I played sports in high school and college. Now, I was not the most reflective, thinking individual as a teenage boy. However, I did make a connection between whether I had “butterflies in my stomach” before I competed and how well I performed on the basketball court or baseball diamond. If I was not at least a little bit nervous, I simply did not do well in the game. If I was too nervous, I noticed I would throw the ball over the backstop in the first inning or miss the backboard in the first few minutes of the game. (Only a slight exaggeration…especially with my pitching!)
In other words, I intuitively knew there was a “good” level of pressure if I wanted to perform well.
I was perusing the good ol’ interweb this week and came across this graphic. It took this graph for me to connect what I learned about competing in competitive sports forty years ago to what I do now every day.
If there is no pressure, we might not have the sense of urgency necessary to see opportunities, seize the chance to have a fierce conversation or think creatively.
On the other side, when there is too much pressure, our bodies are flowing with stress hormones, and we might even be in a fight or flight mode. When this happens, our lizard brain takes over, and we are in survival mode.
Optimally, we try to regulate the amount of pressure we feel. I know when I am feeling little to no pressure, I like to talk to my colleagues and discover what great things they are up to. Once I hear all of the great things they are doing, I put pressure on myself to perform to the level of my colleagues.
Now, I am the worst person to offer guidance about how to regulate high-pressure situations. I do not have great strategies to deal with this. Just two weeks ago, I came home from work, looked at my wife, and said, “I cannot talk for a few hours. I cannot think or act coherently.” I don;t know if that was a reaction to too much pressure or what. It did help, though…or maybe it was the adult beverage my wife gave me immediately after I sat down on the couch!
How do you “optimize” pressure at work?