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In today’s high-stakes business environment, stress isn’t just an individual challengeit’s a force that shapes careers and organizations. The U.S. Department of Labor finds that 83% of workers suffer from work-related stress, and 54% say that work stress affects their home lives. In my coaching work with hundreds of professionals annually, I’ve witnessed firsthand how impossible it is to separate stress from career trajectories; they are intertwined, each influencing and shaping the other. Stress can derail even the most carefully planned career paths, yet we often treat career decisions as purely rational, despite the fact that our psychological state profoundly influences the choices we make. I’ve practically tested these insights with individuals and leadership teams. Here are five key theories that can help us make better decisions at workand how leaders can set up their teams for success: 1. Cognitive Load Theory It’s well known that when stress increases, it causes our mental bandwidth to shrink dramatically, and it’s harder to weigh risks and rewards objectively. According to the American Psychological Association’s 2024 Work in America survey, 77% of U.S. workers experience work-related stress, with 36% reporting cognitive fatigue. I’ve seen that cognitive overload can be a recurrent theme in high-stakes professions like healthcare, finance, and emergency services. Muscle memory can’t necessarily be depended on, as each case demands fresh analysis rather than routine responses. That results in errors with vast consequences, including profound ones like death. It can also be a trend with early-career professionals who must juggle skill acquisition with performance expectations and show higher rates of burnout and worsened mental health. Example: A high-performing individual contributor, overwhelmed by multiple deadlines and an unexpected project, starts working longer hours, missing crucial meetings, and making uncharacteristic errors in financial reports, as their mental resources are depleted. What leaders can do: Think of managing cognitive load like tending a garden by creating space for growth, pruning unnecessary meetings, and protecting blocks of time for deep work. Task prioritization tools can also reduce decision fatigue and encourage breaks, allowing minds to refresh and ideas to flourish. Remember, a well-rested team will outperform an exhausted one every time. 2. Dual-Process Theory Cognitive psychologists Peter Wason and Jonathan St. B. T. Evans suggested the dual-process theory in 1974. The theory identifies two distinct thinking systems: fast, intuitive reactions and slower, analytical reasoning. Under stress, we are more likely to default to the quick-response system, bypassing careful analysis and consideration. Being mindful of stress levels helps prevent impulsive career decisions that may not align with long-term goals. Example: After receiving tough feedback during a performance review, a team leader immediately volunteers for three high-visibility projects and begins working weekends, making reactive decisions that further compound their stress. What leaders can do: If you work in a fast-growing startup with demanding client relationships or a company in volatile markets, your cultural environment may be problematic for dual-process thinking. When characterized by rapid decision cycles and high-stakes outcomes, these environments can push professionals into reactive thinking patterns. In our rush to make decisions, we often forget the power of pause. Take a look at the past quarter’s major decisions to see if you can spot patterns of reactive thinking. It can also be a good idea to help foster mentor relationships that offer fresh perspectives and openly share your journey from reactive to responsive decision-making. If teams see thoughtful choices modeled, it helps them trust their analytical minds over their impulses. 