161: Becoming a Stress-Resilient Leader | with Andrew Shatté

Chronic stress takes a toll on the quality of work and life, for both leaders and the people they lead. Stress muddies our thinking, impairs judgment, damages health and relationships, and causes people to burn out and quit their job.

The solution, according to Dr. Andrew Shatté, is for leaders to become stress-relient and to teach resilience to their team. Learning resilience gets to the root cause of stress by helping people improve how they respond to adversity.

Unfortunately, nearly half of leaders and high-value employees are not resilient, according to a recent study by meQuilibrium. Among other findings, the study revealed:

44% of employees with a master’s degree or higher have below-average resilience — meaning they are at a higher risk for depression, burnout, absenteeism and reduced productivity

54% of employees making between $75,000 and $90,000 yearly have below-average resilience — and of those people, 42% intend to quit their job within the next 6 months

In episode 32 of Workforce Health Engagement, Andrew joined Jesse to discuss how to train employees to tackle the seven core components of stress resilience — not by attempting to eliminate stress, but by markedly improving their ability to handle it.

In this episode of Engaging Leader, Andrew discusses resilient leadership, including:

Developing resilience personally — and modeling it in real life,

Mentoring team members to develop their resilience, and

Creating a resilient workplace.

Andrew Shatté is co-author of two books about resilience and stress management. He is a psychologist and research professor in the College of Medicine at the University of Arizona, a Brookings Institution fellow, and the Chief Science Officer at the online stress management company meQuilibrium. Andrew has spent more than 20 years researching resilience and has established resilience programs that are operating around the world. Andrew’s work has improved productivity and performance at organizations ranging from NASA to Fortune 100 companies.

meQuilibrium is a personalized, interactive, coaching system designed to provide people with proven, measurable methods to increase their stress resilience. Large employers, including Comcast and HP, use meQuilibrium as part of their human capital strategies to help their employees to manage stress and boost performance and to make healthier choices. It’s designed for mobile and desktop use.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Podcast WHE32: Boosting Stress Resilience for Employees

Website: mequilibrium.com

New study: Nearly Half of High-Value Employees Are Not Resilient

Book: meQuilibrium: 14 Days to Cooler, Calmer, and Happier

Book: The Resilience Factor: 7 Keys to Finding Your Inner Strength and Overcoming Life’s Hurdles

LinkedIn: /AndrewShatte

Twitter: @meQuilibrium

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