News from OWLS

Leadership Blog (cont.)

Why then are workplaces steadily devaluing stress management? We think the answer stems from a failure to provide key services to leadership. Specifically, programmers need to do a better job of integrating health with leadership development. This is a core axiom in our book "Heart-Centered Leadership" where a major principle is actual care for the heart. But first, let's look at other explanations for the decline in stress offerings. (Perhaps we are experiencing less stress these days? NOT!)

The first real answer hints from the sub-title of the SHRM report: "It's the economy stupid!" Under financial pressure, HR may remove benefits with limited "take away" value-that is, benefits workers can take home. Benefits are a fixed pie with only so much to go around. The second answer points to wellness. SHRM also showed that many (72%) companies offer wellness information and resources; a number that has grown the past 5 years. And the next 5 years? Insurance Plan sponsors project that wellness and prevention will continue to grow steadily, according to a recent study by Prudential Group Insurance ("A NEW DAY IN EMPLOYEE BENEFITS"). Since wellness has been (and will be) given much greater market attention, employers may mistakenly believe that these programs also address stress. While a positive trend, wellness growth may overshadow or subsume stress programming. Stress management may not be going away at all; it is simply being offered under a different name.

But workplaces may also devalue stress because their leaders fail to embrace (1) the benefit itself, (2) its integral value as part of a viable, sustainable, and strategic wellness initiative, and (3) the importance of their own personal ability to manage stress. This triple failure can be understood in the context of the PULSE hypothesis or the Probable Upper Limit to Stress Endurance. Put simply, wellness programs may have an upper limit, or ceiling, on effectiveness when stress is not also managed in the workplace. Wellness programs are great, effective, and can have a solid return-on-investment (ROI). Moreover, their increased use is a very exciting and positive trend in this age of healthcare reform. However, research suggests that ROI may be limited when workplaces do not also address job design factors that cause stress. Think of it as the first-time exerciser who loses a few pounds in the first month of their new regimen only to fall back to other habits when stressed (e.g., poor diet, lack of stress management), habits that keep them from further weight loss. Helping employees with healthy behavior change is a wiser investment-with maximal ROI-when those employees also work in a relatively healthy environment. The prevailing focus of health promotion is individualized support for cardiovascular behavior rather than for the situation in which the behavior occurs.

But what does this have to do with management and leadership? Well, they are stressed too!... and-as a result-they have limited vision to see the PULSE at work. Last year Watson Wyatt surveyed HR managers from large companies. These managers reported that while stress affected productivity, their companies were doing very little about it. First, 50% reported that long hours and lean operations (doing more with less) lessened productivity, but only 4% of companies did anything about it. Second, between 20% and 25% reported that manager failure to even recognize or find solutions to stress is impacting productivity; again, much fewer are helping managers address something that significantly drains productivity. Other research shows that manager stress is often greater than worker stress and that their stress has a negative "ripple effect" not only on productivity but also on the health of other workers. Seen from the opposite viewpoint, there is a POSITIVE ripple effect. It is important not only to invest in manager physical health (with wellness) BUT ALSO in their ability to handle stress; that is, help them handle BOTH their own stress AND the stress of the workplace.

Leadership requires having a vision for the systemic or "deeper" roots that underlie the real causes of productivity loss and health care costs. Workplace leaders should strike at the root of the problem by focusing on prevention of those factors-like stress-that they have some control over. Prevention is the best insurance. It may be paradoxical that healthcare reform efforts increase while stress management programs decrease. Reform that emphasizes insurance and medical care (even for "preventive" care) may reinforce an unconscious tendency to do nothing, to put off today what you can do tomorrow, because tomorrow holds the promise of even better insurance. When companies are now poised to pay more in health insurance than they realize in profits, it is really a wake up call to look deeper than wellness offerings.

We encourage everyone to think about the leaders, the managers, the bosses, in their lives. They-like the rest of us-have to do more with less, have high stress jobs, and also carry risk for cardiovascular disease. They-like the rest of us-may not always know how to handle stress, thinking that physical wellness is sufficient. The SHRM and Watson Wyatt surveys, contrasted with evidence that stress management really works, strongly indicates that managers need much more education and support that helps them be strong leaders of the positive ripple effect. Managers are pivotal to maximizing ROI for any wellness program. They can model health. They can support health promotion. They can treat workers with support and respect. Indeed, the best predictor of employee health is their relationship with their boss. But the key word in that last sentence is "relationship." Indeed, the most effective stress management programs bring workers and managers together to find common solutions for stress reduction. When this happens, managers are more likely to model health, more likely to support health promotion, and more likely to be good, wholesome leaders. As a result, productivity increases and wellness is much more sustainable.

If you are interested in integrating health with leadership development, you may be interested in our ExecuPrev™: LiveWell ~ LeadWell program. To learn more, contact Ashleigh Schwab at aschwab@organizationalwellness.com.