What is Stress Management

Leaders, in and at the helm of enterprises and organizations, are unacknowledged members of the helping professions. While the need for self-care is generally acknowledged for those in the traditional helping professions of medicine and teaching, self-care is equally essential for leaders in other professions. How leaders care for themselves impacts their ability to lead others effectively, make sound decisions, and bring out the best in others. Yet little attention has been paid to this subject and to the impact of not practicing self-care, which we define as “prioritizing time and taking measures to ensure that you are maintaining physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health for optimum performance at work.” We make the case that self-care is essential for effective leadership, offer guidance for dealing with the myths and barriers to self-care, and provide a framework for creating self-care plans for ourselves and those we work with.