How to manage team pressure effectively
Opinion
Pressure contributes to stress, burnout and anxiety. It’s up to us to support ourselves and our teams with strategies to ease the effects of it on our mental wellness.
Our work environment seems to be faster and more flexible than ever before. That brings with it a constant pressure that requires our urgent attention.
Pressure at work, to a certain extent, is unavoidable. While some stress and pressure is a natural consequence of working in a deadline-driven environment, there’s a level of pressure we’re experiencing these days that seems to go beyond what we would usually expect.
It’s this relentless and high level of pressure that particularly contributes to stress, burnout and anxiety — all critical issues in our industry right now. That means it’s time for us to join together to address pressure.
Supporting ourselves and our teams
Pressure management is the name of the game. If pressure isn’t going away any time soon, it’s up to us to support ourselves and our teams with strategies designed to ease the effects of it on our collective mental wellness.
When we manage pressure effectively, we can lower the risk of stress, anxiety and burnout among our team members as well as ourselves. Contrast this with the attitude in the “good old days”, when we were expected to put up with pressure and ended up internalising all of the negative consequences.
Last year, calls to Nabs rose to more than 5,200 a year for the first time, with calls relating to emotional health — the category that includes the effects of pressure — rising by a notable 22%.
While this figure also points to our industry’s growing awareness of the support available to them — a positive development — it also clearly demonstrates how many people are feeling under immense pressure.
Our new Managing Team Pressure workshop, part of our Managers’ Mindsets training and support programme, addresses these issues by giving managers the skills to handle pressure. We take a deep dive into pressure-management techniques, including the below.
Strategies to tackle pressure
Speak up. Speak to your manager, communicate what your teams’ pressure points currently are and work together to find the movable blockers.
Drive change. Look at what you can influence and what is within your control. Can you influence a client to move a deadline by finding your common goal?
Foster openness. Be approachable, so your team can share their pressures with you. We all struggle to find time and this is something that can easily slip. But a team well-supported by a manager is more productive and can end up staying longer — great for retention levels.
Reflect. Think about your own working practices and how you manage pressure. If you need a sounding board, why not call the Nabs Advice Line for a chat?
As managers, we can often be a direct cause of pressure and stress for our team members. It can be uncomfortable to realise this, but ultimately understanding how your own behaviour can change under pressure will help you see how this affects your team and consequently what steps you can take to improve life for you and your direct reports.
Prioritise. No, not making a never-ending list that feels so daunting, it’s never looked at again. This is about finding a system to help you zone in on what you need to do and where you can effectively ask for help.
For example, the urgent/important matrix from Stephen Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People can help you manage your time and priorities, encouraging you to consider what you can do, diarise, delegate or dump. Separating out your tasks this way makes you realise that not everything is urgent, thereby putting your workload into valuable perspective.
Self-care. Look after yourself. Make sure you take your lunch break. It’s popular to glamorise being super-busy, but being always on leads to too much pressure and ultimately burnout.
Working all the time isn’t glamorous; it’s unhealthy. Make time for something that brings you joy, set boundaries and ask for support when you need it.
Visit here to find out more about Nabs’ Managing Team Pressure workshops.
Katrina Urban is head of learning and development at Nabs