Introduction
People feel pressure, a small amount and coming out of your comfort zone is no bad thing, continually feeling out of your comfort zone, under stress and incapable of making decisions is a sign of too much stress which can have long term mental health issues. Promoting positive behaviour and happiness is the other side of the coin. The B school that gives a ‘balanced approach ‘ to it’s teachings is one that can develop rational and sound leaders who make decisions from a perspective of positivity rather than negative and short term thinking. That is why B schools that promote personal development and take time for the student to know themselves better succeed in churning out ‘ better’ MBA graduates who can cope under pressure
One of the latest management phrases is Resilience which has moved the topic of sustainability along from simply surviving to being able to counter or spring back from circumstances that were not foreseen. The ability to cope with pressure of delivery, performance and simple survival is a sign of corporate and personal Resilience
To some extent this has it’s roots in ancient philosophy as it is not so much about events themselves, but rather the reaction to events, again a deeper notion is about worry or control. A modern day MBA student cannot possibly know every part of the external business environment and cannot possibly predict how things will turn out. What the a B school teaches gives an MBA are tools and personal behaviours in business school is around recording, planning and controlling the reaction of the themselves and their organization to events to which may or may not happen.
This is the basis for a lot of modern day business techniques ranging from Strategic budgetary planning, Risk Registers, KPIs ,disaster recovery plans and scenario planning.
Again, nothing new under the sun and again, it is not only the event that the ‘what if scenario’ comes true but also way the MBA student or firm reacts to the event either on a planned (preferably) or unplanned basis. Either way has the MBA student developed enough resilience to cope with the change and adapt their behavior accordingly. Failure to adapt causes dis – ease and stress inevitably developes accordingly?
To a large extent it depends also on size , an MBA in a larger firm can have a more direct impact on the environment and set the strategy and markets will emerge, smaller firms may actually sit and wait for the change and then react, some firms, irrespective of size may merely do nothing and ride out the storm whatever happens.
When it comes to resilience, contemplating the view from a personal level and what causes stress in individuals is a good place to start. The B school that places high importance on personal development as part of their MBA curriculum is recognizing that stress and discomfort is partly a mixture of inexperience, lack of knowledge and a gap in personal understanding of behavior when confronted by the unknown.
Stress free leadership
This very much depends on the individuals own internal perspective and how decision making is done and compromises made .
One of the most commonplace practices is taking a view from above to put current problems in context, this can be done by placing the current issue literally in perspective in the general economic environment and also looking at the time issue and whether actually doing anything may help or the problem may just disappear over time via self-resolution ( not to be confused with procrastination). By contemplating the scale of the issue it could actually pale into insignificance in the broader context of what the firm is actually trying to achieve, so to some extent another phrase that springs to mind is ‘don’t sweat the small stuff’ Not because it is insignificant in itself but because it is insignificant when taken with all the other issues the firm faces and if there is a resource to be allocated, it needs allocating in support of the bigger picture. B schools therefore can provided insight and knowledge whereby problems can be put into perspective.
Where resilience is concerned a sense of perspective is also useful about control and how much value we can put on non-controllable and controllable events. There is not much the MBA can do about that Asteroid that will one day hit earth, so this non-controllable event is simply not worth worrying about, however, a price rise by a supplier is.
An MBA can allocate resources at every level to achieve the overall goal and the subordinate goals along the way, there will be checks, balances and alternative solutions to events which are controllable by the firm in reaction to non-controllable, but actionable events.
The stress free MBA student with this perspective on control accepts that success or failure isn’t entirely within their control but actually focuses resources on what can be controlled to maximize resilience and minimize adverse organizational reactions. In short recognizing what is possible and develop an appropriate response..
The MBA response ( apart from ‘it depends’)
Relieving stress is not just about bouncing back to a steady state or where you were before it is also about re arranging the resources you have to get to a place which is more resilient than it was before so that if the event happens again, you are better prepared at least for having already experienced it. If the same event recurs it becomes the new ‘normal’ and then life carries on. A reactionary MBA student, or indeed the MBA with reactions knows instinctively that every experience is a lesson and Resilience means acting or reacting in accordance with the organizational values and in accordance with what personally they are comfortable with. However, de stressing is not about passive acceptance of everything life or business throws at you (on the basis that, in essence there is little you can control other than your belief system) . Mental health is more of a coping and adaptive mechanism and a way to modify your worst extremes of behaviour to arrive at a way that works around the obstacles that have been presented. It is quite the opposite of a passive approach and resignation – it is a dispassionate look at alternatives and ways of doing things which solve the problem in a way that the Leader can remain true to their own belief system and the values embedded in the business. This is sometimes known as a common sense approach to decision making
Stress and Mental health
Mental health issues arise when you cannot differentiate between controllable and uncontrollable and can’t cope with any unpleasant uncontrollable
Vulnerability occurs when you direct resources into pursuing the uncontrollable and not achieving your desired result which leads to anger, frustration and unhappiness
Stress can also be managed by acceptance that the chosen action/ decision may not have achieved the desired result. The trick is then to accept the sub optimal outcome and make the best of it, maybe by taking another action/decision that gets you to your ultimate place. In that sense it is always about the personal reaction (or the organizational reaction) to events.
