Stress: When Is It Too Much?

I spent the last two weeks traveling through Europe on a University of Michigan Alumni Association tour, following the path of the Easy Company regiment. These U.S. Army paratroopers fought their way across western Europe, from the legendary battles of  D-Day in France to the capture of Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest in Germany.

Standing on the beaches of Normandy, visiting the battlefields and towns where these young men fought and hearing their individual life stories and the stress they endured, made me wonder, How much stress is too much? We all need to handle stress, but how much is too much?

When Stress Reaches a Tipping Point

As we followed E Company’s journey, one thing became increasingly clear: While some soldiers could withstand extraordinary stress longer than others, many reached a tipping point and could no longer perform their duties, and they had to be removed from the front lines. They were young, exceptionally well-trained, physically fit, and surrounded by comrades who had their backs. Yet prolonged exposure to danger, uncertainty, exhaustion, the loss of friends, and fear took too great a toll.

It made me reflect on the challenges we face when working with surgeons and those in other high-stress occupations: When does stress become too much?

Stress and Performance – The Sweet Spot of Optimal Anxiety

Stress isn’t necessarily bad. I once took my family with me on a speaking tour of U-M Alumni Clubs, when I was giving the same presentation after dinner in five different cities over five days. After the third day, feeling I had covered all the points perfectly, I asked my wife, Lynn, how she thought it went, only to hear, “Not as good as the first night.” I then realized I no longer felt the same stress from the first night that had kept me on my toes!

Optimal anxiety is the level of stress that challenges us, allowing us to learn and grow from an experience. Too little stress keeps us comfortable and static, while too much stress overwhelms us.

Some stress is inherent in the responsibilities we take on. At FS/A, we have exceptionally talented clients, among them physicians, working in high-risk environments. Decisions matter. Time matters. Precision matters. Most importantly, lives may be at stake. But other stress is created by factors in the environment in which we operate: communication breakdowns, unclear expectations, inadequate staffing, inefficient systems, unresolved conflict, competing priorities, or simply being asked to do too much with too little time.

Under stress, we tend to rely on the primal brain, defending our perspectives just when we need to co-create a better solution with the wise brain. Eventually, that stress undermines individual effectiveness, which in turn undermines team effectiveness. As a result, achieving peak team performance becomes difficult.

A Leadership Question

We can’t eliminate all pressure. Surgeons cannot eliminate the responsibility for the lives in their hands. Coaches cannot remove the social media feedback on their very public performance. Business leaders cannot eliminate the economic volatility and uncertainty of tomorrow. But leaders can ask whether their organization is adding unnecessary stress to an already demanding environment. Do we create stress-inducing systems for production that are excessive? If we care about and respect our team members, how much stress should they be expected to endure? This kind of caring may be one of the most important responsibilities for leaders seeking sustainable success.

Our journey following Easy Company revealed the extraordinary resilience of human beings, but it also showed that resilience has a tipping point. Our goal as leaders should be to build people, teams, and systems that perform at their best even under pressure, while recognizing that a tipping point exists.

Reflection

Is your organization creating optimal anxiety for team growth, or are the demanded metrics creating undue stress that inhibits peak performance?

NEXT WEEK: If stress is inevitable, how can we prepare ourselves and our teams to handle it?