3. Affect Heuristic This psychological principle demonstrates how emotional states act as mental shortcuts in decision-making. Under stress, our emotional filters become increasingly dominant, often distorting our professional judgment. I frequently observe how bias impacts how we make decisions when fatigued and how it manifests in the daily activities of leaders. For instance, one tech leader admitted to me that they had recently realized they had been hiring people who reminded them of themselves. Tired brains naturally gravitate toward what is familiar and comfortable, yet stress-induced emotional decisions often amplify biases, leading to overlooked talent and missed opportunities. Example: A product manager, experiencing pressure from stakeholders, makes sweeping product changes based on a single negative customer review, disrupting the product roadmap and team morale. What leaders can do: Start each week with a gentle emotional temperature check of your team. Ask each person to share one word that captures their current mindset. When doing so, watch for red flags like short, clipped responses, unusual irritability, or typically vocal team members falling silent. You can also use open-ended simple questions that reveal hidden work-related stress, such as “What’s taking up the most space in your mind right now?” or “Is there anywhere that you feel stuck?” When team members default to “fine” or “okay,” go beyond surface-level responses and gently probe deeper with questions like “What does fine look like for you today?” If you notice patterns of responses hinting at exhaustion or hear words like “overwhelmed” or “drained” from multiple team members, be mindful of making major decisions. This quick emotional weather report allows you to read your team’s emotional state, meaning you get better at spotting when someone is frustrated, overwhelmed, or excitedeven when it’s not explicitly stated, preventing teams from making unsound choices. 4. Self-Determination Theory The self-determination theory includes three fundamental psychological needs: autonomy, competence, and relatedness. When stress compromises these core needs, decision-making becomes reactive and short-sighted. I’ve witnessed this being especially critical in modern hybrid and remote work environments, where traditional support structures take on virtual forms. Example: Feeling isolated and disconnected, a remote worker begins to disengage from team projects, miss key deadlines, and secretly apply to competitors without making an attempt to resolve their frustrations about their current job. What leaders can do: While building a rewarding career requires self-motivation on behalf of the employee, as a leader, picture yourself as an architect of autonomy, designing spaces where people shape their work while staying connected to the larger mission. If you’re not already creating opportunities for meaningful connection in both virtual and physical realms, now is the time t do so. When people feel genuinely supported, they thrive. 5. Career Construction Theory An employees professional identity is the story they tell about themselves at work, whether they’re the Excel wizard or the one who always gets things done. When organizations undergo significant changes, like switching to entirely new software systems, reorganizations, or new management, these identities can suddenly feel shaky or irrelevant to your team members. Stress can also fragment these personal narratives, making maintaining a coherent career vision challenging. When you’re stressed, it’s harder to articulate your thoughts and “sell” yourself, a product, or an idea. Couple that with productivity anxiety, and you can see why there’s an organizational need to support the skill of building a personal brand. Example: During organizational restructuring, an early-career professional becomes fixated on worst-case scenarios, exhibits less diverse thinking, and finds it hard to articulate the impact of their work. What leaders can do: Research from Deloitte indicates that 40% of Gen Z employees report feeling stressed most of the time, which impacts decision-making, confidence in their career narratives, and the time and energy to upskill in their career. Yet, every career tells a story, and helping shape the narratives of those at high risk of burnout is perhaps leadership’s most subtle art. Suppose your team isn’t surpassing its potential, engagement is dipping, and you can’t name two to three of your employees’ “non-work-related” strengths. Bring in support to holistically bolster employee brands (and the companies, too). By understanding these frameworks and taking action, you can help create environments that support rational decision-making and emotional well-being. The future belongs to organizations that recognize stress management isn’t just about individual coping mechanismsit’s about building systems that help people think clearly and choose wisely.
