Joe Murtaugh

Manage Your Way Out
of the Pressure Cooker

Do you ever feel that managing life is like being in a pressure cooker? Do you keep a list of things to do during the workday, and find that they never all get done? Do you often feel stressed, due to the number of hours you work, family and customer demands, deadlines, and budget constraints?

You’re not alone. According to Chuck Martin, CEO, NFI Research, surveys of over 2000 executives and managers from 1,400 companies including people from half of the Fortune 100 …the vast majority experience great pressure and at the end of the day leave work feeling “cooked.” Consider taking these five steps in order to lower the heat.

Communicate well: In order to keep yourself and those you interact with focused, motivated, and committed, you must communicate effectively, honestly, and consistently. With good communication people are better able to plan, specific tasks become clear, and each individual understands his or her role. People—associates, family and friends—have a need to know how what they are doing is critical to achieving excellent operating results.

If communication is so important, why are so many people so bad at it? Most think they are better communicators than they really are. While most feel they communicate well, less than 60 percent receiving the messages are able to understand them. People want to do what we ask of them but, due to poor communication skills, almost half can’t.

Make difficult decisions immediately: Tough decisions don't get easier over time; they drain your energy and dilute your focus. The process is made more painful for everyone by procrastination. Making tough decisions won't necessarily make you a lot of new friends or mother of the month, but it will create a new sense of respect for you and your decision-making process.

While some decisions require immediate attention, for others, you may not yet have all the information you need. Timing is always important. The best of difficult decisions are made after considering all the relevant information available at the time. Because no one can ever have “all” the information there is, it’s best to make an informed decision, communicate it clearly, and move on.

Focus on results: If it’s important enough to get on your “to do list” make a commitment to get it done. Success and relief of pressure comes only and always from getting things done…the right things done right!

How can you determine what the right things are while keeping the important people in your life happy and helping them grow? Asking these simple questions can help. How will doing this affect my major purpose? If that answer is overwhelmingly positive, then and only then, you may want to ask, “How will this affect our family, friends, staff, strategic partners, or suppliers, and is it consistent with my overall strategy?”

Be Flexible: Life does happen while you’re planning other things and flexibility can help decrease stress and increase productivity. The ability to recognize and adapt to change is ranked at the top of the list of important leadership qualities in the 21st century. The late Mary Kay Ash, founder of the cosmetics company by the same name, called it “pushing back.”

Push back has become a necessary tactic for staying focused on the most important issues. Deciding what not to do can be just as important as deciding what to do. When demands increase and people are grossly overworked everything suffers with demoralization and lost productivity following. Pushing back may mean you don't do what others expect of you, but will allow you to re-examine the big picture.

Add Value: Although you may be working for a company, you're also working for your family and yourself. It’s important not only to focus on results for the company but for how the company and the rest of your world, family, friends, and you…see you. Can you treat everyone like a customer, business, family, friends, and yourself?

In the end, won’t answering that question be the real measure of your management skills? Won’t answering that question determine your compensation and status, not only in your organization, but in your life? You must align the value of what you do with the real value of what your customers, business, family, friends, and you want.

To relieve the pressure and at the end of the day not leave work feeling cooked, ask these questions to lower the heat. What services do my customers (business, family, friends, and you) appreciate? How do my most important customers view me and what do I need to do to serve them better?