Each of us is unique in how we manage and respond to stress. Stress can motivate us to accomplish more, help us respond better to unexpected challenges, and make us more resilient. However, there’s a good reason why managers and researchers tend to focus on the negative aspects of stress: it can be mentally and physically exhausting enough to make us sick.
How we manage stress may be unique to each one of us, but stress becomes an issue for everyone when it impacts an entire team. Chronic stress can result in both mental and physical illness, which in turn can impact our performance at work. In addition to the higher medical costs and absenteeism that comes with stress-induced illness, managers also face lower performance when motivation begins to suffer.
When stress among team mates begins to have a substantial impact on productivity and motivation on a business as a whole, this is what we call organizational stress. Managers play a crucial role in helping their teams manage organizational stress (and by making sure that they’re not the cause of it!)
For managers, this begins with an understanding of the symptoms of organizational stress and open means of communication with their team. Leaders also have the responsibility of learning effective management tactics for reducing the stressors employees face on a daily basis, such as those illustrated in the infographic below.
Learn more about how organizational stress impacts businesses – and how managers can help their teams manage this stress – in the infographic below produced for Pepperdine University’s Online MBA Program.