Here's some food for thought think about someone in a large company climbing through the ranks gaining, regular promotions, being in charge of bigger and bigger projects and more and more people you'd think a stress levels would increase as a responsibility increased, wouldn't you? Well, it doesn't always work like that there is research you'll see the reference in your lecture notes which shows that the higher people go as leaders the less stress they experience it's an intriguing idea isn't it? Actually it flies in the face of much current thinking about leadership, which says that the top leaders are under enormous stress but, maybe this isn't so surprising. There are several things that tend to make the brain feel rewarded hands in this way reduce their stress. One of these is status now obviously the high you are in the company the higher your status and respect from others which comes from having a high status matters more even than money for achieving happiness in life. Now senior leaders also have a greater sense of control of their lives than lower level leaders, with responsibility comes a greater degree of freedom. This also activates a strong sense of reward so, in other words having freedom to act also reduces stress. These are just two of the factors.