Behaviour: How to avoid executive stress

The drive to achieve can be an addiction with the same impact as substance abuse. This article examines this form of addiction and asks the reader questions to assess whether his or her ambition could be damaging.

Behaviour: How to avoid executive stress

Thomas DeLongHarvard Business School

Organisational behaviour expert, Thomas DeLong highlights a familiar problem with successful executives: the drive to achieve can be an addiction with the same impact as substance abuse. Here are ways to recognise it and try to control it.

Mark, a well-known CEO, told me of the time he visited his brother in a drug treatment centre. This was the third time Mark's brother, a highly successful physician, had attempted to break his addiction to prescription drugs.

Mark said that he will always remember the experience of being confronted by...

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