When Managers Take Their Stress Out on Their Employees

Leaders are under a lot of stress. They must deliver value for impatient boards, demanding stockholders, and fickle marketplaces. Stakes are measured in billions of dollars and can include being hauled before Congress to testify when things go wrong. In positions that place them under a microscope and high pressure, executives try to regain a sense of control by exerting dominance over their employees.

But there’s a high cost to treating people poorly. A boss’s aggressive behavior triggers team members to view the executive as a predator and feel threatened. The threat response hurts employees’ ability to think. They struggle to remember things, be creative, solve problems, or take in new information.

If you’re in a high-pressure job where you’re not happy with the performance of those around you, consider if you might be part of the problem. Then start to turn things around by listening with curiosity, take small steps toward improvement, calibrate your responses to questions and decisions, clearly set expectations, and carefully chunk out and prioritizing assignments for your people.