Category:
E-Commerce
Sharing personal hardships like divorce, health issues, and family emergencies can make workplace conversations emotionally difficult and professionally complex. But given that our working lives are not getting shorter anytime soon, its not a question of if individuals will need to have these conversations, but when. And navigating these conversations professionally while managing emotions and privacy requires careful thought and preparation. Here are some strategies to help you handle sensitive discussions with confidence while maintaining personal boundaries. 1. Determine the purpose of sharing your news Getting clear on your reasons for sharing will help you think through your message, as well as recipients, timing, and any emotions that surface along the way. Are you sharing because the company protocol requires you to? Do you feel compelled to quell office gossip before it gets out of hand? Are you sharing because you need accommodations, or are you simply seeking understanding and support? Knowing the reason for sharing helps to clarify the following next steps. 2. Decide who needs to know (and how much) You dont need to tell everyone at work about your situation with the same level of details. Create concentric circles of communication with your respective stakeholders. Start with primary stakeholders, which include managers and direct supervisors (and sometimes HR). These are the people who are most directly impacted in the workplace and will need to accommodate, shift, or assume responsibility. Prioritize communicating with them first. Next, you should inform your secondary stakeholders. These are colleagues, team members, and direct reports who may experience some impact. The last category are tertiary stakeholders. These are co-workers, clients, and people who may notice the shifts and changes, but your circumstances are unlikely to have any impact on their situation. Its often best to share the information directly and personally with the primary stakeholders. But when it comes to secondary and tertiary stakeholders, you can do this in a group meeting or via a memo. You can also delegate your message to a primary stakeholder when it comes to informing secondary and tertiary stakeholders. This alleviates the stress and discomfort of doing so yourself. For example, a client on maternity leave experienced a traumatic miscarriage. She alerted her direct leader, requesting additional time off with the privacy to share the information herself when ready. Before she returned from leave, she sent an e-memo to all primary and secondary stakeholders explaining her situation and the emotional impact, while requesting sensitivity, privacy and that colleagues please not ask questions about her experience. 3. Timing and setting Timing and environment also play crucial roles when sharing sensitive information. Consider these factors: Location: If meeting others, think about a quiet, private space where youll have little to no interruption or distraction. Timing: Schedule conversations when both you and your audience will have ample time to discuss and process the situation without rushing. For example, a client was going through a divorce and shared concerns that the situation might impact his work performance. He had a private face-to-face conversation alerting his direct leader of the situation, which he scheduled for a late Friday afternoon. Together, they crafted a measured statement to share with his secondary stakeholders (his direct team) which his leader shared at the Monday morning team meeting, requesting discretion and privacy. They decided there was no need to loop in tertiary stakeholders unless circumstances change. 4. Prepare your ‘minimum message’ Be as clear and concise as possible when youre sharing details by outlining your conversation points. This way, youll stay focused, maintain professionalism, and maintain privacy boundaries. A helpful framework includes the following steps: Identify the high-level situation (such as an illness or death in the family). Explain how it might impact your work (such as inability to work late, or distraction). Request any specific support or accommodations you’ll need (such as time off for appointments, lightening workload, extending deadlines). If youre uncertain about what support you need, simply say, I am unclear what my needs are and how anyone could support me right now. I will give it more thought and let you know. Suggest your proposed plan for managing responsibilities, such as a high-level plan of who might cover needed responsibilities. If youre not ready to devise a plan or need help, ask colleagues or leaders for assistance. In some instances, colleagues may be able to create the plan for you. Express your preferred level of confidentiality, as well as how open you are to expressions of concern and support. Some find curiosity and condolences to be comforting and supportive, while others need space. Clarifying your support needs enables your colleagues to respect them, and it takes the awkward guesswork out of how they can help. Its not uncommon to experience sadness, anger, or even grief as a result of an unexpected crisis. Sharing difficult news can be emotionally draining. If you become emotional, allow yourself a moment to collect your thoughts and give yourself a break. Most managers and colleagues will respond with empathy and understanding to your honest emotions. Using the above framework can guide you to stay focused and professional, even if emotions surface during the conversation. Tough times are inevitable, and personal challenges impact everyone at some point. By approaching these moments with authenticity, a simple framework, and a focus on emotional well-being, you foster a compassionate workplace where support flows both ways. With thoughtful preparation, even the hardest conversations become more effective and less daunting.
