Moreover, it leads to the repetition of problems since it is associated with the current situation as it was with others that the person considers similar. However, it is an unstable state because it fluctuates during the situation and disappears as it evolves. Understanding the mechanisms of psychosocial stress allows us to gradually and durably change our spontaneous behaviour.
Stress is indeed internal. What stresses us is our way of dealing with a situation that is not always so dramatic.
You perceive that your stress belongs to you, that it corresponds to your way of approaching the situation, not necessarily to that of your neighbour. You perceive that the neighbour’s stress is also his, that it is not contagious and that it is never good. We do not stress for the same reasons or under the same conditions. We do not perceive events in the same way, neither in their meaning nor in their intensity.
Physiological stress responds to actual physical aggression in 10% of cases.
In the remaining 90% it is of internal subjective cognitive origin. It is as if we are not or no longer able to spontaneously distinguish between a life-threatening event and a subjective annoyance coming from a nuisance.
It may be a worry, a disappointment, a failure at school, a daily conflict, negative judgments made about us by those around us. Stress is to the mind what pain is to the body: an indicator of dysfunction, but it is an indicator that must be taken seriously, not tragically, since it is avoidable and can be easily managed.
The fear of conflict, the lack of tools for managing a team, the lack of performance management tools, the lack of understanding of human behaviour, the lack of adapted communication with one’s team, the lack of self-knowledge are all points that can plunge a leader into permanent stress in the exercise of his role.
These are all areas in which it is important for any leader to develop in order to have a better understanding of the role of the leader.