Oscar Munoz who took over United Airlines in the middle of a scandal surrounding its former CEO had a heart attack last week.

He’s under a lot of pressure because he is not from the airline industry and the United/Continental merger didn’t go well on top of the political problems caused by the previous CEO.

Harald Krueger, BMW’s CEO, collapsed at the Frankfurt Motor Show roughly within the same time period because of stress.

It’s not just CEOs who feel the stress.

It’s everyone under them because the speed of the leader determines the speed of the pack.

Work stress is proliferating – a new plan is needed.

• Create a balanced schedule.  Determine how many meetings you can handle per day/week and stick to it.
• Put time buffers in between meetings and projects.  Avoid back-to-back events.
• Do only the 20% of your work that produces 80% of your productivity so to do to this you have to take time and ask “Is this the most productive use of my time at this point?”
• Delegate tasks where possible.  Perfectionists (like me) and control freaks have a hard time with this but no one can do it all — and do it well – without paying the price with their health.
• Put an immediate stop/loss on people who stress you out either through overwork or workplace conflict.  The more you consciously avoid buying into this, the less stress you absorb.
• Recognize stress before it makes you sick.  If you leave work beaten, tired and defeated, either step in and try some new things or don’t be surprised when this kind of stress catches up with you.
• Use a Fitbit, phone or Apple Watch to record 10,000 steps a day.  Exercise relieves stress.
• Try to leave earlier for work in the morning – the commute is often stressful and the wrong way to start a day.

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