Amrop Explores the Personal Governance of Pressure and Stress on Top Executives

Recent months have seen at least three cases of CEOs suffering the physical effects of overload – a heart attack, an on-stage collapse, hospitalization for severe pneumonia. All were aged under 60, as was the former Chief Executive of a major insurance company, who took his own life following his resignation.

But senior executives get very little sympathy for personal stress. When in 2011 the embattled CEO of Lloyds Banking Group took time out due to fatigue, the British newspaper The Guardian cited a poll on its website with 54% of respondents saying the Lloyds boss was “paid well enough to take it.” And studies have mainly focussed on the woes of lower grade employees with little control over events. But attention is slowly shifting to leaders. After all, they are entrusted with the sustainability of the systems in which all employees should flourish. Their health, and their corresponding ability to take wise decisions, is no luxury. Managers with good Personal Governance know and recognize their stressors. They can tell what is the right workload - for themselves and for others.

Anxious Leaders Are Risk-Averse Leaders

A 2015 study from the University of Notre Dame in Indiana found that “anxious executives take fewer strategic risks, especially when things are going well”. The researchers detected “a pattern through which anxiety causes top executives to avoid potential threats.”

Leaders Lack Sources of Renewal, and Fail to Provide Them

An 2014 study found that whilst 79% of executives recognized the importance of renewal, only 35% said their firms had supportive programs. Only 50% encouraged renewal activities among their staff.

To read to full report, visit www.amrop.com/personal-governance-5-principle-4-pressure-and-stress-coping-and-coaching