Stress
and Your Performance
So far, we have seen that stress
is a negative experience. We have seen the
short-term negative
effects that stress hormones can have
on your performance, and have seen how stress
can contribute to burnout.
The Positive Effects of Pressure
Sometimes, however, the pressures and demands
that may cause stress can be positive in
their effect. One example of this is where
sportsmen and women flood their bodies with
fight-or-flight adrenaline to power an explosive
performance. Another example is where deadlines
are used to motivate people who seem bored
or unmotivated. We will discuss this briefly
here, but throughout the rest of this site
we see stress as a problem that needs to
be solved.
And the Negative...
In most work situations jobs, our stress
responses causes our performance to suffer.
A calm, rational, controlled and sensitive
approach is usually called for in dealing
with most difficult problems at work: Our
social inter-relationships are just too
complex not to be damaged by an aggressive
approach, while a passive and withdrawn
response to stress means that we can fail
to assert our rights when we should.
Before we look further at how to manage
stress and our performance, it is important
to look at the relationship between pressure
and performance in a little more detail,
first by looking at the idea of the “Inverted-U”,
and second by looking at "Flow".
This is the ideal state of concentration
and focus that brings excellent performance.
Pressure & Performance
– the Inverted U
The relationship between pressure and performance
is explained in one of the oldest and most
important ideas in stress management, the
“Inverted-U” relationship between
pressure and performance (see below). The
Inverted-U relationship focuses on people’s
performance of a task.
The left hand side of the graph is easy
to explain for pragmatic reasons. When there
is very little pressure on us to carry out
an important task, there is little incentive
for us to focus energy and attention on
it. This is particularly the case when there
may be other, more urgent, or more interesting,
tasks competing for attention.
As pressure on us increases, we enter the
“area of best performance”.
Here, we are able to focus on the task and
perform well – there is enough pressure
on us to focus our attention but not so
much that it disrupts our performance.
The right hand side of the graph is more
complex to explain.
Negative
Thoughts Crowd Our Minds
We are all aware that we have a limited
short-term memory: If you try to memorize
a long list of items, you will not be able
to remember more than six or eight items
unless you use formal memory techniques.
Similarly, although we have huge processing
power in our brains, we cannot be conscious
of more than a few thoughts at any one time.
In fact, in a very real way, we have a limited
“attentional capacity”.
As we become uncomfortably stressed, distractions,
difficulties, anxieties and negative thinking
begin to crowd our minds. This is particularly
the case where we look at our definition
of stress, i.e. that it occurs when a person
perceives that “demands exceed the
personal and social resources the individual
is able to mobilize.” These thoughts
compete with performance of the task for
our attentional capacity. Concentration
suffers, and focus narrows as our brain
becomes overloaded.
As shown in the figure, this is something
of a slippery slope: the more our brain
is overloaded, the more our performance
can suffer. The more our performance suffers,
the more new distractions, difficulties,
anxieties and negative thoughts crowd our
minds.
Other research has shown that stress reduces
people’s ability to deal with large
amounts of information. Both decision-making
and creativity are impaired because people
are unable to take account of all the information
available. This inability accounts for the
common observation that highly stressed
people will persist in a course of action
even when better alternatives are available.
It also explains why anxious people perform
best when they are put under little additional
stress, while calm people may need additional
pressure to produce a good performance.
Notes on the
research behind the Inverted-U:
While this is an important and useful idea,
people’s evaluations of stress and
performance are by necessity subjective.
This has made it difficult to prove the
‘Inverted-U’ idea formally.
Also, for ease of explanation, we show a
smooth curve here. In reality, different
people have different shaped and positioned
inverted-Us at different times and in different
circumstances. This is all part of “life’s
rich tapestry”.
Entering
a State of "Flow"
When you are operating in your “area
of best performance”, you are normally
able to concentrate, and focus all of your
attention on the important task at hand.
When you do this without distraction, you
often enter what Professor Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
of Chicago University describes as a state
of ‘flow’. This involves “being
completely involved in an activity for its
own sake. The ego falls away. Time flies.
Every action, movement, and thought follows
inevitably from the previous one, like playing
jazz. Your whole being is involved, and
you're using your skills to the utmost".
You perform at your best in this state
because you are able to focus all of your
efforts, resources and abilities on the
tasks at hand. While you are sufficiently
motivated to resist competing temptations,
you are not so stressed that anxieties and
distractions interfere with clear thought.
This is an intensely creative, efficient
and satisfying state of mind. It is the
state of mind in which, for example, the
most persuasive speeches are made, the best
software is developed, and the most impressive
athletic or artistic performances are delivered.
Helping Yourself to Get Into
Flow
One of the frustrations of management is
that managers can feel that they lose the
‘right’ to these periods of
deep concentration when they must be readily
available to others, and be able to deal
with the constantly changing information,
decisions and activities around them. Studies
of good managers show that they rarely get
more than a few minutes alone without distraction.
This alone can be frustrating, and can contribute
strongly to managerial stress.
In jobs where concentration is a rare commodity,
there are various solutions to creating
the periods of flow that sustain good performance.
Solutions include working from home, or
setting aside parts of the day as quiet
periods. Another solution might be to delegate
the activities that require the greatest
levels of concentration, allowing the manager
to concentrate on problems as they arise,
serving to create a flow of its own.
One of the key aims of this site is to
help you manage stress so that you can enter
this state of flow, and deliver truly excellent
performance in your career.
The next
article introduces you to stress management.
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