Stress Hardiness
Research shows that some of us are more resilient to stress than others. There are three proven aspects to mitigating the effects of stress:
- Control
- Commitment
- Challenge
Control means that you have some say over what and how your activities are done. Micro-managed proposal teams perform 20 percentage points lower than proposal professionals. Proposal professionals remain in the career for many years, while micro-managed proposal teams burn out in less than 30 months. (What’s the average tenure at your firm?)
Commitment means that you feel committed to your mission. That mission may be on the macro level, committed to helping win the war by writing proposals for your defense contractor employer. Or, the mission may be micro, committed to shipping this section for review on time. (It does not mean you are about to be committed to an institution after pulling too many all-nighters.)
Challenge means that you are challenged in the work at hand. You can flex and put some muscle (mental or physical) to the job at hand. Just about the time you have your databases populated and your process solid, the market shifts and you have to scramble again to adjust. (Thank goodness your backend systems are in place or you’d always be in chaos!)
This is a good topic to discuss at your next team meeting. What are you doing to preserve these three aspects of your work? (No proposal team needs to wonder whether they work in a stressful environment!)
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