Stress is good; more stress is better

Three ways to turn anxiety into motivation

ne of the curious phenomena of publishing since the turn of the millennium has
been the success of books in the business market that started out as being as far
away from that sphere as it is possible to be. Moneyball by Michael Lewis was a
huge hit, supporting as it did the use of data analysis rather than gut feel, despite the fact
it centered on a plucky baseball team that ultimately never won anything. Similarly, other
books that have looked at political empires, creativity, historical events and even episodes
in fiction have garnered praise and sales in equal measure for the insights they purport to
bring business leaders.

One of these books and its application to business is perhaps less surprising. The Chimp
Paradox by Dr Steve Peters is the culmination of many years spent with patients and elite
athletes helping them to overcome whatever mental barriers they face. In the case of the
British cycling team, his appointment as its psychologist was seen by many to provide one
of the many marginal gains which helped it sweep almost all before it at the Olympics and
other major championships. By enabling athletes to manage the chimp of irrational urges
and decisions, he has also helped footballers and snooker players achieve their goals in
their chosen sports.

Managing the psychology

The application, then, seems to be straightforward: imagine you are an Olympic cyclist
about to start a grueling training session, pop the chimp in its box and get on with the
program. Except for training session, read report writing, and for program, read long-term
project. Just copy what the cyclists and footballers do, and project management glory must
surely follow. However, as anyone in business knows understanding management
psychology and applying it in practice are two wholly different things, and Olympic athletes
probably do not have to deal with Brad in Finance or Donna in Marketing thwarting the
projects every move.
In their article How to convert bad stress into good (2014), authors Strutton and Tran offer not
one but three strategies that can help managers with the psychological aspects of their work,
but in a way that fully understands the work environment and does not require any difficult
translation issues from sport or history. Furthermore, the authors also direct their attention at the
heart of many problems encountered by managers, namely, workplace stress. The ability to
cope with this effectively will help managers deal with their whole business life, rather than one
single aspect of project management or financial strategy.

What is stress?
Anxiety can be a natural response to stress, and the authors are at pains they do not want
to divert or bottle up these emotions. However, what they do seek to do is to explain

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DOI 10.1108/SD-01-2015-0013

how they exist and what can be done to create positive outcomes. First, it is important to
realize that every manager will feel anxiety and stress, and it is the responses they have to
these that can create problems for them and their organization.
One way to deal with it is to adopt a mental state that views the possibility of oncoming
stress as a positive force to be embraced and looked forward to, rather than some
impending tsunami of pain and tension. One can imagine the highs and lows of, for
example, a high school teacher viewing the start of a new term or of teaching a class with
a bad reputation. If they were somehow able to make this a positive phenomenon, how
much more productive and happy would they be?

Just enough stress, please

A strategy the authors identify involves the concept of just-enough-tension, which they
identify as a level of tension that inspires productive rather than destructive organizational
responses to opportunities, threats or challenges as they arrive and inspired stress and
anxiety (p. 1095). Managers should be in a position to understand oncoming stress and
anxiety, and to identify at what levels their teams will feel this and how they will cope. For
those who may exhibit destructive rather than productive behaviors, they must then use
psychological techniques to embrace these feelings and move people forward, using it as
a catalyst to create enhanced reason and motivation.
Identifying the biting point of just-enough-tension is difficult, but it is perhaps useful to
think of a third way between two norms as a way to achieve the right balance, such as
the heat of a hot plate that is uncomfortable, but can still be carried in the hand. In
managerial terms, this will often be exhibited in times of change where managers will
adopt a new mindset or place themselves directly outside their comfort zones to fully
embrace a new environment.

Embracing paradox
Paradoxes are not the preserve of the intellectual elite, but more part of every day life than
we imagine. Does your organization want to increase revenues but cut costs? Thought so,
and there is a paradox we all face every day. However, the authors are keen not to sound
too new age about the use of paradoxes in managing stress, as it would be easy in
ascribing a message that seems to say seek harmony in paradox. What they do state is
that a paradox has competing halves, and to eradicate one half as managers are wont to
do only gives the perception of authority and simplicity, but in actual fact, all it does is
unbalances a necessary equation.
And balance is key as the authors recommend the middle-path-within-paradox which
is a fulcrum where the just-enough-tension resides remove one side and the whole
situation goes out of control. Finally, here are some examples of where paradoxes can
be exploited and used to develop just-enough-tension that will drive an activity or
project forward:

Moneyball by Michael Lewis was a huge hit, supporting as it

did the use of data analysis rather than gut feel, despite the
fact it centered on a plucky baseball team that ultimately
never won anything

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PAGE 5

Identifying the biting point of just-enough-tension is difcult

Keywords:
Management development,
Productivity,
Human resource
management,
Motivation,
Anxiety,
Stress

Paradox between cynicism and idealism.

Paradox between complacency and aggression.

Paradox between arrogance and doubt.

These paradoxes are almost guaranteed to appear, and by adopting a set of pre-planned
responses to them, potentially catastrophic situations can be turned round and leveraged
to produce much improved performance.

Comment
The article How to convert bad stress into good? By Strutton and Tran (2014) is a good
example of harnessing current psychological thinking and applying it business situations.
Although the article likes real-life examples or evidence of its effectiveness in
implementation, it provides ample opportunities for managers, particularly those in human
resources, to experiment with what can be a debilitating problem for many organizations.

Reference
Strutton, D. and Tran, G.A. (2014), How to convert bad stress into good?, Management Research
Review, Vol. 37 No. 12, pp. 1093-1109.

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