Is Stress Disguised As Hard Work?
Join my FREE 30-minute workshop: “The Productivity Leak: Discover the 8 Stress Habits Draining Your Team’s Time & Energy (and How to Shift Them in 9 Minutes a Day)” Save your seat here: https://www.megan-nolan.com/productivity
Is your team truly productive or just powering through stress? In this week's episode, I reveal how stress at work is often mistaken for dedication, and why that false praise may be slowly draining your team’s energy, focus, and collaboration without anyone realizing it. If you’ve been searching for:
• early signs of burnout in high performers
• how stress impacts workplace productivity
• stress management techniques for teams
• what chronic stress looks like in employees
• how to improve team morale without micromanaging …you’re in the right place.
🔍 Inside this episode:
✔️ How stress hides behind “hard work” and overachievement
✔️ The neuroscience of stress and performance
✔️ The key difference between burnout and high engagement
✔️ How to create a high-performing culture without pressure
✔️ And the #1 mindset shift that smart, people-first leaders are using now. Whether you lead a remote team, run a startup, or manage a busy department—this episode gives you the practical tools to recognize stress before it becomes a performance problem. Want to fix your team’s hidden stress patterns without adding more meetings or to-dos?
Join my FREE 30-minute workshop: “The Productivity Leak: Discover the 8 Stress Habits Draining Your Team’s Time & Energy (and How to Shift Them in 9 Minutes a Day)” Save your seat here: https://www.megan-nolan.com/productivity
Please find the show notes below. Since it is a transcription there may be spelling errors and/or weird grammar. Ignore that and enjoy!
Is stress disguised as hard work? Well, that's what we're talking about today. Here's where it gets interesting, is where these qualities that are actually indications that the system might be in a state of stress are often qualities that are highly regarded and highly rewarded in the business setting. So. Double edged sword, if you will. We're going to jump into that in a moment, but before we do, I would love to invite you to a brand new workshop that I have created called the Productivity League. Inside this free interactive workshop, you're going to learn the 8 success stopping habits that might be quietly eroding your team or your own energy, time, focus, productivity, and yes, of course, joy, energy and happiness. So you'll learn those success stopping habits as well as. How to stop them in real time so that they don't become full blown performance issues. You'll learn how to do that so that you can reclaim your time, your energy, and joy. This workshop is perfect for people that literally don't have a second to waste, but truly care about the well-being, the happiness, and of course the productivity and performance of their team members. So make sure to grab your free spot for this brand new workshop. So let's talk about it. Let's talk about the ways that stress might be silently showing up in your workplace. That is also interestingly very celebrated and rewarded. So it's kind of an interesting dance, right?Because these qualities that we're gonna be talking about and the ways that stress might actually be showing up because of the way the system is reacting to the situation at hand are are both very important, necessary. Celebrated and are things that you know we want to nurture, but are also things that are a sign that we might be in a stress reactive mode. And So what do we do with this?What do we do with this information?Where do we go with it and how might it be showing up in in your life and in your business or in your team?And so that's what we're talking about today. And So what I would love for you to really just take note of is as we discuss these, maybe you recognize these qualities of saying yes when you really mean no, always being available, checking your e-mail first thing in the morning, periodically throughout the day, at lunch, in the afternoon, you know, when you go to the toilet, like being that, that yes person being available, always being on Slack, you know, that sort of thing. And so. Also, maybe you find yourself just responding quickly in a, you know, a short, simple e-mail, but not taking the time to, you know, have those pleasantries, if you will, that may come across a little bit rude. Or maybe feeling like you are constantly multitasking, like you're, you know, you're putting away food from the grocery store while you're listening to a podcast, while you're kind of thinking about an e-mail that you're supposed to write later. Really, you know, that's sort of a a split brain activity. As well as being very driven, very goal oriented, but be almost having that insatiable drive for what's next, what's next?What do we have to do?What are we going to work towards?Or maybe you find yourself, you know, getting to that point where you have a big project and you're wanting to take action on it, but you're finding you're overwhelmed with all the details because you've had this really big vision and now all of the little small details are kind of slipping through the cracks, right?And so. You can see how there is this dance that gets to happen because we can be both very ambitious and very driven and a visionary and get lost in in these big projects and these big tasks if we're not grounded. And so if we are not in that nice steady state, that balance state of being your beingness, your nervous system. Then what happens is we default to these patterns and they are signs that we need to. We get to come back to that place of regulation and center within ourselves so that we can use that level of ambitiousness or drive or being very detail-oriented or being very willing to support other people from a place of presence and from a place of knowing. And so as a reminder, when you experience a little bit of stress, it's very