Being a CEO could be less stressful than being a senior manager, according to a new study that suggests the higher people go as a leader, the less stress they experience.
David Rock, writing for hbr.org, has blogged about the study conducted by James Gross of Stanford University - which Rock believes is supported by the motivation that leaders harbour for the experiences found in the 'SCARF model'.
The SCARF model - which stands for Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness and Fairness - suggests that while leaders to experience some stress, they also have a lot of rewards that offsets this stress.
Senior leaders also have a lot of certainty in their jobs as long-term contracts and big pay packages are frequent for experienced managers and CEOs, cites i4u.com.
Furthermore, having a 'high local status' (which is how a leader ranks compared to other people) is the 'gift that keeps on giving' - as it doesn't tend to diminish much in value over time while senior leaders tend to have a lot more autonomy.
"So while senior leaders might have plenty of stress, they experience rewards from at least four of the five domains that could be offsetting this stress," writes Rock. "Without even considering the big pay packets, we can see that senior leaders in theory may be a whole lot happier than is widely believed."