07/11/2025

How Leaders Help Teams Manage Stress

Make resilience a team function rather than an individual burden

Fact: Stress has become a defining feature of modern organizational life. When channeled constructively, stress can act as a powerful motivator — fueling productivity, innovation and change. Conversely, unmanaged stress can breed dysfunction, lower morale and create lasting psychological harm. Yet most organizations still lack systematic approaches for managing stress across teams.

To address this gap, we launched a multi-year study of leadership and employee behavior that focused on organizational politics and psychological safety. Our research combined structured interviews, case analyses, practitioner insights and a survey of more than 150 senior business leaders across the Asia-Pacific region, Europe, the Middle East and the United States. Our findings are both encouraging and sobering. We learned that most workplace stress is episodic and manageable with proper support, but a troubling pattern emerged: Leaders — tasked with modeling resilience — often amplify stress instead. Rather than easing pressure, their behaviors frequently intensify it, undermining team cohesion and performance.

A striking example comes from a professional services firm where employees initially coped well with typical pressures like divorces, car repairs, deadlines and office politics. That balance shifted with the arrival of a new unit director. Aiming to boost productivity, he introduced few procedural changes but brought a leadership style that some employees described as "highly toxic." His controlling, confrontational approach eroded trust. Personal stress became harder to compartmentalize as the work environment grew volatile. Absenteeism rose, engagement fell and some employees left meetings in tears.

Please select this link to read the complete article from MIT Sloan Management Review.