“In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.”
― Fred Rogers, The World According to Mister Rogers: Important Things to Remember
VIM Executive Coaching subscribes to the notion that stress, in all its many forms, is responsible for more diminished executive leadership careers than most any other factor.
Though we are hesitant to follow the tried adage of describing stress as being a killer or “silent killer,” we readily concede that physicians, psychologists, marriage counselors, personal trainers, yoga instructors, nutritionists and clergy have all taken on the mission of eradicating stress.
We have national stress awareness days, gadgets to relieve stress, apps, countless recordings and podcasts, motivational speakers, scented candles, crystals, fragrances, herbal remedies, affirmations and certainly, more than a few pharmaceuticals promising to bring the executive leader a stress-free life.
Let’s not forget the renaming strategies for stress (after all, if it is called something else, it can’t possibly be stress), the latest buzzword being “resilience.” If executive leaders are adaptable, resilient and adjustable to the challenges, then they have overcome stress, right?
So How Are Executive Leaders Doing?
Given the numerous quick fixes and solutions, it would be logical to conclude that in 2025, stress has moved to the executive leadership rear-view mirror. Not so fast, folks.
The American Institute of Stress quoting the American Psychological Association’s 2025 stress survey, states: “a majority of Americans say their stress levels have increased over the past five years, with around 75% reporting physical or emotional symptoms related to stress.” The stress is resulting in executive “burnout, reduced productivity, and absenteeism.”
Among the many contributory factors: 76% is work-related and not surprising, stress is rocketing among Millennials and Gen-Z.
The work place, no matter how we wish to define it, has become a virtual and in-person pressure cooker. Executive leaders are not doing well when it comes to stress. Despite all of the innovation promised to executive leaders, from hybrid environments to AI to all-things-digital, many executive leaders are sleeping less, becoming more agitated and angrier, experiencing psychological challenges with a concomitant and continued increase in job dissatisfaction. While we avoid broad brushstrokes, it is apparent many executive leaders are not doing well, and some leaders have expressed they no longer want to lead.
What is missing?
What is readily clear to us as business coaches is that among all of the fixes and proposed solutions, mindfulness has been lost in the discussion. As our coaching practice often centers and rests on the principles of mindfulness, we are concerned that mindfulness is not more deeply explored as a way to reduce workplace stress. While executive leaders are often told to be more resilient, they are privately thinking, “I’m dancing as fast as I can!”
As Mr. Rogers noted in his quote, we need to listen more, to respond more (not to angrily react), to listen with our hearts, to be in the moment, and to ask the questions that need to be asked.
Mindfulness, perhaps the most ancient of all modern-day stress relieving solutions, is not being practiced as it should. There are those who will extol the virtues of the “most modern-modern,” that AI or interactive mobile apps will solve all problems. It hasn’t worked, it isn’t working, because ultimately, it is not how executive leaders want to work on an authentic human level.
You can call workplace stress any name you would like; however, it is still stress.
So, without trying to put “you” on the spot, we’d like to ask just two brief questions: “How are you doing in these high stress times?” and “Have you considered mindfulness and mindfulness meditation to help lower your stress and enable you to be more effective?”