“When angry count to ten before you speak. If very angry, count to one hundred.” - Thomas Jefferson

“When angry, count to four; when very angry, swear.” - Mark Twain
Today, I share some thoughts about those situations at work where I’ve found myself working under pressure and how I’ve attempted to deal with them. I’ve found that opportunities to feel pressure, and stress, are almost constantly available in my work as an IT manager. How I react to these opportunities, to reduce the pressure and stress I feel, and to act effectively in the face of pressure, can make all the difference.

There have been plenty of stressors, and lots of pressure, in the environment I’ve experienced in my roles as a senior IT manager. Pressures to deliver the expected levels of service, reliability, and value with limited resources. Competing priorities advocated for by various powerful individuals or constituencies. Times where there has been pressure to deliver on IT initiatives conceived, and committed to, by executives without consulting with those of us in IT or properly considering the existing resources and commitments we’ve had in place. Times when I have been in conflict with someone in authority over what was right for our employees or those we serve.

The process of developing one of our IT strategic plans provides a good example of the kinds of challenges I’ve faced that created pressure for me and my colleagues. We had pursued an in-depth process to collaborate with colleagues throughout the university to identify initiatives that would use information technology to make the greatest difference for our academic mission. Having identified these, and built the draft plan recognizing that one of the key things we’d need to do together was to advocate for additional resources, or agree to limit certain expectations, a senior leader insisted that the guiding principles for the plan include “Implementation of the IT Strategic Plan will not require funding beyond what is currently available for technology infrastructure and applications.”

The process of developing the strategic plan had created expectations for that plan to promote student success, improved service and communication, professional development for faculty and staff, and other benefits. Many involved in that process clearly understood that we would need to consider the resources required to achieve these results. The inclusion of this new guiding principle placed our aspirations in direct conflict with a budget process that often functioned as a zero sum game. We worked together to realize the greatest benefit from the plan as adopted. Still, the pressure to deliver all the benefits described with no added resources, was a major challenge and I don’t believe we achieved as much as we might have.

The environmental pressure to act in a particular manner results in stress in the form of emotional and physiological responses. What I bring to the equation makes a big difference, and it’s not all good. I have a tendency to worry, to think introspectively about challenges in ways that are not always helpful, a desire to do excellent work and difficulty in accepting less than this from myself, a desire to avoid conflict, and struggles with saying no. Given all this, it’s been important for me to develop skills that help me respond to pressure with less stress.

Throughout my career as a manager, I’ve worked to improve my ability to delegate work that is more appropriately done by others, and sometimes this has meant learning to delegate “up” to my boss. I’ve worked to set effective priorities that help me defer the work that should wait so that I can focus where I can make the greatest difference. Where I can, I’ve learned to recognize work that I, and the teams I’ve lead, should not be doing, and to eliminate that work. I’ve improved my ability to communicate with colleagues and to advocate for more realistic priorities, budgets and expectations. After 15 years, I was very glad that my advocacy helped result in the hiring of the first CIO in the history of our university. The increased visibility and understanding of IT, and how the wise use of technology can deliver value for the university, that having an effective CIO on our president’s cabinet is making a real difference.

At a personal level, I’ve learned to make better use of meditation, exercise, prayer, and other techniques to help myself deal with the stress I experience, and to experience less stress when under pressure. I’ve made a point of taking time to relax and write to my loved ones at lunch, and to build professional partnerships that help me work with colleagues to respond to pressure with intelligent advocacy for the steps that will benefit our university most.

I have not been entirely successful in my efforts to deal with pressure, and the resulting stress and I’ve experienced consequences including health issues. As a result, my approach to stress and pressure has changed. I’ve increased my use of meditation, prayer, and mindful moments, and I’m more diligent in actually taking time for myself at lunch. I don’t bring very much work home any more, and I no longer work an average of 50-60 hours a week, or more. The fact that I am approaching retirement may make taking some of these steps easier for me than it would be for my younger colleagues, but I think anyone can make changes in the way they work to help them work more effectively, and stay well.

While the quotes I chose for this week’s essay speak to how we should deal with anger, I think they apply to pressure and stress, too. Just like dealing with anger, one of the key things I’ve learned about dealing with pressure and stress is that it is essential to take time when I first experience these feelings to regain my composure before acting. Acting without taking this time leads to much poorer decisions and other negative consequences. Taking just a moment to gather my thoughts, and really understand the situation, allows me to perform much more effectively. At the same time, I admit that I’m far from perfect and that my reaction to stress is sometimes better described by the quote from Twain than by the quote from Jefferson.

As I look back on my career, and the lessons I’ve learned, there are things I wish I had learned to do differently sooner. I’ve always struggled with delegating effectively and making more progress in doing that well would have benefitted me. I wish I had learned earlier to engage senior executives more effectively in a partnerships that allow us to realize greater value from IT together. Most of all, I wish I had learned sooner to care for myself, and my health, in the face of pressure and stress. I’m glad my medical issues got me to make changes in my lifestyle, and style of work, before I suffered worse consequences. I’m glad to be looking forward to my retirement in good health and wish my colleagues success in learning to deal effectively with pressure and stress earlier in their careers.