Shared ethos across an organisation can relieve stress – and illness

Nick Haines has been practically applying the wisdom of Chinese Medicine within business, relationships and health for over 30 years.  Nick and I were recently discussing my approach of helping businesses to define and articulate their spirit then embed the resulting ethos and values throughout an organisation.

My theory is that if all members of staff have a voice and are allowed to share the knowledge and experience they have of their particular role within the business, the business as a whole will gain form the collective wisdom.  This is in contradiction to the rather more common autocratic approach of leaders telling middle managers how things will be, for the information to be interpreted (diluted, exaggerated) and relayed to other employees.  Likewise, any recommendations, comments,  or complaints by employees have to be passed through (filtered by) middle management in order to reach the leaders.

According to Nick this is a recipe for ‘health disaster’ for middle managers. He says that stress is the main cause of heart disease cancer and strokes, and the stress point of most organisations is the middle management – which feels the pressure from all sides:

 ” If you’re at the top you have different pressures, but often they are in your control and they don’t tend to create stagnation (unless you’ve been promoted above your competencies) and if you’re in the lower rungs then you leave your work behind when you head off home.  For middle management it’s different, they’re stuck in the middle with no where to go.”
Read more from Nick on his blog

In my last post I mentioned how Chinese electrical giant Haier have introduced self managed teams and all but eradicated of middle management roles, giving a voice and opportunity to the wider workforce – and increasing productivity.  It appears that this kind of leadership also shares the stress out more evenly and relieves the pressure points that can be dangerous for your health.