February 4, 2003, ISPI Vancouver Special Event
Performance Under Pressure at Work and Play
Reported by Julie Case
On February 4, 2003, a crisp and sunny winter day, sixty ISPI Vancouver members and guests gathered at the Plaza 500 Hotel to learn more about Performance Under Pressure. With them from New York was Bruce Fern of Performance Connections International, who works extensively with Fortune 500 companies in employee and customer retention. The topic was Performance Under Pressure. Judging from this article, ISPI Vancouver's Julie Case was "in the zone," but her mind drifted to an outdoor scene when she first sat down to write about the event.
"Bruce Fern," said my notes for this article, but my thoughts kept turning to a recent Sunday afternoon when the young soccer team my husband coaches had to determine the outcome of their game by way of penalty kicks. It seems that this was performance under pressure – or lack of performance as it turned out for those girls who missed their shots. What could I glean from Bruce Fern’s presentation, Performance Under Pressure, that would help at work and perhaps also on the soccer field? Could I begin to understand the differences between those girls who completely and utterly mis-hit their shot and those girls who so calmly stepped up to the ball, stroked it swiftly to the back of the net, and then ran screaming in delight back to their teammates – their screams of relief being the only indication of the pressure they were feeling?As it turned out, yes.
Bruce discussed performance pressure in the workplace from three perspectives: recognizing the causes of pressure, identifying the impact pressure has on people and the organization, and suggesting ways to manage pressure in the workplace.
1. Recognizing the Causes of Pressure
Recognizing causes or sources of pressure wasn’t difficult for the participants. We’ve all experienced pressure at work, but it was interesting to hear the different causes for various people in the room. Then Bruce cited the most frequently identified sources of pressure in North America:
High expectations/tough deadlines: Demands for increased productivity lead to increased pressure.
Too much to do, not enough time to do it (workload): There are expectations to do more with less or to take on more work due to layoffs.
Long hours, work/life balance issues: Our reaction to pressure often leads us to working more, but we pay a price when we work long hours, as do our families.
Constant change: Just when we think things can’t change any faster or any more, they do. When will it end?
Issues of integrity: When our personal values don’t match those of the organization any more, we feel stuck in the middle.
Job and workplace ambiguity: Some studies have shown lack of job clarity is the number one cause of workplace pressure. Indeed, what do I do when I don’t know what is expected of me?
Lack of control: The perception or reality of lack of control creates immense pressure.
Issues of role and job security: Economic and financial factors create pressure.
Conflict: Interpersonal conflict may occur with colleagues, employees, or customers.
2. Identifying the Impact of Pressure
Identifying the impact of pressure on the performance of individuals and on the organization as a whole was startling. The impact of dysfunctional reactions to pressure on human performance can be summarized with the PRESSURE acronym:
Planning is diminished.
Reduced customer focus.
Eroded decision-making.
Severed collaboration.
Strategic thinking diminishes.
Unintentional mistakes.
Reactivity versus proactivity.
Execution is compromised.
The impact of pressure specifically on decision-making is that people will often:
- Take greater but perhaps less appropriate risks, often out of desperation.
- Make premature choices: make snap decisions or revert to tried-and-true ways of doing things, suppressing their creativity or innovative thinking.
- Suffer a decrease in productive thoughts and an increase in distracting thoughts.
- Experience a greater distortion of the perception of threats – their perceptions will be exaggerated and distorted.
- Sacrifice long-range considerations.
- Reduce communication of important information in group decision-making.
For organizations, the impact of dysfunctional reactions to pressure is even broader. It includes:
- Poor business decisions
- Increased mistakes
- Reduced customer service
- Higher litigation risks
- Increased conflict
- Increased safety incidents
- Increased employee attrition
But does pressure always have to result in a dysfunctional reaction? Does performance invariably deteriorate under pressure, or are there ways to handle it? Well, if I go back to my girls’ soccer example, I have to say "No." Bruce agreed. He cited studies examining people who respond positively to pressure and posed a question: "What differentiates those people who improve their performance under pressure from those whose performance decreases under pressure?"
3. Managing Pressure
There are many ways people can ensure peak performance while under pressure: some of these ways are external (extrinsic) factors, and others are internal (intrinsic) factors. These are some external factors:
- Negotiate realistic deliverables: You often have more control than you think you have. Negotiate deadlines to help you prioritize your work.
- Gain agreement on role and performance expectations: Ensure that you understand what is expected of you in your job and how your performance will be measured.
- Seek increased autonomy: Take increased responsibility for your own work, and be less reliant on others for your performance.
- Resolve people and values conflicts: Face conflict head on. Work to resolve interpersonal conflicts with others. Ignoring conflict may be easier in the short term, but the pressure builds in the long term.
When we truly have no control over our external environment and we experience pressure, we must turn internally to ourselves. As the old adage goes, "You don’t have control over the hand you’re dealt, but you do have control over what you do with that hand." These are some intrinsic strategies for ensuring peak performance under pressure:
- Manage your belief system: Have confidence and believe in your abilities and the abilities of your co-workers.
- Eliminate dysfunctional coping strategies: We all manage to cope with pressure at various times. Examine your coping strategies and ask a question: Are they helping or hindering me?
- Build support systems: Family, colleagues, and co-workers can all provide support when you’re under pressure.
- Gain perspective: Ensure that your perspective is realistic. Don’t let a distorted perspective affect your performance.
Ultimately, the goal is to ensure that we’re both performing at a high level and enjoying our work – or, as Bruce said, that we’re "operating in the zone." To borrow the sports analogy, when we’re "in the zone" everything is working for us, we’re focused and blissful, and we feel that things are clicking and we’re working effortlessly. For us in the productivity improvement business, this means that we have to design our systems to ensure the people who use them have the tools to deal with the pressures they encounter within these systems. Performance pressure is one of the top workplace challenges, yet we as performance improvement specialists provide few tools to employees to help them manage. Not that we want to put pressure on you or anything . . . . .
Writer Julie Case, B.A., M.A., is a consultant with Sage Developmental Resources, North Vancouver, BC. Julie is a member of ISPI Vancouver and the chapter's Communications Committee.
We had one question for Julie after reading her article: "What about the soccer girls?"
"We won," said Julie, "on the 9th penalty kick! And yes, I've definitely got some tips to help them get into the zone."
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Bruce Fern of Performance Connections International and his Vancouver associate Rob Gilfoyle will be happy to tell you more about the Performance Under Pressure approach or to answer your questions. You can reach Bruce by email or by phone at 914.244.0400. You can also email Rob Gilfoyle or phone him at 604.684.8041. They ask you to feel free to contact either of them.
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