MANAGING STRESS: THE PREVALENCE AND DANGERS OF STRESS
The demands of work are ever increasing, and organizations are expecting managers will do more and more with less and less. A recent survey of Nigerian workers found almost 80 percent of employees felt the previous year was their most stressful ever at work. Stress is a pattern of mental and physical responses to conditions of uncertainty and perceived threat. Think about a time you have experienced stress. Almost always, it was because you were uncertain about something you really cared about: You weren’t sure you could finish an important project on time, you worried whether you had the ability to handle an assignment, or perhaps you were overwhelmed with the prospect of competing with someone you perceived as more skilled or competent.
Stress has many detrimental consequences for managers and can inhibit effective listening, decision-making, planning, and the generation of new ideas. For example, several research studies have shown that managers experiencing high stress are more likely to selectively perceive information, fixate on single solutions to problems, revert to old habits to cope with current situations, show less creativity, and overestimate how fast time is passing.
In addition to the direct effects on managerial performance, people who incur long-term stress are also much more likely to develop physical and mental problems. Medical researchers estimate that between 50 and 70npercent of diseases and illness are in part due to long-term stress. Common stress-related physical problems include heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and lung disease. Common stress-related psychological problems include sleep dysfunction, sexual dysfunction, depression, and problems with interpersonal relationships. The evidence is clear that a high degree of sustained stress makes our immune systems less effective at fighting illness.
At the same time, some level of stress is essential to high performance. The father of stress research, Hans Selye, called this eustress, which he defined as a controlled or productive stress. It is uestress (pronounced “u-stress”) that gives us our competitive edge. So, the paradox of stress is too much will kill performance, but so will little. Each person has an optimal point at which stress helps improve performance by motivating and grabbing attention as if to say, “Don’t take this for granted, it’s important.” The challenge is not to eliminate stress, but to understand how it arises and to manage it in a way that does not derail your life and work. Great managers are aware of different sources of stress and seek ways to proactively manage it to avoid its damaging and harmful effects.
Sources of stress: Big Events and Daily Hassles
Everyone encounters a variety of stressors, and they can derive from many sources. Stress may stem from interpersonal relationships such as conflict with co-workers or subordinates, ambiguity regarding one’s role, more feelings of inequity or poor communication with others. It may also stem from conditions in the working environment such as changes in responsibility, reduction on company resources, or pay cuts. It might come from personal issues such as a divorce, potential lawsuit, or death of a family member. And it may emerge from the pressure of too little time to handle the workload, scheduling conflicts, and deadlines.
One important research finding related to the sources of stress is people tend to overestimate how much large events in their lives contribute to their stress level and grossly underestimate the effects of “daily hassles.” Certainly, major life event stressors such as moving, a new job, or the death of a loved one can take a toll on an individual. Yet, these stressors are often accepted as traumatic in people’s lives and thus organizations often make accommodations for them.
On the other hand, the stressful effects of daily hassles are typically discounted. Daily hassles are annoying events that occur during the workday that make accomplishing work more difficult. Take, for example, the all-too-common event of computer crash, and losing all access to email and work files. For many of us, daily hassles include unexpected walk-ins who want to “shoot the bull,” phone calls or emails from bosses or colleagues who need immediate responses, and other urgent meetings or requests.
Research has shown that these daily hassles are more likely associated with reported stress than more major life events. Indeed, some research has found that daily hassles are the most significant influence on mood, fatigue, and perceived workload. Put simply, the more you must deal with daily hassles, the more stressed out you are likely to be. Trying to overcome the unexpected, unplanned obstacles of daily hassles is often what really wears you down. Conversely, daily uplifts or unexpected positive outcomes can have the positive impact and can recharge a manager,
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