Careers: Lead Like Fonzie

0atwong • 25th Jun 2007 • Conversation Pieces

Careers: Lead Like Fonzie
Leadership can be stressful. Being pulled in a million different directions, always having to bring your “A game,” having 100% of the accountability without 100% of the responsibility. The Center for Creative Leadership (CCL) recently conducted a study on the stress of leadership. In it, they were able to identify what and who causes stress. At the top of the “what” list was a lack of resources and time. At the top of the “who” list were the bossy boss, competitive peers, poor-performing direct reports, and unreasonable customers.

Unfortunately, stress doesn’t occur in a vacuum. In the workplace, all eyes are on you. Your boss, direct reports, peers, the guy who comes in to water the plants in your office…everyone looks to people in leadership roles to see how they are going to react to stressful situations. As my boss once told me, sometimes people base their reaction to a situation on how they see you react. If you fly off the handle, they might do so as well. So what’s a leader to do? Lead like Fonzie.