Leadership is associated with lower levels of stress

Abstract

As leaders ascend to more powerful positions in their groups, they face ever-increasing demands. As a result, there is a common perception that leaders have higher stress levels than nonleaders. However, if leaders also experience a heightened sense of control--a psychological factor known to have powerful stress-buffering effects--leadership should be associated with reduced stress levels. Using unique samples of real leaders, including military officers and government officials, we found that, compared with nonleaders, leaders had lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol and lower reports of anxiety (study 1). In study 2, leaders holding more powerful positions exhibited lower cortisol levels and less anxiety than leaders holding less powerful positions, a relationship explained significantly by their greater sense of control. Altogether, these findings reveal a clear relationship between leadership and stress, with leadership level being inversely related to stress.

Fig. 1.

Cortisol as a function of leadership (study 1). Error bars represent ±1 SEM.

Fig. 2.

Anxiety reports as a function of leadership (study 1). Error bars represent ±1 SEM.

Fig. 3.

For leaders (study 2), mediation models depicting relationship among leadership level, sense of control, and the two indicators of stress. (A) Sense of control as a mediator of the leadership–cortisol relationship. (B) Sense of control as a mediator of the leadership–anxiety relationship.