Columnist Claire Clerkin, Co-Founder at Wiser Working
Are you fit to lead? Many leaders are struggling to cope with the pressures of both their work and family roles. Some are unaware that they are struggling, and others are unwilling to address the issue. Their organisations are not seeing them at their best and worse still, their employees may be bearing the brunt of this. Are they ‘fit’ to lead?
It’s helpful to think about exactly what stress is. The word has become loaded with many connotations, but at its simplest, it is the body’s way of responding to any kind of demand. Stress is not always bad. In fact, we need a certain amount of stress to perform and get things done. Positive stress enables us to get things done. It can be exhilarating and addictive, like winning a proposal. The more negative type of stress is different. Akin to the feeling of being hunted, ‘bad stress’ dominates when we operate from a sense of fear, for example, of not hitting a target. These are challenges faced daily by any leader, but it is the cumulative effect of too much of either type of stress that can start to cause issues for high performing individuals – and these can ultimately filter into teams and across the business.
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arlier this year, Lloyds Banking Group CEO Antonio HortaOsorio, did something unusual for a person in his position. Rather than making headlines for banking difficulties, economic strategy or Brexit, Horta-Osorio spoke out candidly about his experience of workplace stress, and the resulting burnout. As the leader of 65,000 employees and a role model for high performance senior executives, he used his influence to highlight the effects that stress at work had on his own mental and physical health. While the media is awash with awareness of statistics of increasing stress levels and mental health awareness, it is still unusual for the topic to be addressed by the most senior business leaders. However, this is likely to be why some of the best intended wellness and mental health initiatives in the workplace are destined to fizzle and burn.
The Effect of Stress on your Performance If stress can be positive and fuel growth, what’s the problem? When your body detects any kind of stress stimulus, the hormones adrenaline and cortisol kick into action. These are ‘primitive’ responses that enable us to run away from perceived dangers (e.g. a wild animal). In short bursts these hormones increase alertness, sharpen the senses and push us to achieve our goals (or escape from the wild animal!). In small doses these super-charges are positive, but repeated exposure to cortisol, in particular, starts to cause issues. Cortisol in excess can literally shrink your brain. It can impair judgement, decision-making and stress control. There is also a trickle-down effect. When layers of management are feeling stressed you can expect overall poor employee engagement and stunted creativity and innovation. At the bottomline, sales and customer experience will suffer.
What does this mean for you as a leader? Studies now show people who are chronically stressed will have difficulty: • • • •
being creative building positive relationships collaborating and, making decisions
Setting Standards for Sustainable High Performance High performing athletes are meticulous about getting the right amount of sleep, eating well and not overtraining. They know that compromising on these factors impairs their ability to perform. Leaders in today’s volatile and uncertain world need to ask themselves: “Am I ‘fit’ to lead?” Leaders who walk the talk, set positive behaviours for all employees. It doesn’t take much: avoid sending/responding to emails out of hours or on holiday; take time to eat a proper lunch away from your desk and let people see you making time to exercise. You are the role model in your business or team. If employees know that you are taking your own health seriously, they will follow your lead and that all-important company wellness strategy will start to pay off.
Physiologically speaking, leaders are just as human as their employees and their stress will ultimately reduce them to behaviours that can be counter-productive to inspiring people and achieving results. When leaders and managers are stressed, they are more likely to resort to micro-managing and dictating rather than building cultures of trust and collaboration. It is easy to see how this can contribute to a toxic workplace culture. Good and Bad Stress Many leaders and business owners tend to naturally have higher levels of resilience to stress. But they are not immune to its negative effects.
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