Business and Marketing

When organizations encounter tough times, performance standards rise, resources are strictly rationed, and jobs become less secure. As a result, the working environment becomes more stressful, and burnout emerges as a serious performance problem. In addition, during tough times many managers make the mistake of reducing communication with their teams, leaving employees feeling isolated and fearful about the unknown. Given these work conditions, it’s easy to understand why employees experience higher levels of stress and anxiety during difficult times.

Stress is a sign that excessive wear and tear are being placed on a system. While a moderate amount of stress is necessary for good performance, excessive stress does not indicate that a team is performing at its best. It merely strips a team of energy that could be more productively directed elsewhere as team members seek ways to buffer themselves against the adverse effects of stress. Like the Starship Enterprise after it has been hit by a blast of photon torpedoes, stressed ¬out members tend to shut down everything but essential life-support systems.

To understand the relationship that exist between work stress and performance, picture someone racing a car across the Utah salt flats on the hottest day of the year, saying, “Look at the temperature climb in my engine! Now I’m really getting good performance!” Now picture that person intentionally puncturing his radiator to produce an even greater increase in the car’s engine temperature. Sounds pretty silly, doesn’t it? Equally silly is the manager who says, “I’m really getting performance out of my group now; just look at them sweat!” Once again, excessive stress is a sign of poorly displaced energy. Teams attempting to survive tough times need to apply their energy in the most effective way possible.