Keeping Cool Under Stress Translates to Higher Productivity

Most people acknowledge that workplace stress can lead to a host of health problems. But it’s only in the last decade that neuroscientists have begun to pinpoint its specific effects on key leadership functions, such as decision making and creative thinking, and link it to performance.

“What’s most important is that higher order brain function — the executive functions — all of these are negatively impacted when a human being is chronically stressed,” said Don Joseph Goewey, author of Mystic Cool: A Proven Approach to Transcend Stress, Achieve Optimal Brain Function, and Maximize Your Creative Intelligence.

Even before the recession, employee stress, and the resulting rise in absenteeism, had a significant cost to organizations. Health care industry consultancy Medstat found that absenteeism can cost large companies on average $3.6 million per year, not to mention the cost of “presenteeism,” where workers are present but functioning below expectations.

Despite the cost, few companies take action. A February 2008 study from HR consultancy Watson Wyatt reported 48 percent of U.S. employers said stress is affecting employee performance, but only 6 percent said they were taking action to address the issue. And of the programs that have been developed, results have been lackluster.

“For years, we’ve been developing stress reduction programs, but they haven’t worked,” said Goewey, adding that 8 out of 10 employees have stress and 4 out of 10 report serious problems with it.

Stress is particularly acute among people in leadership positions, he said. Ninety percent of leaders report work is the primary source of stress, and 60 percent report that they are not given any help managing it.

“Most people in leadership positions have come to accept stress,” he said. “It’s so pervasive that we’re oblivious to it.”

That’s the bad news. The good news? Workers can be taught to successfully manage stress and raise productivity in the process.

“Most of these people are capable of recovering the personal and neurological power to move forward,” Goewey said.