activating, right? Cortisol and adrenaline in your system, which is how your body activates you when you're experiencing stress, are very energizing. And so that's important, right?That's the little fire under your ass to get you going, to get you up, to get you moving. But when we're experiencing chronic stress and when we're experiencing with more and more tasks, right and andEverything happening in the world and everything happening in your team, it's it's a lot for our system and we're not really designed to be, you know, intaking and outputting constantly, ongoingly throughout the day and throughout the week and throughout our lives, right. We're meant to be able to rest and slow down and not have to just shut down and get totally, you know, flat out, you know, exhausted before we slow down. Because what happens when we when your body experiences stress is your amygdala, the part of your brain that detects threats and is constantly looking and scanning for things that might be dangerous or, you know, that need to get handled, right?In the case of more aligned with the business setting is that when the amygdala comes online, it impairs your decision-making, it impairs your ability to be logical, be very focused because it's in literal survival mode. Right. And so when we are activated into stress, that part of our brain is running the show, right. And so when we are active in that part of the brain, the the CEO of your brain, your prefrontal cortex, your decision making, creative, grounded, expressive, happy, interactive part of your brain isn't available because it's it'sOne or the other, right?They don't. They're not working at the same time because your brain has activated the stress response. So your amygdala is hijacking brain activity. And So what happens is when that is, is the case, then we start to go into this survival state. And so in survival states, you move out of that regulated balance state of the nervous system into fight or flight or freeze or fawn or flop. And so that's dependent on your patterns, the situation, what you've been modeled, what your nervous system is conditioned to. And so it's a really interesting thing because when the when we are experiencing this constant input into the system, into the nervous system, it handles it well, it handles it well and it defaults to these patterns, right. And so in this business setting, if you will, this organizational setting. It's a different reaction than, you know, if you were out in the wilderness and you heard a bear roaring in the wilderness, right?So your body would still go into fight or flight or freeze or fawn or flop, of course, to to react to that bear roaring in the distance or nearby, right?So in the business organizational setting, it still does those things. It still responds to that stress. But it's different, right?You're not gonna go if your boss or if you or, you know, if if someone asks something of you and you're like, no, that and it freaks you out, you're not gonna, you're probably not going to go running as fast as you can in the opposite direction, right? You're not gonna flee that way. But you might go into a different mode of fleeing. You might go into a different mode of fighting back. You're still going to have that same instinctive reaction in your nervous system, but it looks different, right?So when when we're in the, you know, business setting, it starts to present in a different way in that often works to our benefit to a degree. But then when it's just our default, that's the only thing that we do, then it can work against us, right?And so how does this present as hard work?Well. When we go into perfectionism, when we go into being a yes person, right, that people pleasing aspect of our personality, when we go into being that very driven, very ambitious, can't turn it off, those are expressions of our fight mode showing up in the business setting, right?And so the flight mode is slightly different. So flight mode is when we are moving away from the issue at hand. And so that would be more like hopping all over the place and you know that distractibility that that shiny squirrel like oh squirrel, what's over here, what's over here as well as focusing more on on the perfection of things. And so you can see how these are, these are. Both very important things that might show up as, Oh yeah, I can do it. Yeah, no problem. I'll do that, I'll do that, I'll do that. And if we're always responding that way, then it's it's important for us to recognize and learn these patterns about ourselves so that we are aware that they might be an indication if you're constantly overthinking an issue, for example. So this is an expression of. Of flight mode is is just being in our head, right?You're not taking action. You're over here away from the issue, right?Or away from the the cause of the stress. And you're just constantly kind of thinking about, oh, this way I could try it this way. I could do it this way. I could do this instead. Or just doing research, right?If you're just constantly asking Chatty G for more input, if you're just constantly seeking that that you know. Next best thing, rather than actually taking action and putting things out or or moving the project forward, then that's it's both something that we want to be aware of. But here's where it's a little bit ironic because all of these things have have gold within them. They all have gold within them. They all have that beautiful, that growth opportunity. They have lessons, they have opportunities, they have directions, they have a beautiful gift for us. When we are able to recognize that we are maybe past our capacity, right. And so if you find yourself just constantly always on the go, always on the move, can't slow down, like can't stop, won't stop, can't, you know, really can't be that in that satisfied way of operating, it's really important for us to. Witness that habit, this tendency, because the truth is, is that this level