SmartPulse — our weekly nonscientific reader poll in SmartBrief on Leadership — tracks feedback from more than 190,000 business leaders. We run the poll question each week in our e-newsletter.
Last week, we asked: How much does stress affect your performance at work?
- A lot — I’m really stressed and it hurts my performance: 24.13%
- Somewhat — I have occasional stressful moments: 59.31%
- Not much — I’m pretty low-stress: 15.15%
- Not at all — I have virtually no stress at work: 1.41%
Stress makes you stupid. When we get stressed, we lose perspective. When we lose perspective, we make bad decisions and perform poorly. On top of those challenges, you’re the leader and part of your job is to be the calm in the storm. Because if you’re freaking out and stressed out, your team is even more stressed. Figure out how to reduce your stress quickly so there’s less stupidity and you can perform at a higher level.
Mike Figliuolo is managing director of thoughtLEADERS and author of “One Piece of Paper: The Simple Approach to Powerful, Personal Leadership.”