Managing stress well protects your health and raises your effectiveness as a leader, and with it your standing in the company. The most important lever lies in how you appraise a situation, because that appraisal is what actually triggers the stress. The video above (in German) goes deeper into the topic.
Managing stress covers everything you do to cope with demanding situations: Reducing stressors and responding effectively when things get acute. Stress itself starts out as a natural reaction to a challenge in leadership.
The same situation stresses one leader and leaves another calm. Often the same person reacts differently on different days. What triggers the stress is the subjective perception and appraisal of the situation.
Psychologists Richard Lazarus and Susan Folkman described this in 1984 in their transactional model of stress. In a primary appraisal, you check what a situation means for your goals. Whether your personal values and needs are at risk plays into this.
In a secondary appraisal, you ask whether your resources are enough to cope with the situation. If your answer is yes, you’re more likely to experience the same situation as a challenge.
The triggers vary widely. Common ones are too little appreciation, missing recognition from superiors, a toxic environment or conflict with colleagues. For one week, note down when the pressure rises and what happened just before. A pattern of a few recurring triggers usually emerges.
Autonomy adds to the stress account as well: The demand to decide everything yourself and keep everything under control. Orientation, and above all meaning in your own work, shape how you lead under pressure too.
If the sheer volume of tasks is the problem, take a look at Workload too high? How leaders lighten the load for self and team.
Part of the stress can be lowered at the source. Resolve open conflicts, and talk things through with peers. After that, it’s about disruptions in the workflow.
Redistribute tasks. Review how tasks are divided up in your area. Duplicated work and unclear responsibilities create pressure at the top.
Plan with risk management. Good planning reckons with what can go wrong. What’s been thought through in advance surprises you less.
Set priorities. Focus and energy belong on a few topics. Everything else deliberately gets less attention.
Draw clear boundaries. Say what you won’t take on. Keep recovery time reliably free.
Delegate. Hand tasks over to employees together with the responsibility. If you want to develop people, start with their personal strengths.
Lead yourself. Good self-management holds the other five levers together.
The second approach is your own tendency towards stress. Get clear about your role and find your inner drive. That changes how you see things, and the same situation feels different. Exercise and variety feed your basic needs and, through them, your perception and motivation.
In an acute situation, two questions help. Is there another way to appraise the situation? And what will it look like in a few months or a year?
Look at the situation from a distance and question your beliefs. That lets you reappraise it more calmly and win back room to act. This is the moment where you can see whether someone is managing stress consciously.
Many of the leaders I work with treat stress as a capacity problem. So they look for more time or more people.
My position: Stress arises in how you appraise a situation, and appraisals can be changed. Good self-management and effective ways of managing stress raise your effectiveness, and quite possibly your standing in the company as well.
I’m critical of the opposite extreme: Declaring every burden a question of attitude. When structures overload people permanently, the organisation has to change something, and that belongs openly on the executive board’s table. A mature approach to managing stress recognises the difference.
Work on two points: The stressors, for example with clear priorities and delegation, and your appraisal of the situation. The second point is usually underestimated, even though that’s where the stress itself arises.
Because stress arises from personal appraisal. Goals and values differ, and so does the assessment of one’s own resources. The reaction varies accordingly.
Step back and ask yourself one question: What will this situation look like in a year? The answer often puts a lot into proportion. Then decide what really needs doing now.
When the same situations throw you off balance again and again. An outside view makes appraisal patterns visible that you hardly notice yourself. In coaching, we agree measurable goals for this.
Further reading on hofmann.coach: Team under pressure: How to help before it breaks · Leadership mindset: Staying effective when the pressure rises · Outwardly successful, inwardly under pressure: Executive leadership under real complexity
Note: This article combines two articles from 02.10.2019 and 14.10.2019 and was revised and expanded in October 2026.
Cristian Hofmann is an executive coach in Zurich and Schaffhausen (MAS Coaching & Supervision BSO, Forbes contributor). Over more than 20 years he has coached more than 1,500 leaders: CEOs, executive boards and leadership teams in Switzerland, with measurably agreed goals and, on request, pay-for-results. More about Cristian Hofmann.
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