There were two hours to go until the announcement and disaster struck. One of the 30 trailblazers of the new government’s flagship policy had gone awry. Some intricate legal issue had emerged over night which meant we could only announce 29 new projects, not 30. It didn’t have quite the same ring and the pressure was on in these early stages to show that the new administration had hit the ground running. Apart from that, this wasn’t a great way for me and my team to build trust and credibility with the new Secretary of State and Ministerial team.
And then, as if by some miracle (aka hard work, creativity, commitment and sheer guts of an amazing team) we found a 30th project to add to the list, going through a process that should take 2 months in just 2 hours. I still remember the calm determination with which one person in particular made it possible. Adrenalin certainly played a role in giving us all the energy to keep going; we were all on our knees by that point having been non-stop since the election.
Many of the leaders I work with thrive on the buzz created by this sort of pressure. But sometimes it takes its toll on our wellbeing and effectiveness. So how can we prepare ourselves and our teams for peaks in demand that we know are just around the corner?
🗣️Talk about it. It sounds obvious but open discussion about what’s coming can help create space for you and your team to talk about how you’re going to manage, what support you need from eachother and how you will know if anyone isn’t coping. If some members of the team are going to be more affected than others, how are we freeing up resources to support them by having genuine (and difficult) conversations about relative priorities on our leadership teams? Regular pulse checks enable you to keep a handle on the detail too – who might need something extra today?
⛔Be accountable. Setting boundaries through a period of pressure is a necessary ingredient to doing your best work. These might be different to your usual rules – and not how you want things to be in the long term – but having some lines in the sand will help you in all sorts of ways. At the very least, you can have more sensible conversations with those around you (partners, children and parents as well as colleagues) about what you can commit to and what you need. You will be a better role model to your team if you share your boundaries and why they matter to you. Talk openly about what you are (and aren’t) all managing to maintain and so what shifts you might want to make. Did I go for a walk at lunch time every day this week? No? What will help me next week?
🔬Keep things in perspective. When you’re in the tunnel of a hard slog it can be hard to maintain a sense of what really matters. The drama of it all can encourage us to exaggerate, to catastrophise and to over-personalise the impact of failure. Things become all or nothing. Our whole careers and sense of our selves start to depend on winning. Was it really true that if we only had 29 projects to announce that the Secretary of State would never have trusted me or my team again? In the end, over the next year our work exceeded everyone’s delivery expectations, maybe even his. So when things feel disastrous, zoom out and look at the big picture and ground yourself and your team in the facts of the matter.
⌛Make sure it ends. We talk about ‘peaks and troughs’ in our work as we seek to rationalise the impact it might be having on our lives. It’s “just the once”, or “just for now”. Things will be better tomorrow (when x project finishes, or y new team member joins). But then tomorrow never comes and we operate in a perpetual state of overdrive. Maybe it’s a beautiful human trait that we live in the hope of a quieter time ahead when we might recharge, but when does that hope become self-delusion? And when do we realise that the common denominator in all this apparent crisis is actually us? So, do make sure that these peaks in pressure actually end for you and your team. Mark and celebrate when they do, and challenge the notion that if we’re not under constant pressure then we’re not worthy. This quiet time too will end.
How do you prepare when you see pressure on the horizon?
