Stress... reality or perception?

I should have probably added a trigger warning to that title ??

I'll say very clearly up front that of course stress is real, it is unique to the individual and, especially when chronic, is deeply corrosive to both mental and physical health.

For those who have read my other newsletters you will know that I am writing a series on why employee engagement at work (and general happiness) is so low, and more importantly what we do about it. I have written a general overview of this and now I'm working through individual topics.

Before I go into detail on stress I am aware that I still have some work to do to convince people this is genuinely an issue they need to wrestle with, so I'll give it another stab.

Every client I have spoken with in regards to team engagement have said that they have high levels of engagement and happiness in their teams. To which I gently point them to the the Gallup data on employee engagement: UK 10% employee engagement (State of the global workplace: 2023 report), data from the UK Mental Health Foundation: In 2022/23, an average of 37.1% of women and 29.9% of men reported high levels of anxiety - a 60% to 70% increase over 10 years.

As I have done in my other newsletters I also point to the future; according to the NHS report 'Mental Health of Children and Young People in England 2022' 25.7% of 17 to 19 year olds have a mental disorder of some kind. Please read that last stat again, that is one quarter of all young adults...

My point? People are not honest when they fill out employer feedback forms, and some of them are worded in such a way as to be somewhat vague. In general, people do not fully trust that these internal surveys are confidential and therefore there is a strong bias towards a positive spin.

People also rarely tell the truth when they resign for the simple reason that most people hate conflict, so they will say whatever makes the conversation least likely to cause said conflict. There are are a lot of leaders that I meet who are living in a fantasy world of over inflated internal feedback stats and universally positive exit interviews.

When you apply the mental health stats above across a working age population of 37.5M people (2021 UK Census) there are clearly endemic mental health issues which every organisation needs to consider, regardless of what internal surveys might suggest.

So, back to stress. The definition as described by Britannica is:

Stress, in psychology and biology, any environmental or physical pressure that elicits a response from an organism. In most cases, stress promotes survival because it forces organisms to adapt to rapidly changing environmental conditions.

In other words a natural and valuable part of our physical and psychological make up.

So, what's the problem?

This natural response is being triggered constantly by modern life, meaning we end up chronically stressed, i.e., constantly in survival mode which makes us unhappy, anxious, unhealthy and for many, depressed.

The stress system evolved to deal with life threatening situations, we would actually spend most of our time in a state of calm. Because modern life almost never presents us with anything other than relative comfort, our systems have lost perspective and become super sensitive to normal daily events.

In addition we have learnt, and have been given the tools, to distract from the stress response, rather than to recognise it and act on it. The distractions in modern life are extensive, their impact is that we bottle up the ever increasing stress response, leading to many?of the well-being issues we face. The healthy reaction to stress, is action, is movement, it’s the perfectly healthy and natural drive to get up and do something.

How do we move from distraction to action and return stress to a healthy and occasional response?

Firstly what can we do as individuals, and then what can we do as leaders and businesses?

Individuals

• Daily exercise, preferably AM if you can. This can be very small - just raise your heartbeat and break the tiniest of sweats ??
• Ease off the caffeine which dials up the stress response.
• First thing in the morning, stay off the phone, emails, news etc. until you have calmly set yourself up for the day - put yourself in the drivers seat, not social media and world events!
• Don't distract, listen... when the stress levels go up, don't immediately turn to Instagram, TikTok, the news, alcohol (fill in distraction of choice ??) instead just take a few minutes to consider why you feel that way, what is it that's heightened your stress, and perhaps what one small step could you take that might lessen that?
• TALK - its an age old cliché but a problem shared is a problem halved. Time and again I see people open up about a problem and their shoulders come down the tension across their eyes releases and they start breathing again! It works, talk about it.

And if you're really serious about this:

• Meditate / Mindfulness (Calm app is great!)

Business solutions:

• GOLDEN RULE: This is NOT just an HR issue. If you're response to this as a leader is to point people to HR, or to just assume HR systems have this covered, you are failing as a leader.
• Stress undoubtedly travels down hill in any team or organisation so as leaders you have a responsibility to really work on understanding and managing your own stress otherwise you will simply be magnifying the stress of those you lead.
• Ensure all leaders understand what stress actually is, and are encouraged to understand their people well enough to recognise it quickly.
• Ensure all leaders understand the effects a stress response has on our body's and minds, and therefore team performance.
• Leaders need to want and be able to build close enough rapport with their teams such that people can open up to them. (Or ensure that there are a group of leaders who can do this across an organisation, filling in for those leaders who perhaps find this level of emotional engagement challenging.)
• We need to give people the opportunity to honestly discuss their stressors. Leaders need to become better at listening, coaching and mentoring.
• Then we need to help people find healthy strategies (action steps) within and without work to de-stress the issues they face.

Conclusion: Don't distract, react.

Please share this if you feel it is of value and I'll get working on next months edition!

If you ever want to discuss any of the topics raised drop me a line.

AND FINALLY - Book tip for the month:

'Man's Search for Meaning' Viktor E. Frankl - It will put modern day stress in perspective...

Have a great month and hopefully you feel some of this might help you and your team to #Thrive ??