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March 4, 2025

Stress Isn’t Your Enemy. It’s Your Ally in Reaching New Heights. Columbia Business School Prof. Modupe Akinola

We all face stress, both at work and at home. Unchecked, it can kill our creativity and achievement—but if we learn how to leverage it, it can help us outperform our competitors and reach meteoric heights. Modupe Akinola, star Columbia Business School prof and host of the TED Business podcast, blends her experience in the business world with cutting-edge research on the science of leadership to show you not how to avoid stress, but how to use it.

“You need to date your stress,” says Modupe Akinola. “You need to get to know your stress like you would get to know somebody on a first date—so that you get to a point where you learn to fall in love with it.” And when we fall in love with it, we can use it to reach greater heights of performance.

Modupe is one of the most highly rated professors at Columbia Business School, where her research bridges the worlds of academia, pop culture, and business management. In talks, she draws on her experience in business and science to show audiences how to make stress your ally. She offers practical ways that individuals and leaders can use stress as a tool, like:

• Introducing a time limit to get the most creative ideas without judgment;

• Creating overwhelming conditions so your teams are forced to rely on each other and use their unique strengths;

• Identifying the times of the year you’re most stressed and working around that;

• …and many more.

“We can’t control what comes our way,” says Modupe. “What we can control is ourselves and our environments, so that when tough things come, people have the resources to deal with that in a way that’s not destructive but constructive, and maybe even makes the world better.”

What If Stress Is Actually Good for You? (4:04)

Let Go and Let Lead (12:38)

"You need to date your stress," says Modupe Akinola. "You need to get to know your stress like you would get to know somebody on a first date—so that you get to a point where you learn to fall in love with it." And when we fall in love with it, we can use it to reach greater heights of performance. Modupe is one of the most highly rated professors at Columbia Business School, where her research bridges the worlds of academia, pop culture, and business management. In talks, she draws on her experience in business and science to show audiences how to make stress your ally. She offers practical ways that individuals and leaders can use stress as a tool, like: • Introducing a time limit to get the most creative ideas without judgment; • Creating overwhelming conditions so your teams are forced to rely on each other and use their unique strengths; • Identifying the times of the year you're most stressed and working around that; • ...and many more. "We can't control what comes our way," says Modupe. "What we can control is ourselves and our environments, so that when tough things come, people have the resources to deal with that in a way that's not destructive but constructive, and maybe even makes the world better."