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How to move from Fighting Stress to Designing it

How to move from Fighting Stress to Designing it

How I Help Leaders Find the Stress Sweet Spot

Nikolas Konstantin
June 22, 2025

We should know better:

After 100+ years of research, we know stress follows the "Yerkes-Dodson curve", aka. the stress curve.

The stress curve, is an inverted U where performance peaks at moderate arousal levels, then crashes under overload.

Stress is a spectrum, not something bad: But despite the scientific evidence I still hear people either moaning about "stress", or bragging about "pushing the limits".

Seems like this field, like so many others, does not really enjoy nuance:

You either hate stress, or you wear it like a badge of honor.

This black and white thinking wont get you far: If you want to play the long game, you need to be smarter.

When I work with leaders, we retire “stress is good” and we dig a grave for “stress is the enemy”.

And we move to what really matters when you want to be a high performer:

Designing stress to meet your needs.

Lets start with how I do this:

Step One : Unlearning

Get rid of the stress is either "good" or "bad" dichotomy.

Its not about removing stress.

Instead, it's about dialing in the right stress edge.

The reality?

Your performance depends on finding your stress sweet spot.

Step Two: Upskilling

Study the 4 Stress Zones. Learn to locate yourself and how you feel:

🥱 Under-Stimulation Zone: Endless meetings, quiet quitting, innovation drought

⚡ Optimal Zone (Eustress): Flow states, rapid learning, healthy debate

🔥 Overload Zone: Decision paralysis, team conflicts, 2 AM Slack messages

💔 Burnout Zone: Cynicism, errors spike, LinkedIn profiles get updated

Knowing the stress zones, you can make the Strategic Shift:

Step Three: From Stress Management to Stress Design

Now that you know the four levels of stress, you can move from reacting to stress. You can now intentionally calibrate it:

Match challenge to skill level - Stretch goals with adequate support
Build in recovery rhythms - Think sprints, not marathons
Track leading indicators - Heart rate variability, voluntary overtime, team sentiment
Reframe stress as energy - "This pressure means we're pushing boundaries"

These three steps will help you sustain high performance without burning your wires.

Start with yourself first. Leading yourself matters.

Then apply those lessons to your organization.

Organizations that master stress as a design variable will outperform those that treat it as an unfortunate side effect.

Where do you currently sit on the performance curve?

Let me know if it helps.

Wish you a great week,

Nikolas

P.S. Leading is hard.

Here is how I can support you to lead yourself and your organization:

A la Carte Executive Training:

Each year, I support selected leaders & their organizations in transforming into more resonant versions of themselves. Want to be coached by me? Apply hello.