4 Types of Stress Project Manager Faces and How PM Can Manage Stress

Fellow project managers, let’s take a step back and think about it – broadly what type of stress do you have to face and then what are the typical situations which puts you under pressure. Dr. Karl Albrecht, renowned management consultant has defined four common types of stress as

Types of Stress Project Manager Faces

#	Stress Type	Description
1	Time stress	As the name suggest, there is a pressure to be time bound, instilling sense of fear to complete/deliver something within a stipulated time
2	Situational stress	This kind of stress one observes because he is into certain scary situation and he/she has no control, over it. The situation could be emergency, inter-personal conflict, loss of status, perceived significant losses, etc.
3	Encounter stress	This is peculiar kind of stress where you are worried about encountering person/situations which you have perceived to be unpredictable, unpleasant – may be based on your past experience.
4	Anticipatory stress	This stress is about upcoming event or some activity that you are expected to drive/deliver/present in future. This stress is induced because of anticipation of such events

Types of Stress Project Manager Have to Face

Time stress project manager observes: There is a pressure on project manager to be time bound. It instills a sense of fear to complete/deliver a project within a agreed timeline and meet the deadline
Situational stress project manager experiences: Project manager observes situation stress when s/he is into some scary situation and he/she has no control over it. The situation could be emergency, loss of status, perceived significant losses or some unexpected risk happens.
Anticipatory stress project manager expects: In some cases, project manager feels stress about certain event or some activity in the future that project manager expects to disrupt or change the course of project negatively.
Encounter type of stress for project manager : This is peculiar kind of stress where project manager is worried about encountering person/situations which you have perceived to be unpredictable, unpleasant – may be based on your past experience.

While these are commonly defined types of stress, let’s look typical project related situations/reasons for a project manager that leads him/her to get trapped in a stressful situation.

The most common one – Unrealistic Deadlines
Conflicting situations among stakeholders arising almost every other day
Constant pressure from higher management to perform and meet department/organization goal
Client expectations, team member’s expectations and in general project ecosystem
Competition with peers
High aspirations of career progression and realization of current project situations

After-effect and symptoms of stress [1]

Either because of personal interest and aspirations or being submissive to the situation, as mentioned above, a project managers deliberately or unconsciously are pushed into more stressful situation.

Depending on that individual’s personality and other factors (how its colleagues, family members support/don’t stand after these project manager) the results of such stress can be seriously adverse. The table given below categorize and enlist some of these common symptoms and warning indicators of stress.

Cognitive Symptoms(Memory Related)	Emotional Symptoms(Emotional Intelligence)
Inability to concentrate Inability to recollect facts, situations, names, numbers, etc. Interpreting situations negatively Delayed and poor judgment Feeling anxiousness with too many thoughts in mind	Being short tempered or increased short temperedness Low Morale When you don’t feel relaxed most times Be moody (unconsciously) Overwhelmed feeling Feeling of loneliness Depression or general unhappiness
Physical Symptoms(Physical Wellness)	Behavioral Symptoms(Communication, etc. traits)
Rapid heartbeat Headache/body pain Other body pains Upset stomach – Diarrhea/ constipation Cardiovasculor Diesese dizziness, Nausea Chest pain Frequent colds	Irregular eating habit (time & quantity) Irregular sleeping habit (too much or insufficient) Delaying, not owning responsibilities Isolating onself from others Frequent and uncontrolled consumption of alcohol, cigarettes, or other means Habits exhibiting nervousness (eye moments, nail biting, etc.)

Managing Stress

Stress Management For Project Managers

Yes, there are many ways to handle stress/ deal with stress because, for each reason that cause stress, you have to take distinct approach to mitigate/eliminate it or its effects. A good project manager is able to manage these situations, socks, effects well. Let’s look at some of these important stress management techniques one by one.

Time Management and organization skill

First, project manager need to get organized – strive for better time management skills. This can include as basic as using To-Do Lists or, if you need to juggle with or manage multiple concurrent projects, use– online project management tools like ZilicusPM.

There will always be unending list of things that you need to accomplish. It will be inhuman to expect to complete all of those tasks. The only way you can work is by prioritizing those. You should be formulating matrix of Urgent & Important activities. And should be able to say NO in apt situations (or where it is warranted to alleviate unnecessary or avoidable stress).

So it is critical to create reasonably balanced schedule for your daily activities; which should include planned regular breaks, whenever appropriate, you should be able to delegate part of your work to your colleagues and sub-ordinate.

Conflict Resolution and People Management Skill

To be able to manage people and face conflicting situations, first you need to be ‘Self-aware’. That means you should be aware of yourself – how you would react under different situations. What will be your physical and emotional mental response/ reaction?

You should also understand that resolving people conflict in a group will be different from resolving individual issues. Observe and understand how others respond in different/ difficult situations. So you need to be aware of others too.

Follow 10 Simple Tips and Learn to Relax

It is a fact that you can’t get rid of stress completely, from your life, but you can certainly control how much it affects you. Relaxation techniques such as meditation foster your body’s response in more relaxed manner. As you will practice regularly, these activities help you in alleviating daily stress level also to remain calm and composed under pressure situation.

Meditate by following ten simple steps given below[2].

Locate a quiet space where you can relax, sit comfortably without much interference
De-focus at eyesight to middle distance, start taking deep breaths and close your eyes
Observe your posture, start relaxing your body and muscles gradually from the top of your head to your feet and acknowledge your senses
Sense your body parts from the top and now focus inside yourself, your mind. Turn the awareness into thoughts, make note of everything but do not try to judge anything.
Start observing your breath. Start counting 1-10 as you inhale and when you exhale.
When you inhale, think as if you are absorbing energy along with fresh air
When you exhale think as if you are freeing your stress pressure along with stale air
Repeat this exercise for ten to twenty minutes.
Before you close the session, briefly think about things you wish to do next.
Slowly open your eyes

Beside meditation this is something you should consider.