time," where several people can sign up to meet in her office, eat popcorn, and talk about whatever they want.

We really like this idea because it's simple, and it would be easy to implement with your own team. Making yourself available can help relieve stress because, by being there for your team, you're in a position to take care of issues as they come up. This can help prevent unpleasant surprises sneaking up on you down the road.

Spending time with your team to talk informally, in a non-threatening atmosphere, also helps build relationships. This creates loyalty and engagement, which can positively affect productivity.

Psychologist Cary Cooper sums this up well at the end of Chow's interview. He says, "Successful people frequently think they have the answers and don't turn on ‘receiver mode,' but rather are on ‘transmit mode'."

We think this is an important insight, because it underscores the importance of listening. If you make time to really listen to your team, you'll better understand what's going on in the workplace. This can help prevent conflict and miscommunication, and might even help you avoid making some costly mistakes. All of those things, as you might guess, lead to stress.

We've highlighted only four of the 23 interviews in the book. Each one has some valuable insights and lessons that can help you alleviate stress, and be more effective at work.

So, what's our last word on "Stress in the Spotlight?"

While we enjoyed the book, we do have one main criticism, and it has to do with the interviews themselves. In short, we think they could have been better written.

Many of them read like a verbatim transcript, like the interviewees simply answered a list of questions while the author typed them out. This often makes them feel disjointed and interrupted, as if the speaker is jumping from one train of thought to the next.

Not all of them are like this, but many are. With a bit of attention, all of the interviews could have really shined.

That being said, the book does offer value to readers. We particularly like the analysis from Cary Cooper at the end of each case study. This is often insightful and helps readers pick out the valuable lessons from the narrative.

It's a shame that there isn't more practical advice. Cooper picks out the lessons, but in most of the case studies he doesn't offer any concrete advice on how to apply them in everyday life. We think consistently offering some practical steps would have been really helpful for readers.

There are still some valuable lessons to be learned here, not just about managing stress but about how to live and work more effectively. Plus, it's an easy read, and is the kind of book that you can skim through in short bursts.

"Stress in the Spotlight," by Brian Claridge and Cary Cooper, is published by Palgrave Macmillan.

That's the end of this episode of Book Insights. Thanks for listening.

Listen to our exclusive interviews with Professor Cary Cooper on the Mind Tools site: Building Resilience for Success and The Healthy Workforce.