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When pressure mounts, leaders often focus their priority on achievement and neglect their well-being. Meditation and exercise boost stress tolerance and optimism, both of which help you to refocus attention and manage competing priorities. Use flexibility to ensure you receive proper sleep to help re-frame challenging situations. Leverage interpersonal relationships and social responsibility to participate in community engagements that buffer the effects of competing priorities.

Prioritize tasks according to importance, and tackle obligations in order of impact on organizational goals. Address the most significant issues objectively and implement fact-based solutions. When you feel compelled to shoulder the responsibility for achieving the strategic vision of the organization, use problem solving to reduce the strain, and leverage optimism to alter perspective. “this too shall pass.”

When work continually intrudes on your personal life, quality of life suffers at the expense of your happiness. Activate your assertiveness skills to address unreasonable workloads (as much as appropriate) and demonstrate flexibility by taking breaks, breaking for lunch, and signing off in the evenings and weekends. Harness the power of delegation; assign tasks to your team to alleviate the burden of competing deadlines. Leverage interpersonal relationships to identify those who can help, or those who need exposure or development in a particular task, and use flexibility to ensure fair distribution of work.

The day my leader informed me that her boss thought I was incompetent felt like a gut punch. My heart leaped from my chest to my throat and anguish flooded my body. At the same time, my mind was bombarded with thoughts about the time spent at this organization. My performance had been rewarded with above average reviews, matching salary increases, and maxed-out bonuses.