Prioritising Performance Under Pressure

A rising tide lifts all boats, but the storm-surge of change sinks all the boats that can’t adapt to the conditions. Any captain can chug about looking good in calm waters, but you don’t really find out how good you are as a leader until things are bad.

What's the issue?

1. Although the rate of personal development most of us achieve through our careers typically feels glacial, it does usually accumulate over time into a noticeable delta (if you judged me by how I performed in my first leadership role you’d be heading for the unsubscribe button).
   
   We learn to be more diplomatic, without being so opaque no-one can see our point. We become more assertive, without being intransigent. The list goes on. And this refined mask we build layer by layer, helps us to face the world, fit in, and forge ahead. And is well is calm waters.
   
   But when the stuff hits the fan, people revert to type. The mask is shredded by the storm, and then you find out who you’re really working with - and who you really are.
2. Right now, you can probably divide all the people you work with into those who do or don’t thrive under the pressure of change. The latter are a problem, both for the organisation’s productivity, and for those individuals’ own mental health.
3. The real problem is that what used to be long periods of relative calm punctuated by the occasional storm has for some time now been the other way round. And scarily, we’re now nearer 2050 than 2000, with the future accelerating towards us.
4. Lots of people’s career choices have been influenced to a greater or lesser extent by the safety of the career path.
   
   But there are no safe jobs anymore.
   
   - A safe job in the public sector? NHS England, effectively the Head Office of the 5th largest organisation in the world, is being disbanded.
   
   - A safe job as an accountant? The big 4 have all reduced their graduate intake by up to 29% because of AI.
   
   - A safe path to partner? With over 100 acquisitions last year, and AI now being used by 36% of law firms for document drafting, job security is now a leading concern for applicants, ahead of flexibility, progression and prestige.
5. Everybody (apart from the employees of the world’s oldest sweet shop in Yorkshire that still has its original till) is living in a VUCA/BANI world.

Consider this

1. It doesn’t matter how much you know, and it doesn’t matter how well you operate in steady state conditions, unless you can apply all that knowledge and commendable personal development while dodging eruptions as you climb the volcano.
2. If your people can’t operate at their best when the situation takes a turn for the worst, they’re already of little use to you now, which is going to reduce further as the pressure to handle more change only increases from here on in.
3. So what are you doing about that? Helping them? Doing nothing because really, they’re already being paid enough that they should be able to cope?
4. Is your L&D programme adapting to address the increasingly dynamic nature of the environment your people work in (and no, change management isn’t enough)? Or are you continuing with largely the same programme you did last year, because that’s, well, the proven option?
5. You have 3 types of employees:
   
   - Category A: Those who are high performers whatever is thrown at their fan.
   
   - Category B: Those who are high performers in steady state but crumble under pressure, but who could become A’s in the foreseeable with the right development.
   
   - Category C: Those who are too far away from making the grade to have more time and money spent on trying to save them.

Try this

Identify your A’s and give them more responsibilities.

Identify your B’s, and give them some help. They’ve got a lot more to give, and you can help them discover that they too can learn to enjoy the bumpy ride.