3 Ways Your Stress Is Ruining Your Business

You’re always hearing about how stress kills. While you sympathize with those who have lost their lives to this condition you keep telling yourself that it will never happen to you. But if you steadfastly assume that it will never happen to you, you may be burying your head in the sand.

Stress can be a powerful motivator. It can shake you out of apathy and complacency and cause you to be the best that you can be. But stress is a fickle friend at best. Although it can bring out the best in you, it can just as easily bring out the worst, too.

In business, stress can impair your effectiveness and eventually even lead to its ruination. In fact, here are some ways in which, over time, chronic stress can spell the downfall of your business.

It impairs your decision making

The decisions you make on a daily basis play a huge part in the success or failure of your business. As such, you need to ensure that you’re in complete control of your mental faculties. You wouldn’t show up to work drunk, right? However, stress can provoke a “fight or flight” response in the reptilian brain and this can impair decision making. Stress makes us take more risks in pursuit of higher payoffs without fully considering the variables.

Sure, you might get lucky every now and then. But that’s hardly a framework for sustainable success.

It’s making you rack up sick days

The effects of chronic stress on your health are well documented. It can result in hypertension (high blood pressure), fatigue, lack of sleep, stomach upsets, psychological and emotional disorders like anxiety and depression, weight loss or weight gain and even increase your risk of some cancers.

Stress can cause you to burn out, spending more and time away from your business while your body recuperates, and this can be detrimental to your enterprise, especially if you haven’t taken the time to train and develop your team. Speaking of whom…

It drives down morale and cohesion in your team

Finally, stress makes you into someone you don’t want to be. It can make you quick to anger, irritable, emotionally volatile and generally unpleasant to be around. This can not only undermine your employees’ faith and loyalty, but it can also drive down morale and the sense of unity that makes your team a team.

Learn To Manage Avoidable Stress

Not all stress is avoidable. As long as there’s an element of the unknown, we will all be subject to occasional stress. Nonetheless, that’s not to say that as business owners you are powerless to guard against avoidable stress.

For example, investing in managed IT solutions so you never have to worry about the technical side of your business, check out http://www.techsquared.com/ to see how affordable it can be.

Also, trust in your employees to hold down the fort when you take time off. This will allow you to… actually take time off. And maybe try drinking water instead of coffee every once in a while.

In Closing

Unless you tackle this head on it can have a range of negative effects on you and your business.

Quite simply, stress can make you into someone that you don’t want to be. And unless you take steps to mitigate it, your business will likely suffer.

What do you do to manage stress in your business? Share it with us in the comments below.