Why is one person's manageable job another's stress nightmare? We look at the role of motivation and job fit as it relates to the recent resignation of Pfizer's 55-year-old CEO, Jeffrey Kindler, due to too much stress. Wall Street Journal, CEO’s Stress Worried Pfizer
In Part 1, we looked at the role of a specific personality tendency and how it relates to personal stress.
Personality doesn’t tell the whole story when it comes to job stress. Another aspect related to stress is the type of challenge created by the context of the work versus individual motivation. Over time a mismatch creates fatigue and can lead to exhaustion.
I think Frederick Herzberg, writing in the 1960’s, highlighted the importance of motivational alignment quite effectively. Paraphrasing his Motivation-Hygiene theory, Herzberg said that when the job environment matches motivation the situation is challenging. It is like being hooked up to a generator all day. At the end of the day a person goes home fatigued, but it is a happy fatigue. Alternatively when the job environment does not match motivation the situation is fatiguing. It is like being on battery power, discharging energy throughout the day. The person goes home fatigued in need of a recharge. In an update to 1960’s thinking, consider the battery to be a NiCad, losing capacity at each recharge, until at some point it simply refuses a charge.
It isn’t much of a stretch to think that Kindler’s motivational NiCad hit a critical point and just wasn’t accepting a charge. News reports say that Kindler was constantly fatigued by his role, and had reached burnout.
Stress, then, can be either positive or negative.
Positive stress is when we engage in a situation or task that feeds our motivation. Thus, the stress we experience represents a challenge. Our energy meets the challenge, and our work is a fulfilling expression of the challenge. An example would be a person who wishes to have structure being presented an opportunity to introduce structure to a free-flowing process.
Negative stress is when we engage in a situation or task that detracts from our motivation. The stress we experience represents something frustrating, something that needs to be changed or removed so that we no longer need to put up with it. An example would be a person who seeks out individual recognition while being immersed in an organization that only recognizes team efforts.
While there is a clear set of personality traits associated with executive leadership, motivational alignment is much more situational. But both of these are critical factors for selection of the right person for an opportunity. Assessments can help hiring organizations find this out ahead of time, as well as arm individuals with the insight they need to avoid a big mistake.
Performance Programs, Inc.
