The perception of stress is highly subjective. This means that different people react to comparable demands with different stress reactions. The level of objective stress factors is therefore by no means the same as the subjectively perceived stress that a person experiences biologically and emotionally as a result. How sensitively or robustly a person's stress system reacts to an external challenge essentially depends on the degree of their individual resilience.

Attitude towards negative stress is crucial - stress as a "kick"

In addition to a person's genetic predisposition, their biographical experiences in childhood and adolescence have a strong influence on whether they feel spurred on or overwhelmed by challenges. However, personal beliefs and attitudes towards problems also play a key role. The environment is also of central importance for the resilience of employees and managers.

A persistent myth about resilience is that resilient people take it easy on themselves and simply expose themselves to less stress than others. But the opposite is actually the case. Numerous studies suggest that resilient personalities have developed and cultivated a different attitude towards negative stress and therefore perceive it as less stressful, even though they objectively have to deal with very large tasks. Stress is a consequence of the activation of the pain area in the brain - our brain does not differentiate between physical, social or emotional pain. People with a high level of resilience tend to activate the reward center rather than the pain area, as they do not feel overwhelmed by difficult challenges but get a "kick" from overcoming them.

When stress-triggering factors add up

Factors that weaken a person's individual resilience and resistance to stress can add up, i.e. various smaller weakening factors, each of which does not represent a serious problem on its own, can accumulate if there are not enough strengthening factors to counteract them. This is all the more true the more these stress-inducing factors occur in different areas of life, for example if, in addition to problems at work, difficulties arise in a relationship or with health. The different areas of life and their individual significance are of course different for each individual. In my experience, many of the managers I work with lack an awareness or a good overview of which factors in their lives - in addition to the difficult board of directors and impossible customers - trigger stress in the first place.

Building resilience

Another aspect that plays an important role is the time at which you start training your own resilience. If you want to go sailing, you typically don't start when the wind is force ten, but when the wind is manageable, perhaps three to four forces. The situation is similar with resilience: inner resilience is most effectively trained before a serious career or general stress situation arises and not when the baby has already fallen into the well.

However, if you can rely on receiving support from colleagues and managers or your family environment when needed, this significantly reduces the perception of stress. So if you want to strengthen managers and their employees in dealing with stress, the most promising lever is to improve their resilience.

The author

Karsten Drath has been working as an executive coach at Leadership Choices since 2006. During his time as a coach, he has published several articles and books on leadership, coaching and resilience.