Under stress, hormones such as cortisol surge and severely affect people's reasoning and cognition. When both employees and managers are under stress, their cortisol levels are creating both an opportunity to take action, or conversely "be frozen," in a stressful state.

Cortisol has been termed “the stress hormone” because it’s also secreted in higher levels during the body’s "fight or flight"response to stress, and is responsible for several stress-related changes in the body.While cortisol is an important and helpful part of the body’s response to stress, it’s important that the body’s relaxation response be activated so the body’s functions can return to normal following a stressful event. Unfortunately, in our current high-stress culture, the body’s stress response is activated so often that the body doesn’t always have a chance to return to normal, resulting in a state of chronic stress.

Small increases of cortisol have some positive effects such as giving you a quick burst of energy for survival reasons; heightening your memory functions; providing you with a burst of increased immunity; lowering your sensitivity to pain and cortisol helps maintain homeostasis in your body.

 Higher and more prolonged levels of cortisol in the bloodstream (like those associated with chronic stress) have been shown to have negative effects,such as impaired cognitive performance, suppressed thyroid function, bloodsugar imbalances, decreased bone density and muscle tissue, higher blood pressure, lowered immunity, retarded wound healing and increased fat composition.

The downturn in the economy has put increased workloads on employees that have kept their jobs more stressful, and managers have been put under increased pressure to improve employee performance and business results. When the pressure becomes excessive, soaring cortisol levels combined with adrenaline can actually paralyze the mental functions of an employee or manager.

 What is happening in the brain, which results in behavior change when this occurs?

 The employee's attention fixates on the threat from the boss rather than the demands of the job or work at hand.  And often, memory, problem solving and creativity are severely hampered. Then, the employee and/or manager may revert to default behavior or bad habits, no matter how unsuitable that may be to accomplish the work.

Stress hormonal surges often are responses to managers' poorly delivered feedback to employees or displays of anger. Laboratory studies indentified face-to-face critical feedback as the kind of event that accompanies the highest levels of stress hormones.

Similarly, recurring negative emotional feedback in the form of contempt or disgust for someone who is significant (like a manager) will cause very high levels of stress hormones which can actually incapacitate the individual.

The final impact of stress hormones out of control in the workplace is the personal dynamic of "mirror neurons." Stress and tension spreads to other people and soon the disastrous negative emotions have infected an entire group of employees like a virus, which inhibits everyone's performance.

So, the lesson to be learned is that leaders are not immune to the contagion of stress For this reason, managers need to understand the neuroscience of their emotions and the effect of being under stress on their employees.

Ray Williams is Co-Founder of Success IQ University and President of Ray Williams Associates, companies located in Phoenix and Vancouver, providing leadership development, personal growth and executive coaching services. www.successiqu.com