The correlation between stress and motivation

If given the choice, most of us would opt to avoid stress. Who could blame us? Think of what the last five years have been like.

But most of us would be wrong. We’re making a big mistake if we aim to eliminate stress altogether.

And most of us actually know this somewhere deep down.

Stress is not simply a necessary evil. It’s a growth necessity.

Your brain only forms new neural pathways under stress.

Your muscles only grow stronger when put under strain, creating micro-tears that heal and adapt.

Growth isn’t comfortable. Growth hurts.

stress => growth

But stress overload and chronic stress, we can all attest to, is detrimental. No need to go into more detail on that.

So, actually, optimal stress => growth.

Setting goals to bring growth

We need to set goals that will lead to growth.

And the goals need to invoke stress because only then will we grow.

goals => optimal stress => growth

But how much is enough? What does optimal mean?

Stress is a bit like an inverted u-curve. This is also called the Yerkes-Dodson curve.

It shows that performance is low at low levels of stress (left side) because there is no urgency or challenge.

At extremely high levels of stress (right side), performance drops again due to overwhelm and anxiety.

The sweet spot is in the middle—the optimal level of stress that keeps us motivated and performing at our best.

The correlation between stress and motivation

The thing is, motivation also lives on this curve. One of the biggest drivers of motivation is mastery—when we get better at something, we become more motivated to keep doing it.

I saw this firsthand at an under-10s tennis tournament where my son participated over the weekend.

Put him up against a much better player, he becomes disengaged and demotivated.

Put him up against a much worse player, and he, interestingly enough, also becomes disengaged and demotivated.

He plays his best game when he’s got his best challenge – when the win is not in the bag, but he has a chance.

Note this: the outcome is not determined. When the outcome is determined, there’s no suspense, no stress, no motivation, no growth.

balanced goals (ambitious yet achievable) => optimal stress => growth

3 practical strategies to keep teams motivated

So, how do we keep teams motivated to pursue ambitious goals and play their best game?

Adjust continually
- The sweet spot for team performance is where they achieve their goals 70-80% of the time.
- The key is to adjust based on the complexity of the task and the skills, experience, and personality of the team.
- We typically recommend a quarterly reflection exercise, but the size of the goal you’re pursuing can affect this recommendation.
Un-spiral stress
- When you focus on avoiding stress, you focus on the stress, not the task. This is when stress spirals as your thoughts spiral.
- The solution is to bring your thoughts into control and refocus on the task at hand rather than worrying about failure.
- Leaders can and should help with this by creating clarity on the consequences of meeting goals and how different types of goals will be handled. Committed goals need to be met, but aspirational goals have more leniency.
Decouple from outcomes
- Instead of obsessing over results, focus on doing the task with excellence.
- When the team stays fully engaged in the process, the score takes care of itself (Bill Walsh).
- Again, there is a specific role for leaders to play to ensure the team doesn’t operate in fear of the outcome not being met. This is best reinforced through performance review discussions, which should focus on the contributions made towards the goal, and not on the goal itself.