The Stress Effect

Why Smart Leaders Make Dumb Decisions - And What to Do About It

By: Henry L. Thompson

Narrated by: David Drummond

Reveals the powerful and undermining effects of stress on good decision making - and what leaders can do about it

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 decisions - as seen in the recent corporate scandals that rocked the business world - the 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 elevated - whether in the boardroom or on the front line of a manufacturing process - their ability to effectively use their emotional intelligence and cognitive ability in tandem to make wise decisions is significantly impaired. Until now, experts have argued that increasing your emotional intelligence will help you cope with and manage stress. This book suggests that stress actually blocks access to your emotional intelligence as well as your cognitive ability, two critical components in the decision-making process. This book:

• Shows how stress adversely affects the performance of even the most savvy leaders
• Reveals the truth about one of the prime factors behind the current failure of leadership
• Offers a solid prescription for building a "stress resilient system" and arms leaders with best practices for managing specific stressors that take the biggest toll on decision-making
• Is written by an award-winning organizational psychologist and leadership consultant whose clients include a roster of Fortune 500 companies

A groundbreaking and insightful resource for leaders, The Stress Effect reopens the dialogue on stress, its effect on decision making, and what to do about it.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2010 Henry L. Thompson (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Clinical Leadership material

Excellent content from a well educated and experienced author. Great explanations of what, why, and how as it pertains to the successes and failures of leaders as well as an extremely thorough “how-to” so you can improve these aspects of your own organization and leadership.

Great book and resource

This book is packed full with stories and research that help you condition your stress under pressure while make sound and timely decisions.

Practical stress management tools shared toward the end of the book

The first half to 2/3 felt slow to me but I appreciate where it ended

A must read!

I wish I had this book years ago. I will be reading it multiple times. I even bought two hardbacks of this.

Deep understanding how to respond.

We don't have control what happens just how we respond to it. This book helps to understand why our stress reactions happen and the way they do. With this insight we can respond appropriately to the stress.