“The Leadership Perspective” is a series of articles designed to assist millennials and emerging leaders with navigating difficult situations. Each week, successful business leaders provide targeted, actionable advice to enhance your perspective and improve your leadership skills.
This week’s article features a panel of three established leaders in the hospitality industry:
Julie Freed, Principal at Freed Events LLC
Stephanie Glanzer, Chief Sales Officer & Senior Vice President at MGM Resorts International
Tim Glanzer, CEO of Elevated Meeting Solutions
Known as the “worry generation”, Millennials are the most stressed out generational cohort in history. On a global scale, the World Health Organization claims that 1 in 13 people suffer from anxiety. And now, we have all experienced the spread of worry, stress and anxiety alongside the coronavirus.
It is important to understand the meaning of these three words – stress, worry and anxiety –that are often used interchangeably despite their unique differences. This way, you can better recognize and cope with each one.
A recent New York Times article explains the differences in detail; here is a snapshot:
- Stress happens to the body. It is a physiological response to a threat that is linked to an external circumstance, such as an important meeting, approaching deadline or this coronavirus pandemic. Stress is a normal part of life and is often experienced in high pressure situations or results from difficult circumstances.
- Worry is part of the mind. It is what happens when you have unremitting negative thoughts about an upcoming interview, for example, or dwell on uncertain situations such as making this month’s rent payment.
- Anxiety occurs in the body and mind. It is the result of large amount of both worry and stress based on a threat that doesn’t actually exist. Has your boss ever given you a curious look and then you think you are losing your job? That is an anxious feeling.
This week, I spoke with three top hospitality leaders to understand their strategies for managing stress and even how they make stress a positive force in their lives. With their advice, we can improve our approach and achieve results.
Focus on Health and Wellness
Self-care is essential during times of high stress. Lucky for us, there are many ways to integrate health and wellness into our lives. “Focus on healthy eating and high-water consumption. It’s something that you have full control over even in such an uncertain time. And you will feel great,” says Julie. Exercise is particularly important when managing stress because it is a way for your body to recover from hormone releases in the body. She suggests, “carve out time for a quick fitness class or meditation in your calendar the same way that you would block out a 30-minute meeting”.
Julie also practices mindfulness and breathing to manage stress. A mindful practice, such as closing your eyes and taking deep cleansing breaths, creates space in your mind so that you become aware of what actually is. It allows you to experience stress instead of actually being stressed out. When you feel stressed, take a few minutes – 10 maximum – just to breathe. There’s not an instruction manual or a “right” way to do this: simply breathe. Be present. Recognize your thoughts. Return your attention to your breath when thoughts grab your attention.
Recognize the “Control Factor”
Remember that you are always in control of your thoughts. Stress can have a positive presence in our lives. One step in achieving this is by acknowledging your stress, which means that you are confronting it and you are creating an opportunity to understand what is creating it.
Tim says, “so many times we are stressed about situations we have no control over or that don’t justify the level of stress that we are creating over any given challenge. Pause and reflect. Put things into perspective; is this really the challenge we have created it to be? Do we have control over the outcome? In many situations, once I stop and reflect, I realize that the stress I have created doesn’t match the reality of the circumstance”.
Intentionally focus your thoughts and energy on the elements of stress that you can control and accept those you can’t. Embracing stress in this way allows you to connect with the positive motivations and values that exist beneath the surface.
Use It
In connecting with the cause of your stress, you can use it to achieve your goals and connect more deeply with your core values. Some of Stephanie’s best work has been created with stress. She explains, “stress is sometimes that driver to get something done under pressure. I think that all high performers in life have a degree of stress to drive them to do their very best at times. It’s more about how one manages the “driver” stress versus the negative stress”.
When stress is a positive energy, you can make the make the most of it. It can also be detrimental to your health and productivity. If you find yourself in a state of distress, think about how you can change your response to guide your goals. Ask yourself if your response aligns with the underlying motivator of your stress. For Stephanie, they key to using stress effectively is “figuring out what is causing the stress and understanding when it’s healthy stress and when it needs to be managed”.
Experiencing stress in a new and unfamiliar way can be difficult, but by focusing on health and wellness, recognizing the “control factor” and using your stress as a positive force, you can become healthier and meet your goals.
Maggie Glasser is the founder and owner of Maggie Glasser Enterprises, a boutique consulting business that provides strategic guidance in sales, business development, and client services to hospitality businesses and event agencies. She writes about topics that provide business professionals with actionable advice to improve their skills and advance in their careers.
