Leadership, whether in an organization, small biz, sports team, or in your own family requires the exercise of influence or power. It requires having an impact on others to make things happen.
The higher a person is in an organization, the more power is involved in his or her role. In business leaders are selected for their strong motivation for power. (The power motivation is one of three powerful drives defined by David McClelland; the other two are the drives for affiliation and achievement.)
As a result of the nature of leadership roles, leaders experience a form of stress called "power stress." (Boyatzis, McKee, 2005, Resonant Leadership, Harvard Business School Press). The higher up they are in power, the more isolated and distant they are from feedback. The more likely they are subject to intense pressures, scrutiny, and stress. And the more likely they are to respond to stress through working harder, achieving more, driving themselves and others for results. Often, leaders will override their affiliation drive in favor of power and achievement.
Chronic stress releases glucocorticoids such as cortisol from the adrenal gland and this has immunosuppressive effects. One study showed that people with the leadership motive pattern, i.e., high need for power, primacy of need for power over the need for affiliation, and high self-control, showed consistently lower levels of immunoglobulin A, and accepted indicator of immune system functioning.
Many common human diseases are stress related: hypertension, myocardial infarction, infections, peptic ulcer, autoimmune disorders, obesity, cardiac arrhythmias, heart failure, diabetes, and susceptibility to cancer.
Relief from Stress
Relationships and connections to others activates the parasympathetic nervous systems, responsible for recovery from excitement. Thus leaders who wish to remain effective over the long term, who wish to sustain energy, might reach out to others in order to experience relief from stress. They must engage in recuperation and renewal activities.
Renewal from stress can come from many sources, including meditation, exercise, walks, caring for pets, and engaging in volunteer activities. Caring relationships have been associated with lower blood pressure, enhanced immunity, and overall better health. Social networks and social capital have both been found to decrease mortality rates in human population-based studies.
It is believed that during experiences such as compassion, hope, and mindfulness, a person has a greater amount of neural activity through the left pre-frontal cortex than the right. Feelings of happiness, amusement, enthusiasm, and elation emanate from the positive equivalents of the amygdala, the nucleus accumbens.
Some Questions
Is there a way to activate the nucleus accumbens artificially (drugs or other stimulation) as an antidote to stress?
Are talk therapies, executive coaching, or other leadership development programs addressing these issues effectively?
Can a leader choose a particular path for renewal, or is that like asking someone to fix themselves?
it is not easy to become a leader, you have be strong to take all the challenge that you may encounter for bringing your community better.
Posted by: cheap fluoxetine online | July 17, 2009 at 02:56 AM