Many of you will have watched the Olympics, and will have seen images of athletes and teams having to deal with the pressure of competition. We watch in awe as they test themselves on the biggest stage that exists for sportspeople, where they compete in the most demanding environment with huge amounts of pressure to deliver.
But what we tend to miss is the fact that there will be a whole team of people behind these scenes who are supporting the athletes. And whilst they may not be performing, they will be feeling the pressure, as they have invested huge amounts of personal resources, and it could be a pivotal point in their career. And of course, within all of this will be a leader. Someone responsible for keeping this support group and the athlete(s) going in this pressurised environment. And leading with the aim of getting this group of people working together to get their athlete(s) performing at their best. Therefore, these leaders will also be feeling the pressure, and there are lessons we can learn from research that shows what the most effective leaders do in these pressure environments.
Researchers looking at leadership behaviour in extreme environments know that they deal with VUCA contexts – Volatile, Uncertainty, Complexity, Ambiguity. And the outcomes garnered from the research is used to help leaders (and teams) prepare themselves for these extreme environments and manage the risks and pressure that inevitably comes with them. There are many, but I’ll share some of the ones that I have been involved in helping leaders to be more effective in pressure environments.
# Awareness to being under pressure
The most important element is recognising and knowing that you and your team are under pressure. You will sometimes know when you are stepping into an uncertain environment, but outside of this, open and honest communication in meetings can be helpful in identifying when pressure is building.
Spending time to prime your team to have awareness of VUCA elements will pay dividends. What are the signs, triggers, symptoms? Does it affect everyone? Managing pressure at its earliest onset is easier than when in the turmoil.
With awareness you can manage. Without awareness, it just becomes fate.
# IF-THEN planning
One of the strategies I have been involved with helping a national ski team prepare for the Winter Paralympics in 2026 is ‘if-then’ planning. This not a task that anyone really wants to do, and it should be stressed that this NOT ‘what-if’ thinking. We spend time thinking about all the possible ‘IFS’ that could arise that would unsettle our preparations. This, of course, could be many, so we narrow this down to the about 10-15 that we feel are higher in the probabilities.
e.g. vehicles breaking down – equipment failing – illness of support team – death of a loved one back home
What we then do is plan our THEN. To every IF we will hatch a plan to deal with it. Every member of the team is informed and knows their role. What research shows is that even if something else arises, the leaders who have gone through this type of IF-THEN planning feel much better equipped to deal with the issue.
What this IF-THEN planning offers is a perception of control within the VUCA context. And with a greater perception of control, leaders have more composure.
# Communicate swiftly – spread the message
If there is anything that will add to the sense of pressure more than anything else is uncertainty. The longer a team is left feeling uncertain, the greater the intensity of pressure, and dysfunctional emotional reactions will entail.
In the brilliant book on pressure by Geir Jordet, he explains that the teams who’s managers (leaders) take the longest to complete their selections for penalty shootouts and tactical advice lose. The leaders who can communicate quickly, with the team knowing what is happening, have a greater likelihood of winning.
Of course, leaders may not have all the answers in a VUCA environment, but what they can do is get their team doing something. Making the team feel like they are contributing and with the added benefit of it putting their attention to task as opposed to uncertainty.
# Simple, clear and unambiguous
What is your head like when you are experiencing a stress response, you have a heightened emotional state, and feeling under pressure?
Is your ability to take in complex instructions as good when you are calm and composed?
Leaders tend to have the greatest responsibility for communication in demanding situations. Therefore, take the time to think about your messaging. How can I say this simply, clearly and unambiguously?
You will likely only remember 3 things told verbally to you when under pressure. If it is going to be more than this, take the necessary steps to get your information down in a way that people will be able to refer to it.
# Clarity of roles
Who knows what who is doing what?
Firefighters, police, military all train in pressure environments. And one of the key elements to their training is everyone knowing what they are doing, and who is doing what.
I am not a big fan of the phrase, “there is no ‘I’ in team.” When the All Blacks rugby team went through their cultural shift to win back to back World Cup titles, they had a shared philosophy that went against this phrase. Under pressure, they all knew what everyone was doing, but the focus of the individual was to their job. Not anyone else’s job. They just got down to making their performance the best it could be. And by doing that, they inspired their teammates to perform better and be more composed under pressure.
As a leader, it can be worthwhile to bring your team together and discuss VUCA contexts. Who would do what? Do they feel they have the resources for that? Does there have to be any training?
As situations unfold, and pressure builds, communicating roles and responsibilities can be a leaders most effective tool. Jordet uses example of managers in penalty shootout situations, where those that deliberate over who will take penalties, sometimes asking for volunteers, tend to lose. Leaders that know and trust their team delegate quickly, offering confidence. If the leader is unsure who to pick, then the athletes or employees will probably be uncertain too. This adds to the sense of pressure.
