Stress Management for Executives: What Should a Training Program Include?

I want to know about stress management training programs for high-level managers like CEOs, plant heads, VPs, and branch heads. Also, I want to understand the various reasons for stress at this level. I am interested in what exactly the training program should include, what kind of methodology could be used, whether it should be residential, what the duration of such programs should be, and the content for such programs.

Training Program on Stress Management for Senior Management

Training programs on stress management for senior management are quite important. Your focus should be on the usage of stress relievers. This level plays a crucial role in reducing their own stress in particular and the stress of others in general.

Generally, stress management training includes yoga techniques. However, yoga is not required because stress results from not just personal factors but organizational factors as well.

Organizational Factors Causing Stress

This level should concentrate on eradicating the organizational factors that cause stress. These organizational factors are:

- Politicking at the top level
- Lack of organizational discipline
- Lack of processes for the departments
- Lack of staff training and incompatible staff for the jobs
- Lack of proper recruitment standards
- Outdated culture, with the organization looking backward rather than forward
- Organization being more reactive rather than proactive
- Reality managing them rather than they managing reality

The list can go on and on. No amount of yoga techniques will help relieve stress if the above factors continue to exist in the organization.

You can start with the training on the 7 Habits (of Stephen Covey). Let their staff audit their bosses to determine whether they possess these 7 habits. If these bosses inculcate these 7 habits, half of the battle is over. Then, revisit the points mentioned above from (a) to (h).

If you want training on Stress Management, you may approach me. I have attached my Training e-Brochure to this post. You may note that my last program on stress management generated a business idea that could save the company Rs 1 Crore. Please click here to read that post.

Thanks,

Dinesh V Divekar

Hi,

Such a program should preferably be residential, in the hills, where there is no mobile signal. The program duration should be 2-3 days excluding travel time. It can include meditation, stress management talks, discussions, yoga, massage, etc.

Thank you.

Dear Riyaz, you have written that "Such a program should be preferably residential, in the hills, where there is no mobile signal. Program duration should be 2-3 days excluding travel time. Can include - meditation - stress management talks - discussion - yoga - massage etc."

I strongly beg to differ with you. Do you have an example wherein top management did all this and, after a while, their stress was reduced, resulting in increased productivity? Did the increased productivity translate into increased profits?

What solution you have given is ephemeral and not a lasting one. I would like to stick to my guns (stick to my views in my previous post).

"Remember one thing: If the water in the pot is boiling, then to reduce the temperature of the water, you can put ice cubes in it, but the permanent solution is to locate the knob and put the fire off!"

Ok...

Regards,
Dinesh V Divekar

Hi, I agree with Riyaz. The top management should plan for these sessions in some outskirts for 2-3 days, preferably in some hill station or resorts where they are out of reach of the world. Trainings for them shouldn't be just the bookish learning activity of sitting in a closed conference room. Usually, these kinds of trainings involve learning activities along with outdoor games, meditation, yoga, etc.

Thanks,
Munmun Bhoir.

Dear Munmun and Riyaz, I am writing to you in connection with the above post. What both of you have suggested is to cure the symptom and not the cause. Stress is output and not input. Stress is a result of organizational ills, and unless you cure those ills, one cannot get rid of the stress.

Since the originator post had asked for a stress management program for the top management, I suggested curing the organizational ills first and then going for curing the symptoms.

For Riyaz: My reply to you was not an outburst per se. Just a couple of days ago, I met my friend who is now a VP. Just a couple of months ago, he was a GM, and his company, a Public Limited company, had called an outbound training specialist from Mumbai. Training for all the VPs was conducted at the resort owned by the company. The outbound specialist conducted outbound games from 07:30 am to 21:00 pm. In one of the games, he made the participants walk on the fire also!

All the participants went gaga over the training. But none, including the VP (HR), thought of the ROI on the training. Within just 2-3 weeks, things were back to square one.

As an HR or Training professional, my request is to diagnose the organizational disease correctly. After diagnosing, we need to offer the correct solution as well. To shoot from the hip, one need not be a manager, leave aside being an HR Manager!

My dear Syed, you have suggested I be open-minded. Yes, I will accept anything and everything but with proper evidence. Neither you nor Munmun have given evidence of what you have proposed. However, what I have said is a deduction out of past experience and not surmise.

Thanks,

DVD

Dear Riyaz,

You are right, and this is one of the ways to create ambiance to combat stress. Don't feel hurt. At times, even doctors fall sick, and not only top management but trainers too might need stress management.

Regards,
Adesh

Friends,

Hope this presentation will be useful for managing stress through emotional intelligence. Managing self and others is called emotional intelligence, where you will overcome stress. We need to get things under our control, rather than allowing stress to influence us.

Satish