Mark Cuban Says the Best Employees Share 1 Crucial Skill – but he Oversimplified It.
Reducing Stress Isn’t the Skill. It’s the Outcome of Real Leadership
In a recent Inc. article by Jeff Haden, Mark Cuban recently said something that caught my attention: the best employees are the ones who reduce their boss’s stress. Sure, intelligence, drive, and curiosity matter but stress reduction, he says, is what sets someone apart.
He’s not wrong. But he also isn’t telling the full story.
Stress reduction is a byproduct. It’s the result of something deeper at play, a mindset, a culture, a leadership philosophy. What Cuban’s really pointing toward isn’t about stress at all. It’s about problem solving. It’s about clarity. It’s about empowered employees who understand how to assess a situation, weigh the risk, and make a decision that aligns with the direction of the business.
In other words, Cuban is talking about leadership, but from the bottom up. And we need to unpack that. Before we get started let’s look at the example in the article Robbie. Robbie demonstrated a problem-solving mindset, we knew the conveyor was an issue and that he needed an electrician to fix, he knew he would have a staffing shortage in the future and developed another employee. He noticed the shift in Doug and escalated it appropriately. This isn’t a demonstration of stress reduction this is the outcome of a leader that empowered his team member to, demonstrated and coached them on how to make decisions.
What Stress-Reducing Employees Are Really Doing
Let’s be clear about what’s actually happening when a great employee “reduces stress.” They’re not just calm under pressure or pleasant to be around, they’re absorbing complexity. They’re making good decisions on your behalf. They’re catching problems before they escalate. And, perhaps most importantly, they’re operating with just enough confidence and clarity to act independently without overstepping.
That kind of performance doesn’t happen by accident.
It’s tempting to view it as a natural personality trait this employee just “gets it.” But in most cases, what you’re seeing is the result of either deliberate coaching or, frankly, previous experience under a strong leader. These people have learned how to interpret ambiguity. They’ve learned how to break down a problem, consider implications, and act with intention. And they’ve learned when not to act, which is often just as important.
When employees like that are on your team, you feel it. Your inbox is quieter. You don’t find yourself double-checking things that were supposed to be done. Conversations stay focused on outcomes, not excuses. Meetings feel like progress, not posturing. That’s what stress reduction actually looks like not because someone’s stress-free, but because they’ve learned how to carry weight. It’s easy to feel like these employees don’t need support or even overlook them because your focused on the employees that do cause stress; don’t fall into that trap. The steady eddies should get more attention than your weakest performers. These employees don’t always lead like Robbie. Often they quietly get the job done solving problems, feeling empowered to make decisions as needed and with exceptional alignment with leadership direction and company goals. As a manger these “A” players that get high fulfillment in their current role are you most valuable. And from my experience the most overlooked or undervalued. In fact, I would argue that many managers and Senior leaders would calls these employees “B” players. Why? Because they aren’t hard drivers to grow and develop. Instead, they are adaptive and conscientious, they deliver on target consistently without excuse. The long and short of it don’t fall into the trap of ignoring your real ”A” players because someone else is creating issues, or a hard driver.
Now lets get back to Stress –
Stress Isn’t the Problem. You Are!
If you’re a leader constantly feeling overwhelmed, it’s easy to blame it on external stressors: the market, the workload, the noise. But often, the real issue is your leadership. When a team doesn’t know where the lines are what decisions they’re allowed to make, how to escalate issues, or what success looks like they default to inaction. And when they default to inaction, everything lands on your desk.
That’s not a stress problem. That’s a leadership problem.
The most powerful leaders I’ve worked with or developed weren’t the ones who could do everything themselves. They were the ones who created the conditions for other people to think and act independently. They didn’t just manage tasks they cultivated judgment. They taught people how to interpret the business environment, make contextual decisions, and speak up when something didn’t feel right.
When you lead that way, you don’t just get results. You get trust. And when you build trust, stress naturally starts to recede, not because the work gets easier, but because the burden is shared by people who are fully equipped to carry it.
How You Actually Build That Kind of Team
This is where many leaders struggle. We say we want empowered teams. We say we want people to take initiative. But the moment someone makes a mistake or veers from our preferred path, we punish the attempt.
Empowerment without permission is just a trap.
If you want people to solve problems and reduce stress, you must create a culture where they are encouraged to use judgment. That begins with giving them the opportunity and supporting them when a decision is different from what you think, or goes wrong.
I’ve always taught my teams to operate around three simple questions:
- Does this benefit the customer?
- Does this benefit me?
- Does this benefit the company?
This doesn’t mean you’ll get perfect answers every time. But it does mean you’ll get thoughtful ones focused on alignment with goals and company initiatives. Over-time, your teams will learn from you. Expect early on that you will get lots of questions, don’t be afraid to push back and ask, “What do you think?”. Doing so will provide coaching opportunities on problem solving while aligning thought processes. I encourage you to look for opportunities to do something differently than you originally thought. Usually quickly you will find that your team members learn how to think through a challenge. They start becoming the person Cuban is describing. Not just smart. Not just talented. But reliably effective.
That’s how problem solvers are born.
Stop Looking for Stress Relief. Start Building Better Thinkers.
I’ve worked with teams where stress was everywhere. I’ve also led teams where stress didn’t go away it just stopped being contagious. The difference? In the high-functioning environments, people weren’t waiting on direction. They were moving. Thinking. Deciding.
That’s what we should be talking about not the vague aspiration of “less stress,” but the tangible leadership behaviors that create clarity and confidence in the people around us.
Cuban’s right: if you’re creating stress for your boss, you’re probably not as valuable as you think. But if you’re solving problems before they reach your boss, if you’re empowering others to act, and if you’re moving the business forward with quiet consistency—then you’re not just reducing stress.
You’re leading.
And that’s the skill we should be teaching.