of go, go, go more, more, more, do, do, do. And the way that all of these habits show up, these different modes of handling stress show up are very present for people that are are very ambitious, very driven, high performers. And so when we have these constant sources of stress. It's really important to recognize that this is really in a sense. Both the key to our success when we use these gifts and these skills intentionally, when we do them from that place of being resourced, being regulated, taken care of, IE you are getting enough sleep, you're eating well, you're having lots of well nourishing mineralized water, you're moving your body consistently, you're taking your power pauses. You are thriving. You have these gifts, right?You have these beautiful gifts. You have these tools. You have this gold within you. But if we are experiencing ongoing chronic stress and these patterns are showing up and you're seeing yourself never being able to slow down, always saying yes, always being available, micromanaging, being very like hyperperfectionism, then this is an indication that your system is on overload. And when we are constantly running the system, right, think about it like the motor of a car. If you just ran the car and you sat it in the driveway and you just ran the car and you had it in park and you just put it on the gas and the car wasn't going anywhere and still the car was operating like it was going 100 miles an hour. Eventually it would run out of fuel. Eventually it would burn out the motor. Eventually it would run out of oil, right? Your body is the car in this analogy, and if you are just powering forward and you're just going as fast as you can, and sure, you might, you know, slow down at the end of the day when you finish work for the day and you're just still scrolling, you'd still have your foot on the gas a little bit, right?And if you're if you're just constantly running the system, you're going to burn the system out quickly, right?The system being both your nervous system and the car in the analogy, so. It's interesting because people that are, you know, really capable often can hide this better, right?And but the subtle signs that you might notice or that you might witness in your team, and specifically, let's start with you, that you might notice that your brain is just constantly running, right?You feel like you can't just sit and relax and be present with people. You need to be moving. You're constantly fidgeting. You might feel yourself kind of. You know, tapping your foot or shaking your body out a little bit and you may feel that you you're constantly ping ponging all over the place. Like you're doing your workout or you're in yoga and your brain's like, yeah, but what about this? And what about this?And what about this? It's really challenging for you to stay in the container of whatever you're doing, right?Or you might notice you're getting snappy with your partner or your friends. And so that being said, you may notice similar things in your team, right. And so these are all things that we want to start to become aware of because not only are those behaviors that are, you know, often associated with being a really hard worker, being a very high performer, those are both qualities that are very rewarded, but they're also, you know, potentially risk factors for burning out and for overwhelming the system, right. And so. Just things to to be aware of because we want to really recognize that while the the showing up and giving it your all and all that is is is important, it needs to be done from a place of very being very present. Because a lot of times you know if people are overwhelmed internally and and they are reaching that point of exhaustion within their nervous system or within themselves. We may get to a point where they're showing up for work, but they're not actually doing anything. They're just kind of distracted and all over the place. You may notice that they're, you know, kind of wandering from task to task and they're not actually seeing any progress moving forward. So that would be an expression of flight mode, right?Or if they're just constantly, they have all sorts of questions and they're not actually doing anything. That might be a way that that freeze is showing up because freeze is still very much a stress reaction, right?We're still very present, but we're agitated and we're feeling anxious. But we're not actually doing anything, right?And so it's really important that we are present to these things within yourself. And it's really learning how to take power pauses throughout the day so that you can ground the system, right?Take your foot off the gas in a way that allows the system to settle and come back to that center state of connected awareness. So that the amygdala quiets, the prefrontal cortex comes back online so that we are able to really stay present and keep going, refuel the system so that we don't get to the point of exhaustion or get to the point of shutdown. And so it's interesting because, you know, we tend to reward these. And so what's happening is that we want to make sure that we're not overwhelming our team or. Burning them out to the point of complete shutdown or they quit or they're just not doing, they're not being productive, they're not moving forward with things because what's happening is inside the system, if they are really stressed out, if they're overwhelmed. Then the cortisol levels are constantly flowing. The adrenaline levels are constantly flowing. So right here, it's, you know, all of these things are running in the background. They're running in the background, they're draining the system, right?They're draining the system. Although on the outside, you know, they may look like they're they're just fine. But if you start to notice these more subtle symptoms, then it's really something that we want to look at because what's really interesting is that, you know. If we are in that one of those those