# STOP, Breathe & Move slowly – role model composure
Consider how you behave and react when you experience a stress response and heightened emotions. Heart rate will go up, breathing rate tends to increase, whether you know it or not, you tend to behave or act with more haste.
Now consider, what happens in the brain when we see someone who is agitated, and we sense that they are anxious. Your brain begins to switch to, ‘why are they like that?’ ‘What do they know what I don’t?’ The result – you get anxious and agitated. It’s contagious!
Leaders can pick up a useful tool that I share with the elite athletes I work with – STOP, breathe, move slowly.
The STOP is you taking a moment to recognise your situation and environment. Bring awareness to what is going on. Does it merit being under pressure? Can you reappraise the situation so that it is more accurate?
Breathe – in a stress response, your breathing can change so that you are breathing more from your chest and at a faster rate. Take a moment to breathe diaphragmatically. See my article about breathing for more information – https://lnkd.in/edNJgx4W. Taking moments, within a stress reaction, to bring attention to your breathing can allow you to think more clearly. It actually brings your executive functioning part of your brain online, which naturally diminishes in a stress response.
Move slowly – stress responses create impulses to move hastily. Have you ever dropped your keys when in a rush and its taken 3 attempts to pick them up? Moving slowly sends signals to your brain that you are not under threat.
What STOP-Breathe-Move Slowly offers is an opportunity to role model composure. When a team sees a leader being composed, it subliminally sends the message that things are in hand. A leader shouting, acting erratically, and demonstrating heightened emotions sends a very different message that acts as a contagion.
# Build trust, Direct & Support
There is some interesting research that shows when organizations (teams) are operating in calm, undemanding contexts, democratic leadership styles are favoured (Hannah et al., 2009). But their research, which now has support further support (e.g. Rosling & Boer, 202), also suggests that in extreme contexts of pressure, autocratic leadership styles are favoured. In other words, we like someone to take charge. What the research clearly shows, however, is that that willingness to be led is built on trust. If you are a leader that works in demanding environments, then get to know your team. Build trust through role modelling effective behaviours. With trust of your team, you are in a position where you can direct when pressure contexts arrive.
There is much research from sport and organisations that shows when challenge (pressure) increases, the athletes and teams that thrive are the ones who feel that there is support. Leaders can be instrumental in providing support, and making themselves available, and to actioning support mechanisms. Knowing that there is support available makes people feel more willing to put themselves at risk.
# Face-to-face is best
It is easy, when the pressure hits, to send out messages via email and phone. Jordet’s fascinating insights into penalty shootouts offer that the teams that referred to notes and iPads fared less well than those who spoke face-to-face. The points above suggest that trust is key in pressure situations, so it would appear that leaders who can speak in front of their teams with direct eye contact will do better.
This is backed up by neuropsychological research that demonstrates making direct eye contact will build faster interconnection, this interconnection will be more resilient within pressure, and has an emotional element that builds the interconnection (Senjo & Johnson, 2009).
There is no panacea to being the most effective leader in pressure situations. It would appear that there are many elements that are involved, however, the above points are demonstrated within research and may offer some interesting insights for you. However, if you read the above and identify areas that you feel you are weak in, these are things that will need practice. The famous Navy Seal quote comes to mind in these circumstances, where they say that in times of pressure you sink to the level of your training.
Training people to build their capacity to deal with the demands of high performance is my expertise. 8 years of working with elite athletes, and now with high performance corporate executives, together with conducting research studies, has enabled me to train people to perform more effectively under pressure. If pressure affects you and makes you perform dysfunctionally, it doesn’t have to be that way. It takes courage to ask for support and ask for training, but it could offer a means where you thrive under pressure, perform effectively and protects your wellbeing.
Stuart Munro is a performance psychologist working with elite athletes and corporate executives. He has developed an 8-session performance empowerment program that has been researched at two major universities in the UK. Study results show both elite athletes and corporate executives can be more psychologically empowered, develop more resilience, increase levels of self-awareness, improve self-regulation and enhance interpersonal skills. Contact Stuart for more details.
References:
Hannah, S. T., Uhl-Bien, M., Avolio, B. J., & Cavarretta, F. L. (2009). A framework for examining leadership in extreme contexts. The Leadership Quarterly, 20(6), 897-919.
Jordet, Geir. Pressure: Lessons from the psychology of the penalty shootout. New River. Kindle Edition.
Rosing, F., & Boer, D. (2022). When timing is key: How autocratic and democratic leadership relate to follower trust in emergency contexts. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 904605
Senju, A., & Johnson, M. H. (2009). The eye contact effect: mechanisms and development. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13(3), 127-134.