Most of us have heard that it's a good idea to reduce workplace stress. In my last post, I discussed ways to reduce stress and increase team cohesion. However, I certainly have spoken to managers who say that stress motivates their employees to produce more. I remember in graduate school learning about the finding that a certain degree of anxiety motivates performance but that too much anxiety interferes with performance. So just what is too much stress? How can you use neuroscience to reduce stress and improve your own goal setting and that of any employees or supervisees? Recent research gives us good reason to focus on reducing workplace stress levels. This has to do both with productivity as well as health since millions of dollars are lost each year in American business secondary to workplace stress.
In a study from Germany, scientists from at the Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience worked with the University Hospital Bergmannsheil to reproduce a stress situation in the body using drugs and then examined the associated brain activity using MRI scans. For the volunteer research participants, the production of two stress hormones (hydrocortisone and noradrenaline) worked to shut down the activity of brain regions for goal-directed behavior. Those regions that control habitual behavior remained unaffected.
The conclusion was that when we are stressed, we return to old patterns of behavior to include our normal habits instead of a focus on goals. We lose our goal directedness and revert to more habitual patterns of thinking and behaving. The combined effect of the hormones produced the behavioral change by reducing activity in the forebrain (orbitofrontal and medial prefrontal cortex.)
In the workplace we want to facilitate goal-directed behavior. Goals are the indices that help organisations work towards their over-arching mission and vision. They are the means of creating action steps. Goals help individuals, teams and departments within an organisation to know which direction they need to take next and what is expected of them.
Managers, leaders, entrepreneurs, and small business owners would be advised to keep these research findings in mind when creating and communicating work goals and targets for their employees. A major component of leadership is being able to communicate effectively with staff and team members. When stress levels are too high, goal directedness and attainment suffer as well as the health and well being of team members.
If you would like to learn more about how stress effects you in your life and how you can handle it more effectively, check out my co-authored book (I Can't Take It Anymore: How to Manage Stress so It Doesn't Manage You; Paul G. Longobardi, Ph.D., and Janice B. Longobardi, R.N., B.S.N., P.H.N.). The book is available through Amazon at https://www.amazon.com/dp/1542458056 If you would like more information about the book and the authors, visit our website at www.manageyourhealthandstress.com
Best wishes for your success.
Dr. Paul Longobardi