I recently made a connecting between too different books I've read: Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers and Good to Great. I know many, many people have read 'Good to Great'. Probably not so many on 'Zebras', so here's a quick break down on the concept of the book.
One of the points of GtG (Good to Great) is the concept of a 'Level five Leader'. The traits of this level five leader are many, but a primary focus of this leader is that when things go good, they credit luck and other people as the source of the success and, when things go bad, they take the blame upon themselves. This is in conflict to the view those underneath of such a leader would describe, saying that the leader is the source of the success and is hardly ever to blame for any failure.
In 'Zebra', many styles of stress are described. A classic example of both how stress is relative and created in our minds is zapping a rat. One rat receives 25 zaps an hour while another receives 5. Then a change is made, and both rats are receiving 10 zaps and hour. The rat going from 25 to 10 thinks that things are getting better and his stress indicators will decrease, while the other rat, seeing in increase in zaps, thinks things are getting worse and thus his stress indicators will rise. Ultimately, both rats are in the same boat, but with complete different reactions to the new zap level.
So this brings us the relativity of stress: another major trait to how stress is handle is the amount of control a person has, even if the control is illusionary. People are much more capable of handling a stressful event IF they believe that there was little they could have done to change their present situation. If things are going good, they take credit and say, ahh, this is the life, good for me, and stress is low. If things are bad, they take the weight off their shoulders and say, well, this isn't my fault and thus I should feel to bad about this. There's a fine line to this, as people can also feel hopeless.
Which, of course, is in direct conflict with our 'level five leader'. Another point made in GtG is the general quietness and almost zen quality these leaders posses. It would seem to me that one of the special things about these leaders is how they take on the bad things and give away the great things all while somehow having a very level headed approach to the immense stress such a life-attitude must create.
Not only that, a level 5 leader frees those below him from this cycle of stress: imagine working under a person where you not only allowed to make mistakes, but some of the blame would be taken off your shoulders, and when things are great, you get the credit! I can just imagine how people would blossom in such an environment.
There's two classic sayings that pretty much give away the wisdom contained by these leaders: "I may not be able to control my situation, but I can control my reactions to the situation.", and the every classic Serenity Prayer.
For those of you who haven't read 'Zebra', I highly recommend it. It's a great 'meta' book, and has helped me think about my thinking process and recognize stress reactions that I then choose to control. It really has made a difference in how I react to things. It's a bit of a heavy book, but it is science, which, to me, makes it all the better. This isn't a mumbo-jumbo self-help book.
I think is still more to learn on how level 5 leaders react to stress and how level 5 leaders effect the stress level of those below them. Beyond that, I would hypothesis that a level 5 leader has less stressed out minions than average and that this lower stress level has many positive influence, both in productivity and creativity.
