The Stress Effect

The ability to make sound and timely decisions is the mark of a good leader. But when leaders with otherwise strong track records suddenly begin making poor decisionsas seen in the recent corporate scandals that rocked the business worldthe impact can be widespread. In The Stress Effect, leadership expert Henry L. Thompson argues that stress is often the real culprit behind this leadership failure: when leaders stress levels become sufficiently elevatedwhether in the boardroom or on the front lines of daily businesstheir ability to effectively use their emotional intelligence and cognitive ability in tandem to make wise decisions is significantly impaired. For example: An MIT study found something termed "analysis paralysis" whereby people who were given too much information in making stock decisions did not perform as well as people who received less information. When given too many options, our brains become overloaded and we feel forced to pick an option which mi