Managing Stress

How do you manage stress?

That was a question asked of me yesterday. It came from someone who understandably must deal with stress. The organization for which he is responsible employs over 1100 people.

He commented, "there is just so much that has to happen at just the right time that I don't know how to keep from worrying about it constantly!"

I asked him if he had competent people in the key positions. He replied that he did -- with the exception of a couple of spots. I then asked him if those couple of spots created most of his worries. He hesitated and then said, "well, yeah, probably."

That is the key -- and the difficulty -- in managing large organizations. Getting competent people in the key spots that you can trust to do their job well. Not perfect -- well.

I then asked if he had a good accountability structure for his organization. "Are your key people accountable for the job that they do? Is there a clear monitoring process and consequences for poor behavior?"

He said, "Yes, but...."

That little word "but" spoke volumes. It contained excuses, past failures, personality issues and myriad other reasons why those employees weren't truly accountable.

The result was worry.

Ultimately, worry is our own failure -- not the expectation of someone else failing. If we do our part well, what is there to worry about?

Many worry about things that are out of their control. That kind of worry is just wasted energy. We should plan, prepare and create backup plans to deal with those things we can't control. But, why worry? They are out of our control.

The only answer to that kind of worry is faith. Faith can be in many things -- but, if they are humans or man made things, they will fail. The only faith that can truly alleviate fear is faith in the eternal. If we place it all in God's hands and trust that He has our best interest in mind, what is there to worry about?