Navigating the Storm: Unpacking the 3 Culprits of Business Stress During Change
By Jayson Krause, Managing Director of Level 52 & Award-Winning Author of The Science Behind Success
Stress, much like taxes and bad hair days, is an inevitable part of life and business. The relentless pace, towering demands, and weighty responsibilities often feel like a marathon with no finish line in sight. Each day, the impact compounds, and then, as if on cue, a significant change enters the scene. This is the moment when the fabric of our resilience threatens to come unraveled.
There are three primary culprits that fuel stress in any situation, and their potency is magnified significantly during periods of change inside your business.
The Information Paradox: When information is scarce, our brains go into overdrive, attempting to fill in the blanks. This mental gymnastics consumes a significant amount of energy, leading to stress. But here's your challenge: an overload of information can also be a stress catalyst, causing confusion and analysis paralysis. It's a delicate balancing act, where both scarcity and excess can tip the scales towards stress.
The Fear of Uncertainty: While some individuals flourish amidst uncertainty, most find themselves floundering. The Fear of the Unknown Theory, a well-documented concept, posits that change overwhelms individuals because the inherent uncertainty stirs up anxiety and fear of potential outcomes. We are creatures of habit, thriving in states of homeostasis - balance and predictability. When this equilibrium is disrupted, uncertainty seeps in, unsettling our sense of harmony.
The Loss of Control: There's a certain comfort in cause and effect. You identify a gap in the business, you know how to bridge it. This knowledge fosters confidence and consistency, as you feel in control of the variables that drive results. However, when change redefines the landscape, and your previous roadmap no longer aligns with the territory, a sense of control slips away. This can trigger feelings of overwhelm, retraction, and impulsivity in the workplace.
These factors morph into chronic stressors when they become inescapable - when those inside the business fail to recognize them and feel powerless to control them. This can foster a business culture steeped in learned helplessness which not only creates erosion in the current business, but presents tremendous obstacles in realizing the change your business wants and needs.
Understanding these stressors and their impact is the first step towards managing them effectively. Equipping your leaders with the skills and abilities to coach others through the stress during change is paramount to its success. As Hans Selye, the father of stress research, said, "It's not stress that kills us, it is our reaction to it." So, how will you choose to react? Maybe the better question is, how will you enable the people inside your business to own the change and choose the reaction that gets you there?
To learn more about our Change Ownership or other award-winning programs, please visit www.level52.ca or email hello@level52.ca
