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Anyone else feel like ‘stress’ has become a trophy-status? A byword for high achievers, to show how ‘busy’ they are?
In the post lockdown era, it seems many organisations have surpassed the pre lockdown levels of work load, priorities and targets, resulting in greater number of conversations about ‘burnout’ and stress.
And chronic stress is of course detrimental and debilitating. Not only to the individual – but crippling to the organisation too. Today’s news headlines include the research that a third of UK doctors are planning to quit in the next five years.
It’s important that organisations take and promote responsibility for the prevention and mitigation of chronic stress. It’s neither solely the organisations, or the individual’s responsibility – it takes collective focus.
We know Mental Agility, with resilience at it’s heart, gives each individual greater ability to manage the challenges of work load, changing context and stretching targets.
But we also need to culturally address the ‘cult of stress’… the perceived glory of working 70 + hour weeks, the days full of back to back zoom calls with no time for a cup of coffee – and the appropriation of the word ‘stressed’ when we mean ‘over stretched’, ‘time poor’ or ‘unclear on my focus’.
As leaders, we have the dual-hat responsibility of role modelling stress awareness and management for others, as well as for creating the culture in which stress is appropriately viewed and managed in a frame of Performance Wellbeing.
Leading Edge Performance Wellbeing framework (c)
Stress is a very real danger to the health of teams and ultimately to our organisation. It’s detrimental to our individual and collective performance, and needs an intentional shared focus to tackle the systemic factors that enable it. But it’s also too serious to be a badge of honour, or a byword. Challenge yourself to find a better word for your emotional state, one that will enable you to elicit more control over it’s causes.
#stressawarenessmonth2022