flight modes and we're kind of multitasking and we're going here, we're going there, we're doing this, we're doing that actually diminishes our productivity significantly by like upwards of 40%, right. The American Psychological Association, it's it's not a very strong use of our time when we are going from back and forth, back and forth, right. And that's that's scattered, that's a stress reaction and so. It's really important that we just learn about these things within ourself, become a witness to them within our team so that we can become a little bit more empowering, so that we can, you know, fill up those, those energy leaks, those stress leaks. And so it's it's things that we can really become aware of. And so that's where power pauses throughout the day so that you can allow yourself these little moments that. Fuel the continued work that fuel the high level of performance that fuel that that level of well-being, that productivity and performance that you want, that you know you're capable of, that your team is capable of is so key. And it's great because these are just three minutes long. You can just take a little time out to ground yourself, to move your body, to breathe, to stretch, whatever it is, however you want to do your power pauses. Is really refreshing to the system. And it's not like, you know, you need to go on onto the rooftop and meditate for 45 minutes to get what the benefit of it is that they're very effective. It's a pause, right?They're very, they're short, they're mindful. They're moments where you are resetting your system. And so that you don't go sideways, right?You're able to use these gifts, these tools, these beautiful things that you have and that your teammates and your team members have, that they're able to use them. To the benefit, right?They're not being used in a stressed, reactive state. They're used from that really centered state. They're able to go when they need to go, but they can come back down and they can recover and then they can be able to keep going, right?Think of it more of a long duration marathon than just a fast-paced, short duration Sprint, right?We want to be able to fuel people ongoing. So that they can really be thriving and be balanced in in their system, right. So this is about taking care of them at the deepest level of their nervous system so that they are happy, they are energized, they are present, they are showing up, they are engaging, they are having good. Beautiful, ongoing, open communication with their team members. Like this is really thinking about this from a very intentional nervous system perspective that then supports the high level of performance that you're looking for, but also supports them. And 1st, I think most importantly supports them as a human being, supports them at the level of their well-being so that they truly are from a systemic level thriving and not just. Going through the motions and not just operating from that stressed out, overwhelmed, depleted state and using those stress reactions from a way that's very actually depleting them even further. That's really what this is about. And so that's truly how to stop the productivity leak is learning to recognize these things both within yourself and within your teammates. And so I would love for you to join us for the Productivity League workshop. Make sure to grab your spot for that. That is what I wanted to share with you today. I really hope that that's helpful because it's an interesting thing. It's this sort of dichotomy between making use of these gifts, of these skills, of these qualities, rewarding them, but really doing it in a way that resources them so that we can continue to make use of them so that they don't. Become depleted, right?That's what a resource is, is we want to support the resource so that it's it doesn't get completely depleted over time, both, you know, in our natural world, but and in in ourselves and in our teammates and team members. So I hope this was insightful for you. I hope that you were able to learn a little bit about your system, learn a little bit about the nervous system from a polyvagal perspective. And have something that you can begin to recognize within yourself because that's what this is, right?Is learning and empowering yourself, but from a place of non-judgmental self-awareness so that we can recognize these patterns. We can meet them with compassionate curiosity. We can recognize these these patterns, these parts of ourself and support them in a way that is is really inclusive and is very integrative. So that they are, they're really celebrated and and supported so that you know they become something that are a true asset, right. Because these things are assets. I hope you're seeing that. I hope this is making sense that these these qualities, they have incredible assets within them, but we don't want to completely deplete them, right. And when we are running them constantly, when we're operating in stress constantly. Then that's inevitably what's going to happen is we're going to burn out the system, right?Remember the car analogy. It will only go so long in park with the gas on or, you know, not necessarily in park either, even even not in drive. It will only go so long if we're not replenishing and if we're not downshifting and if we're not coming back to, you know, that idling where we're resting and recovering. So that is what I have for you this week. I hope that was really insightful. And I hope that you take this to heart, take this to mind and bring this into play in your system and also in your organization so that you can thrive beyond these stress reactions and really move beyond that to a place of full expression of yourself so that you are able to use these beautiful assets that you have, these beautiful gifts that you have in a really intentional and impactful way. So see you at the Productivity League. Have a great rest of your day, everybody, and take good care. Bye, bye.
