Stress resistance as an “essential amino acid”

Elena Trush , business consultant in the field of medical marketing and management, publisher of the first business magazine “Private Doctor CEO of the RedBiz Medical Business Laboratory”, co-author of business books for doctors

When conducting an interview, a business owner or manager (in a large business, a recruiter) has to literally “guess” how a person might react to a particular stressful situation. When searching for and hiring (or advancing the career ladder of existing employees) for certain categories of personnel, determining stress resistance is the key to successful performance of job duties with the least risk of psycho-emotional burnout.

Types of stress resistance

Let's figure out what types of people exist in terms of stress resistance:

• stress-resistant;
• stress-trained;
• stress-inhibitory;
• stress-resistant.

Let's look at each one.

Stress-resistant. In a stressful situation, people of this type of information metabolism (IMT) show increased emotionality, imbalance, and extreme excitability. “In life” they are rigid, do not adapt well to environmental changes, and react painfully to any emergency events. When under stress, they are unable to control themselves and the situation.

Stress trained. This category of people is able to “ride” the wind of change, but for this they need time. They are tolerant of new “challenges” of the environment, although they prefer smooth changes. If the stressful situations that arise are typical and often repeated, those under stress gradually begin to react to them more calmly, adapt and can even become authorities in the team.

Stress-inhibitory. These are sleeper people. They don't break or bend. Their attitudes are so strong that they are completely unwilling to change them. At the same time, they are calm about sudden external changes. Gradual adaptation is not their strong point. The category of people of this TIM is capable of sudden, cardinal changes in life under the influence of stress. For example, they may suddenly change jobs, but will not try to adapt to new demands at work. Can be leaders in teams involved in ultra-short projects. Chronic stress exhausts stress-inhibited people, which is manifested by such symptoms as emotional burnout syndrome, psychosomatic diseases, and depression.

Stress-resistant. The best option among types of information metabolism. People of this type easily adapt to change, are able to think constructively in a stressful situation, make the right decisions, act effectively and create a favorable atmosphere for other members of the organization (team). In stable, unchanging, routine conditions, they become bored and lose motivation. For them, stress is a kind of “stimulant” that keeps them in good shape. Resilient employees are excellent leaders for organizations that are committed to constant, continuous change for the better.

What is a stress interview?

To determine the type of stress resistance, the stress interview technique is used. Briefly, its essence boils down to the following: during the interview, an uncomfortable environment is created for the applicant. This applies to the time, place, conditions of the interview, tone (provocative, aggressive, derogatory, mocking, etc.) of the interviewer, test tasks, etc.

The interviewer's goal is to irritate the applicant and observe the types of his reactions. If in a normal format an interview is conducted in a friendly atmosphere, correctly, in compliance with generally accepted rules of politeness, then a stress interview is a real test. Candidates with a low level of stress tolerance often run out of the room in the very first minutes of the interview: women - with tears or hysterics, men - in rage and anger. Experienced HR pays attention to the candidate’s ability to manage his emotions and facial expressions, his ability to cope with himself, sense of humor, level of conflict, self-confidence and self-control.

Scripts for stress interviews

“Panel” interview: several interviewers simultaneously interview one applicant, asking questions at a fast pace, with little time to think about the answers.

Ignoring: creating a situation where no one cares about the candidate - he is ignored, not noticed, kept in the dark about the start time of the interview.

Unpleasant questions: the applicant is asked questions about his failures, shortcomings, reasons for leaving previous jobs, etc.

Personal questions: the applicant is forced to answer questions of a personal nature. In the format of a regular interview, such questions are inappropriate, but stress interviews with attempts to find out the details of your personal life often lead to the manifestation of true emotions. This is how the recruiter recognizes your personality type and level of stress tolerance.

Interrupting the applicant: during an interview, the interviewer asks questions, but practically does not allow the candidate to answer, interrupts him, and then declares the candidate’s incompetence.

Inconvenient position: the interview is conducted in inappropriate conditions or in a place (position, position) that is inconvenient for the applicant.

It should be noted that conducting a stress interview is a complex and responsible job, and should only be performed by an experienced specialist. Improper use of the technique can harm the company's reputation.

It is extremely important to remember that a stress interview in no way implies rudeness or insults to the applicant. This is just an assertive, non-standard interview course that is unexpected for the applicant, the purpose of which is to try to bring the candidate out of a state of psychological balance.

There is a risk that candidates who successfully pass such an interview will refuse to work in the company. Therefore, it is important to warn them at earlier stages of interaction with applicants that they will have to face a stress test.

When resistance to stress is a must have

For categories such as executives, top managers, customer service managers (and these are often clinic administrators), conflict managers or managers for responding to customer complaints, office managers, executive assistants - in a word, front-office, stress resistance - an essential amino acid in the DNA of their personality traits. In addition, the specificity of the medical field is a high level of responsibility and work intensity, therefore all medical staff of the clinic must also have a certain resistance to stress.

Typical mistakes of managers during career advancement of employees

It often happens that an employee who performs his duties well is promoted by the head of the clinic for promotion. At the same time, conducting an interview with an employee who is not “new” to the organization, at first glance, seems like an unnecessary undertaking. However, is this so? If a person is a good specialist, this does not automatically mean that he will be an equally effective leader. In order to have valid arguments for promotion, it is necessary to conduct an interview. During the interview, it is worth finding out the following points.

• Is this position desirable for the candidate?
• How does he perceive the responsibilities and powers in this position?
• What exactly would he like to achieve in this position (his goal)?
• What management tools does he believe in, what techniques does he know, what have he used, what was successful?
• What is the process of motivating subordinates to achieve goals?
• What tasks would he set first for himself and his subordinates if he took this position?

Direct, “tough” questions in the spirit of a stress interview are appropriate if working in a vacant position involves a higher level of stress than the candidate currently has in the current position. However, it is better to entrust such an interview to an experienced HR specialist or business consultant in order to avoid negative consequences for the applicant (nervous breakdown, psychological trauma, etc.). After the interview, you can notify the candidate that this interview was conducted using the stress interview method as a mandatory selection stage.