As stated earlier keeping mentally healthy is not a wholly passive exercise, nor is it about avoidance. In it’s purest from it is about accepting that stuff happens and dealing with it appropriately. The definition of appropriately is underpinned by the prevailing belief system, values and culture of the MBA graduate and the organization as a whole.
The MBA, teams and Mental health
The situation becomes a little bit more complicated when MBAs get into Leadership positions and manage people/teams who also have different ways of seeing the world and behavior shown under stress. The trick of the leader is to manage group stress levels and ensure there is no passive stress effect or indeed toxic behavior that becomes contagious. Here are some further thoughts when we talk about management and leadership.
1 Paths of least resilience
When teams get under stress the least resilient ‘cracks’ first. Leaders should have some form of emotional antennae to see how close the least resilient is to succumbing to pressure. I suppose this is something to do with individual behaviour not being consistent and therefore unreliable when it comes to the team competence chain.
Showing ( using MBTI speak) inferior functional behaviour is one way spotting this. It is also a case of making sure the team individual stays on task. If a person is ‘flaky’ and not reliable it will soon show.
2 Sensitivity contagion
Other team members will also see that such ‘flaky’ individuals will need support. The leader must ensure that the team remain on task and that there is a team conversation about support. It is a team decision, not necessarily an individual’s decision about how best to support sensitive team members.
The issue here is that lack of team resilience can become an epidemic if not carefully controlled.
So supporting team members, or bringing on additional resources maybe a balancing act in which the team should have a joint say.
3 Resilience and time
Again, a question of outcome and deadline. I am reminded of the general work by Charles Fine about clock speeds and leaders need to have an awareness of the nimbleness, agility and ability to cope with deadlines of individual members. There are differences between optimum levels of performance, burn out and rust out and these points on the graph are different for each team member and each task so speed and agility of operation is different for each individual. It is a question of allocating duties and ‘project managing the task’ to accommodate different clockspeeds. There will therefore be group mental health and group member mental health issues to manage
4 Task Management
The desired outcome and the talent available is a conversation teams should have at the beginning of the project and intermittently throughout it’s course (see last paragraph point 2 above)
5 Sacrifice
Generally I am reminded about WWII Convoys which have to go at the speed of the slowest and I have seen many a WWII film where someone has to decide to leave a ship behind or in fact leave one as a sitting duck for a torpedo, such sacrifices are inevitable so I will also use the phrase ‘taking one for the team’. Leaders have to have that difficult conversation in a way that doesn’t further damage peoples thought processes .
6 Honesty
It is also about individuals admitting when they are feeling the strain.
7 Response part 2
When circumstances change beyond our control teams must not fall into the trap of ‘learned helplessness’ or seek to blame, but rather have a conversation about ‘what do we do now’ I think it is a cultural issue about how teams make decisions and their views on time. The work of Zimbardo and others is quite important here.
Teams that are future positive rather than past negative have a different risk and response strategy/culture. I don’t see much research in this area about this , and of course any budding Entrepreneur has to take a decision sometime about bringing in help to do things that they cannot. Recognizing limitations and alleviating peoples anxieties are key
Conclusion
In short Mental Health is also about personal resilience and is moving the sustainability debate along a bit further when we talk about competitive advantage. Such advantages are at best temporary and the MBA that understands the resources at their disposal, makes an appropriate response and builds resilience into their behavior will have a better chance of survival. There is also a role for B school to enable learning and accept failure. Fundamentally Mental health is about personal happiness and positive thinking so it encompasses the the work of Seligman and the promotion of happiness as well as one eye on history and subjects like Stoicism.
Mental health is also about physical well- being so decisions after lack of sleep, poor diet, self administered medication in various forms and lethargy all compound issues surrounding mental health. The key is knowing one self and how one reacts under pressure, recognizing the points and getting help either through your own way of rationalizing situations, through your own personal support networks or whatever works for the situation you find yourself in.
Asking for help with your thinking is a sign of strength not weakness and B schools can assist the student is acknowledging that a) they don’t know all the answers and b) no one answer works in every case.
B school have a tendency therefore to start of any conversation with ‘it depends’ so keeping a clear head, listening to conversations and having an appropriate response is a recipe for a positive mind.
