Handling Pressure: How to Thrive Under Pressure and Improve Performance

How do you handle stress and pressure? The easiest way to get started is to take ten minutes each day to prioritize and organize all the key things you need to accomplish. Once you have the big priorities identified, you can break down your large goals into smaller, more-manageable incremental goals. At that point, you will have a plan for moving ahead. Focusing on accomplishing one task at a time can prevent you and others from feeling overwhelmed. With this in mind, try these tips to start thriving under pressure. 

Tips for Working Under Pressure

1. Recognize Others

It’s important to recognize the small steps that you and your team members are taking towards completing a larger project because it helps people feel good about their accomplishments, builds morale, and bolsters the team’s confidence while working through long-term initiatives. 

1. Make Realistic Adjustments 

It’s also important to remember that it’s okay to adjust your goals as needed along the way. Be realistic about your commitments, and know that you may need to delegate, reprioritize work, reduce workloads, or ask others for the support you need.

1. Maintain Calm to Think Clearly 

Handling pressure has a lot to do with maintaining a clear head. When things don’t go quite as you’d planned, it’s important to remind yourself to calm down, think clearly, and reassess the situation.

1. Change Your Approach 

People who recognize their own responses under stress have the ability to stop, think, and evaluate how to respond. Sometimes that means changing your project plans, modifying the approach you’ll take, or simply adjusting your mindset or perception of the situation.

1. Only Focus on What You Can Control

Not every roadblock can be anticipated or prevented, and even the best plans sometimes go awry. When you face an unforeseen challenge, focus on what you can influence in the situation and choose how to react.

1. See Pressure as an Opportunity

Every time you find yourself under pressure, you have an opportunity to take control of the situation and make the best of it. The most effective leaders are those who overcome barriers and lead themselves and others through the pressure to exceptional performance and results.

Handling Pressure Effectively Leads to Higher Performance

Studies strongly suggest that having the ability to handle pressure successfully plays a significant role in their success — as well as the organization they work for.

People who work well in high-pressure situations have a few things in common, including the ability to resolve conflict positively and meet challenges with humor and determination.

These leaders and employees have the self-awareness to know when they are feeling stressed and manage their responses to that pressure. 

The Impact of Pressure on Performance

This is important because pressure or stress comes from a variety of internal and external sources, such as competing for departmental budgets and resources or responding to growing customer demands.

Our response to these stressors can be either positive or negative.

Teams that can respond to pressure positively continue to perform well and maintain high levels of energy and motivation during times that could otherwise be painful and cause productivity to plummet.

Working through tough times together also causes teams to experience a greater sense of teamwork and improved communication, solve problems more effectively, and establish better customer relations.

So, how do you deal with high-pressure situations? Find out below.

CMOE has coached and trained many leaders to become more effective in high-pressure situations. Contact us for more information on how we can help your team excel.