Is stress an excuse for poor self-leader behaviour?
I have just ‘Googled’ STRESS and got over 584,000,000 hits in less than 1.5 seconds – wow! When did stress become so contagious? We are in the middle of global political uncertainty and upheaval – the world is facing some of its biggest financial and ecological challenges for decades – public confidence and morale is low in many countries – so I accept that we’ve got a lot to moan about … but does this really mean so many of us are suffering from stress?
One theory is that stress might be becoming contagious … so I have a couple of questions:
- If you are working for someone who is telling you that they are stressed, what effect does this have on you and your state of mind?
- How well can you control and manage your own emotional state and choose how you are going to feel, regardless of what is happening around you?
- How resilient and agile are you to handle and manage ambiguity and uncertainty?
- How does a stressed manager affect the morale and performance of their team?
- Are leaders allowed to be stressed?