Deal with stress due to a sense of powerlessness

In this post we will address the stress due to a sense of powerlessness, one of the most common types of work-related stress. As you may imagine, we approach situations and people in different ways depending on our character, education and experiences. Therefore we do not get stressed by the same things.

For example, people with a tendency to perfectionism and having everything under control are more prone to this type of stress.

If you want to learn more about what is stress and general techniques to reduce it, you may want to read the post What is stress and how to deal with it. Now, let’s see what stress due to powerlessness – a type of stress I have to admit that I myself tend to suffer – is and how to reduce it.

What is stress due to a sense of powerlessness

This stress may be caused by issues and situations over which you feel you do not have power, control or influence. For example, this may be the task depending on a colleague to complete. Or the colleague arriving late to a meeting. Even meetings starting or finishing late.

If you like a job well done, even tend to perfectionism or do not trust others’ abilities, you may also be prone to suffer this type of stress. For example if you receive a piece of work which has not been carried out well in your opinion. Or if someone works with very close deadlines in your opinion. It may also be a task you would do or organise differently. So you may have thoughts going through your mind like “The event is in three days time. Going on like this we will be without catering/projection/speaker…” “Why does he/she take so long? I would have done this in a jiff.” “See how he/she’ll deliver late and on top of it I will have to correct it” etc.

Symptoms of stress due to a sense of powerlessness

The common is to become nervous and impatient. When we are awaiting work from somebody else, we might even suffer from mental block which prevents us from working on other tasks meanwhile. Same as with other types of stress, if symptoms worsen we may suffer from palpitations, anxiety or panic attacks.

How to deal with stress due to sense of powerlessness

Now dealing with this kind of stress requires a change of attitude. On one hand it is necessary to accept what you cannot change and on the other influence what you can.

The world is not always the way we want it to be

In order to accept what you cannot change, I suggest you remember frequently that the world, things and people are not always how we would like them to be. Therefore the first step is accepting people and situations as they come and learning to better deal with what you do not like or what you disagree with. Now, I know this is not easy because I can also have a hard time with this. But I try to remember and practice it every day.  And you know practice makes perfect.

Review your level of exigency

So, being demanding to yourself is okay. But whilst it does not turn into an obsession for perfection and cause you stress and anxiety. Remember that perfectionism is not efficient. Also take into account that people have different skills, knowledge and ways of working. Therefore, we should not demand from other the same we do from ourselves.

Train your patience and acceptance

Also, I suggest you learn to be more patient and to accept that just because somebody does things differently than you would, it does not have to be badly done. That way certain things and behaviours will stress and rile you up less.

Personally, Mindfulness and meditation have helped me a lot to be more patient and accepting. Which does not mean I have become a zen master, but I definitely notice the benefits and continue learning and improving.

Influence what you can

Training your patience and acceptance does not mean you ought to keep your arms crossed and that you may not influence what you can improve. Be it workflows or meetings for example.

Make clear the objective and deadline

Remember that the tasks assigned to other people need to have a clear objective and deadline. It is not fair to ask something from somebody and call him/her the next day nervously demanding when they will have the information, when you had not made clear the urgency and importance. So, make sure the person knows the task’s priority in relation to other issues in their court. If you are their direct supervisor, you can help establish their priorities. If not you can explain what you need it for and why the deadline, so the person can fit the task into the rest of his/her responsibilities.

Follow up

In the post on stress due to overload, I recommend creating a list called “Waiting for”. This will help you keep control of the things you are waiting for others to do as well as the corresponding deadlines. That way you do not force your mind to keep reminding you, but take off this load and reduce anxiety.

In addition to keeping control, you can also follow up on the issues you are awaiting from other people by sending a reminder, asking for the status or even if they need help with it.

Prevent #stress due to powerlessness by keeping #control of tasks delegated and following up Share on X

Organise more effective meetings

If it is in your power, why not make sure meetings are more effective. Is there an agenda and clear objectives? Do the participants know what they ought to prepare in order for the meeting to be effective?

Could it be an option to start the meeting without everybody present? Maybe those who always arrive late learn to be on time in order not to miss anything important. Or could you finish the meeting at the established hour although not all issues have been dealt with? Maybe that way next time people make an effort to meet the scheduled time and not to get entangled in other topics not on the agenda.

Now a productive course of a meeting is more easily guaranteed when somebody gets assigned a moderating role. Because the moderator’s job is to keep the meeting on the right track, cut off inappropriate interruptions and redirect the meeting to the topics to be discussed.

Do you ever suffer from stress due to powerlessness?

These recommendations are very focused on stress due to a feeling of powerlessness. But I suggest you combine them with other general stress-relief techniques.

I invite you to put the tips into practice and let me know how it goes.

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