This blog is inspired by conversations I’ve had recently with organisations about the amount of pressure being faced, and the risk of how that could manifest (is manifesting?) itself in behaviours. The following HBR article How to Deal with High Pressure Situations at Work (hbr.org) talks about four ways of which we can manage the pressure:
- Know your threshold
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- Increase your self-awareness of your stress tolerance levels by seeking feedback and/or paying attention to your emotional reactions.
- How do you show up when you are stressed/ under pressure?
- Identify your triggers
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- High volume of work? Short deadlines? Anything that risks your ‘status’? Combinations of in work and outside work issues happening at same time? Specific individuals? Lack of control?
- Knowing your triggers means you can best identify how to mitigate them.
- Coping strategies
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- We all know the widely spoken about ones – breathing exercises, good sleep, exercise, mindfulness, cognitive reappraisal.
- Are your approaches working? What else could you do?
- Strike the right balance
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- The right amount of pressure aids performance so don’t avoid it completely instead learn to manage it appropriately.
- How well are you managing it?
There is a real risk that under pressure, behaviours become not what we would want:
When organisations and its people are facing pressure: how can you look after yourself? How can you look after your colleagues? And how can you look after your people?
With that in mind, take time to think:
- What happens to you when you are under pressure? What happens to your colleagues?
- When have you perhaps not behaved in the way that you would like? Who do you need to reach out to apologise/explain?
- How do you, can you, best manage your triggers? What gives you ‘fuel’ and what ‘drains’ you? What can you do about that?
As leaders, we can all show our people that we are role modelling the changes that all of us want to see. Let’s be better and be the change. Contact [email protected] if you would like help to do so.