Craig T. Owens

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Stress might have six letters, but it seems like some leaders have a knee-jerk reaction to treat it like a four-letter word. While it might be nice to fantasize about an stress-free life, this is both entirely unrealistic and detrimental to your leadership. The truth is, a mild amount of stress can be helpful to you personally, as well as your organization as a whole. Join us as Greg and I unpack why you should embrace a bit of stress in your life.

• [0:14] I have a brain block to start the show! 
• [0:59] Let’s define stress in a work environment, as opposed to simply work tension.
• [1:51] An interesting study about allowing moderate stress to remain in the workplace.
• [5:30] Mild stress is helpful for our brains.
• [7:37] Stress expands and strengthens our team connections too.
• [10:26] Can stress help increase someone’s work performance?
• [13:01] Our physical bodies use a stress hormone called cortisol. How can leaders maximize its effects?
• [14:38] Stress can help us rise to the challenge in a way that easy times can’t.
• [16:02] I share an example of a teammate who grew through stress, as well as a supporting quote.
• [18:40] Greg shares a negative example of an organization that became stress-free and drifted toward failure.
• [19:30] When times are easy, we can begin to slide into apathy.
• [22:40] Should we teach crisis leadership to our teams? If so, how should we do this?
• [23:47] We love to coach leaders who are dealing with crisis in their organizations. 

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