Let’s face it: pressure at work is unavoidable. But then again, having to complete a mountain of tasks and errands in one day, who can handle that with a smile on their face?
Workplace pressure is one of the most common roots of stress. While you might love your job, at some point in your career journey, you might feel exhausted having to deal with the pressure of meeting your boss’ expectations. As a result of stress due to work pressure, this could drain your energy, resulting in emotional and even physical health problems.
See also: Tips for Managers: Antidote to Micromanagement
This could be true that pressure is least expected at work. However, as a leader, sometimes you should let your team feel the pressure. But why? WHO suggested that pressure at the workplace can help a team stay alerted, motivated, as well as able to work and learn depending on the available resources and personal characteristics. When you provide the right resources for your team, whatever pressure you give, your team would be able to handle it well. For example, you run a big project about new tech development. Then, you let your teamwork in a flexible way while providing a healthy environment and easy access to needed resources such as materials or high-speed internet access. This way, your team can work better and as expected.
Likewise, Dave Bailey, the founder and CEO of Cheeky Weekend, agreed that pressure can actually help us grow better and create a stronger version of ourselves. Pressure can also help an individual to take more responsibilities and become a much more proactive planner. Reaching the discomfort of the team might actually push them to take a better chance of self-development. As a team leader, nonetheless, you should not forget to balance between the pressure and wellbeing. When work pressure is too much, team performance will decrease. Yet, when the amount of pressure is just right, you will see great achievement and excellent result from your team.
Thusly, how to create the right amount of pressure? It might not be easy as you might go too far and give burden that ruffles the team’s wellbeing, instead. But no worries as you can create a healthy job while giving pressure that helps your team grow.
On the way to a healthy job
Healthy job is not merely an absence of disease or infirmity at workplace. According to the WHO, a healthy job can also be described as a job where pressure on employees are appropriate in relation to their abilities and resources. Healthy job also allows employees to receive the right amount of support mentally and physically from companies.
Therefore, if you are trying to put pressure on your employees while maintaining a healthy job, you should put the right amount of pressure to create a stress-free workplace. How to do that?
First move is by identifying the stress itself – are your employees too stressed out or do they have a little stress? If your employees are giving signs of fatigue through their body language or failing to take breaks, there are chances that your team is suffering from task stress.
Then, after identifying the sense of stress levels on your team, you will know whether you should heat up or bring back down the boil to a simmer – whether to put more pressure or to let your team relax for a while.
Second, you should set clear guides and expectations to your employees. Employees can do their job better when they understand the goals and expectations in the job. Work expectation can also show that you appreciate your employee’s time and wellbeing as you let them know the timeline and guidelines needed to be done. For example, you can let your team know that this project should be conducted today and finished by tomorrow with some notes that each individual on the team should create a report on each step they did.
Third, you should give support and ensure that they are not alone. Don’t be a demanding boss with little support but be a supportive boss who could balance between what you demand from your team and what you can give. Let your team know that you care by ensuring appropriate resources and ear to listen to. Hence, you can certify that work pressure remains controlled.
Fourth and last, you can use humour to create effective pressure. Remember that laughter is the best medicine for most things, including stress. Being humorous for sometimes can help you keep your perspective, stay responsive to others and work. It also helps resolve differences amongst the team. So, lower your and your team tension, and say something funny.
Read also: Leader Tips: Focus on Manager Experience to Create Better Workforce Culture
