A business must manage stress or stress will manage the business

A few years ago, a card on offer in the gift shops bore the message: "I don’t suffer from stress. I’m just a carrier." It may have been funny at the time, when the biggest stress we had to handle was worrying about the size of our bonus, but in this recession it’s a very dark joke. And like most jokes, it bears a great deal of truth. Stress is a virus. If left uncontrolled, stress in a workforce can very quickly destroy a business. And, unconsciously acting as carriers, business leaders can be the major source of infection. So understanding the special role and responsibility of leaders in this situation is the key to dealing with the problem. When signals of insecurity or loss of faith come from the top, the disease spreads wide and deep.