Stress levels among senior global business leaders are even higher now than during the pandemic, according to the Brunswick Group’s Leadership Stress Index. Increasing tech disruption, geopolitical instability, and economic uncertainty are just some of the contributors.
What’s a leader to do in an increasingly stressful work environment? The co-founders of the Center for Stress Intelligence have created a framework that helps leaders identify their default stress response type.
Identify Your Default Stress Response
To determine your type under stress, start by asking yourself these two questions:
- Do you view a crisis as an opportunity or a threat?
- During a stressful event, do you notice your emotional reaction or hold your emotions tightly in check (suppress them)?
By combining the answers to those two questions, the authors of a recent Harvard Business Review article named six common default patterns. Leaders that see a crisis as an opportunity are referred to as: Lighthouse, Alchemist, or Firefighter. Those that view a crisis as a threat are described as: Stoic, Diplomat, and Container. Which is your go-to type under stress? See the graph below.
I’ll admit that I self-identified as one of the types based on its title alone. But it’s worth taking a closer look at the article to understand how each of these styles are actually expressed in the workplace. It offers useful examples of how leaders react in moments of strain, what strengths they offer, and where each can go wrong under sustained pressure. And as a bonus, the authors provide a strategy for each of the six types, so they can adapt more readily under pressure.
GO DEEPER: 6 Ways Leaders Harness Stress by Jon Miller and Drew Keller, Harvard Business Review Magazine (if you cannot access the article, please email me and I’ll forward it to you).