Category:
E-Commerce
Matt Sia is a big fan of eggs. With his daughter, hell make slow scrambles bathed in pricey European butter. And as executive creative director at the design and branding firm Pearlfisher, he brought that same love to an egg carton he designed for the now retired brand Consider Pastures. The regenerative farming producers created eggs with rich burnt sienna shells, and Sia designed a complementary blue package that celebrated their natural hue. To reach this reveal, the carton unfolded in a dramatic, multi-tiered story much like an Apple product, with messages like care and cultivate highlighted in gold foil. These premium eggs sold for $5. But today, as another New Yorker elbowing for eggs, that feels like a completely different era to Sia. Now everything has gotten thrown out the window. You stand at the shelf and and everything is $10 to $12. And I’m trying to figure out what the differences are. Being in this business, I am thinking, I appreciate what you’re doing, but I’m not spending that much on these eggs,‘ he says. This is coming from someone who cares a lot about brand. And Im like, fuck it. I want to get free range if I can find them, but I look at the price tag attached and say theres no way I can spend that much. This pack won’t last. Sia is all of us in the age of egg scarcity. He cares about the eggs his family is eating. But he cannot functionally care when those eggs get too expensive. The pantry staple, consumed by 90% of American households, currently costs 40% more than it did at the start of 2025. And its pushing the very idea of brand and consumer values to a breaking point. Egg shortages are revealing a simple truth: People never had much brand loyalty to eggs, and as prices are spiking, whatever values previously drove your egg purchasing decisions are likely to be challenged by your wallet. Consider Pastures The death of the premium egg brand Consumers traditionally choose an egg by typeconventional or speciality. Conventional buyers assume all eggs are the same, so whatever is cheap works. Specialty buyers might be coaxed toward animal welfare labels like cage free or pasture raised, or boosted nutritional attributes like omega 3s from hens fed fortified diets. Theres a guilt. Everyone looks for different principles, different claims and qualities, and sometimes that comes down to, can I afford to buy this? Everyone has a different degree of choice when it comes to that sort of thing, says Sia. The reason it feels eggs are blurred together today is that the delta between your price and principles becomes so large . . . everyone here in NY is just trying to find the cheapest eggs. Most eggs look more or less the same, and so packaging is the vehicle for signaling a more or less premium egg brand. Ironically, the finest boutique eggsthose sold direct from small farmersare distributed in forgettable, paper pulp cartons, often direct from the farm to the consumer. The store shelf tells a different story. Here you have a mix of cheap protective packagingpaper, styrofoam, and plasticsold by a slew of brands that almost no consumer registers, according to data from Nielson and The American Egg Board. Instead of brand loyalty, these shoppers hunt and peck for the best ratio of price and their desired attributes like free range. In many cases, styrofoam signals conventional, so consumers are drawn right to those packs. But while the package may attract a purchase, ultimately, consumers do expect to take a peek inside to double check the merchandise. As Sia points out, eggs might be the only item at the grocery store that people regularly open to inspect to ensure they arent broken. (Nobody opens a pack of Tide Pods to check if they’re leaking.) As for the fate of the premium egg, for now, such an idea seems to ignore that, in an age of scarcity, all eggs have become something of a premium. People never cared that much about the brand of egg they purchased, and they are almost assuredly less concerned now. Organic Egg Scorecard The shifting identity of the egg as a brand Eggs are sold by brands, but in reality, they are a much greater brand unto themselvesone that signals a cheaper, more convenient, more ethical protein than meat. The American Egg Board is a nonprofit funded by farmers to protect and grow that brand, with the primary mission is to increase our demand for this staple. When Edward Hoffman took over as VP of marketing and communications two years ago, he charted a major strategy forward. He identified new target markets, and launched the organization’s biggest and boldest program ever to re-excite the market about eggs, filled with delectable recipes and information on nutrition. But into Q4 of last year, the industrys four-year nervousness about bird flu spiked into a true crisis. Me and my team started looking at sort of the landscape ahead, and said, you know, we need to start slow-rolling some of our programming, because we do not want to come across as tone deaf to consumers, Hoffman recounts. What followed was not just a cessation of The American Egg Boards plan, but a complete shift in strategy as it eyes the big egg holiday, Easter, on the horizon. Instead of positioning eggs as delectable and healthy, they are now positioning eggs as safe and frugal-friendly. The