Ep. 026: Money for Nothing and your Angst for Free: Leadership, Control and Stress

The Dissidents

In this week's podcast, Mike and Elizabeth discuss research on leadership and stress. In what may at first seem like counterintuitive findings, military and government leaders had lower levels of the stress related hormone cortisol than non-leaders. A sense of control was a significant mediator of anxiety and stress. We talk about contemporary labor relations and social applications of the findings, as well as some similar research that clarifies who may benefit the most from a sense of control in the workplace.

Podcast notes:

Sherman, G. D., Lee, J. J., Cuddy, A. J. C., Renshon, J., Oveis, C., Gross, J. J., & Lerner, J. S. (2012). Leadership is associated with lower levels of stress. PNAS Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109(44), 17903–17907.