company is even amidst a new website redesign highlighting this new approachaimed at both consumers and retailers hat distribute eggs. On the safety end, theyre tamping down concerns that you can get bird flu from eggs (when cooked, they are considered safe). And on the frugal end, theyre pushing an approach to eggs that helps maximize the carton. We dont want consumers wasting a single egg during this time, says Hoffman. The board’s new guidance comes in the form of meal planning tips, recipes, and teaching consumers things like, yes, you can freeze eggs to preserve them longer. One example: If you really want scrambled eggs, maybe add in some other product with a cottage cheese or something, to sort of extend that carton, says Hoffman. And I’m perfectly comfortable [saying that]. I want to meet our consumers where they’re at because you know what, that’s what they need right now. That they are taken care of and they know that eggs have their back even when the industry is constrained. Just Egg A moment for egg alternatives But while consumers may be settling for the types of eggs they wouldnt have bought a year ago, many believe supply chains may continue to be challenged through 2026 given the logistics of egg production. Sometimes the store shelves are just empty. What then? For Josh Terick, the CEO of Eat Just (which makes the mung bean-derived egg substitute, Just Egg), this is the opportunity of a lifetime. Chicken eggs feel particularly uncool and not reliable right now. And it’s not even close: much more so than the launch, this is far and away the most important moment in the last 12 years since I cofounded the company, says Terick. It’s not big, but it’s just a little window open . . . where often around the country right now, were the only egg on the shelf . . . where people are thinking, is there actually another egg other than the chicken egg? The moment is a payoff for one of Tericks key strategies, who has long insisted Just Egg be offered beside chicken eggs. Just Egg pops off the shelf in its yolky yellow milk carton packaging, with a modernist sans serif font meant to appeal to design-appreciative urbanites and affluent suburbs (which Eat Just considers its base) For a company thats not suffering but still only doing tens of millions in sales, Terick recognizes the potential inflection point that may not come again. Sales are up 70% YOY, and theyre seeing a 5x increase to growth on one of their core products at a top retailer. To feed new demand, Terick has completely rebuilt his schedule since egg shortages hit, responding to retailers, restaurants, and other entities inquiring about Just Egg at all hours of the day. In the last week, hes spoken to a top three convenience chain, a top ten restaurant chain, and the U.S. military about providing Just Egg. He then reads me an email from a North Carolina mega breakfast restaurant that asked about Just Egg concluding, “sounds weird, but well try it.” Balancing the tone of Just Egg is key in this moment, and the company will be adopting a new brand slogan soon that gently pokes at the instability of the egg market: Yo, chicken eggs, we got it from here. Theyre providing samples to NPOs, offering discounts to solitary retailers that dont sell Just Egg, and partnering with 50 bodegas across NYC to sell Just Egg sandwiches as part of a bird flu bailout. Every day, I just keep thinking, what else? What else can we be doing that we’re not doing that ten years from now, I [see when I] look back on this, says Terick, who admits their greatest appeal to most retailers is just that theyre dependable in a time of crisis. If you call them up, they would say, you know what you can do for us, deliver on time. The other thing keeping Terick up at night is how the company is positioned in pricing. For years, Just Egg sold at a loss, keeping the price around $5/carton to have closer parity with regular eggs. More recently, finding himself sick of raising more money, Terick prioritized the health of his business, and now Just Egg sells at around $7 to $9 a pack, which offers Just Egg a double digit margin. But in two years, Terick believes they have a technological path to reduce the price of producing Just Egg to have parity with eggsand he cant help but wonder, is it worth waiting until then to lower prices, or would more be gained by doing so now? It’s like these two things are pulling in me: One is, yeah, let’s fing go! Of course, this is a moment! says Terrick. And then the other side is, boy, I like not spending every day trying to raise money. Just Egg will probably reach a compromise, offering discounts like buy one get one free through retailers, before dropping prices in the future. In any case, Terrick and Sia are in full agreement about the future of eggs on whole. The very idea of the boutique egg seems in jeopardy in an age of scarcity. And the ultimate cost in an uncertain egg market isnt just the price of protein, but our psychological comfort in an era when supply chains of all sorts of goods are unreliable. Whats next after eggs, are there things we don’t consider? Grains? Bread? Milk, muses Sia. It can spiral. We have access to everything all the time . . . then you realize . . . [we dont].
Category:
E-Commerce
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